RUI: Collaborative Research: Phylogenomics of Anthozoa (Cnidaria): new approaches to long-standing problems

RUI：合作研究：珊瑚虫（刺胞动物）的系统基因组学：解决长期存在问题的新方法

• 批准号: 1457817
• 负责人: Catherine McFadden
• 金额: $ 49.45万
• 依托单位: Harvey Mudd College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-01 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1457817&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Collaborative; Research; Phylogenomics; Anthozoa

Worldwide, humans and countless other species are dependent on coral reefs for shelter, sustenance and livelihoods. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing the world's oceans to become warmer and more acidic, a chemical change that may prevent corals from forming calcium carbonate skeletons. The fossil record indicates, however, that some groups of corals have survived similar environmental crises in past geological eras, and that changes in ocean chemistry may result in the evolution of different types of skeletons or of corals that lack skeletons. Understanding these past evolutionary transitions and the environmental conditions under which they occurred may help scientists predict the responses of today's reef-building corals to future climate change. This collaborative project between researchers from Harvey Mudd College, a Principally Undergraduate Institution, and the American Museum of Natural History will investigate the evolution of calcium carbonate skeletons in Anthozoa (corals, sea anemones, and relatives). They will first generate an extensive time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of the group and then use this evolutionary framework to study the evolution of skeletal characters. Students from groups underrepresented in the sciences will participate in this research through the PI's mentoring of undergraduates at the minority-serving New York City College of Technology, and the Scripps College Academy, a program for high school girls in the Los Angeles area. The project will also generate diverse outreach materials for a public display on corals at the American Museum of Natural History. Although previous molecular phylogenetic studies have found strong support for relationships among some orders of Anthozoa, key regions of the tree remain poorly resolved, impeding efforts to understand character evolution within the group. By first sequencing complete genomes from eight distantly related taxa of Anthozoa researchers will then design a set of Ultra-Conserved Elements (UCEs) that can be used throughout Anthozoa. UCE sequences will then be generated for 192 Anthozoa species spanning diversity within the group to generate the first phylogenomic estimate of relationships within the group. The researchers will then use this phylogenetic tree and a diverse set of comparative methods to infer the direction, timing and paleoclimatic correlates of evolutionary transitions in skeletogenesis and other traits within the clade that have allowed anthozoans to engineer the largest biological structures on the planet.

在世界范围内，人类和其他无数物种都取决于珊瑚礁的庇护所，寄托和生计。大气中二氧化碳的增加正在导致世界的海洋变暖，更酸性，这种化学变化可能会阻止珊瑚形成碳酸钙骨架。但是，化石记录表明，一些珊瑚在过去的地质时代中幸存下来的环境危机，并且海洋化学的变化可能导致不同类型的骨骼或缺乏骨骼的珊瑚的演变。了解这些过去的进化转变以及它们发生的环境条件可能有助于科学家预测当今礁石建造珊瑚对未来气候变化的反应。哈维·穆德学院（Harvey Mudd College）的研究人员（主要是本科机构）与美国自然历史博物馆的研究人员之间的合作项目将调查Anthozoa碳酸钙骨架的演变（珊瑚，海洋海葵和亲戚）。 他们将首先生成该组广泛的时间校准的分子系统发育，然后使用该进化框架研究骨骼特征的演变。来自科学领域人数不足的小组的学生将通过PI在纽约市技术学院的大学生指导本科生和Scripps College Academy，这是洛杉矶地区高中女生的计划。该项目还将在美国自然历史博物馆在珊瑚上公开展示多样化的外展材料。尽管以前的分子系统发育研究已经发现了对某些Anthozoa的某些顺序关系的强烈支持，但树的关键区域仍然无法解决，阻碍了理解该组中性格演变的努力。通过首先对八个远距离相关的Anthozoa研究人员分类群的完整基因组进行测序，然后将设计一组可以在整个Anthozoa中使用的超保存元素（UCE）。 然后，将生成跨该组内多样性的192种动物种类的UCE序列，以产生该组内关系的第一个系统基因组估计。 然后，研究人员将使用这种系统发育树和各种比较方法来推断骨骼生成中进化过渡的方向，时机和古气候相关性，以及进化枝内的其他特征，这些特征使粮食植物可以促使肌腱在行星上设计最大的生物学结构。