Getting to the Root of Flexible Stems: The Primary Cilia as a Proximate Mechanism of Plasticity and Evolution of the Cichlid Jaw

探究柔性茎的根源：初级纤毛作为慈鲷下颌可塑性和进化的近端机制

• 批准号: 1558003
• 负责人: Craig Albertson
• 金额: $ 74.7万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1558003&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Getting; Root; Flexible; Stems; Primary

How biodiversity arises and is maintained over time remains an important area of study. Adaptive radiations represent extreme instances of morphological evolution in response to discrete ecological shifts, and are thought to have made significant contributions to biodiversityon this planet. This research seeks to identify and characterize the genetic and cellular mechanisms that promote adaptive radiations, and thus to provide novel insights into the origins of biodiversity. This highly interdisciplinary project provides a rich intellectual landscape to train students in various methods and theories. It also offers an explicit framework to develop pedagogical tools for conveying evolutionary principals to the public. This will be part of on-going efforts to develop a series of animated and interactive evolutionary "origin stories" that detail the genetic mechanisms that underlie the development and evolution of notable traits, including turtle shells, bat wings, and limb loss in whales. Here the team proposes a new chapter-- Making faces: How the fish changes its skull.A focal point of this project is phenotypic plasticity, which refers to the ability of an organism to change its appearance in response to a change in the environment. The ability of an individual to change its phenotype in different environments may increase its fitness in changing and/or fluctuating environments, which suggests that plasticity may be adaptive and therefore subject to selection itself. It is predicted that species that live in fluctuating environments will maintain a high degree of plasticity. Conversely, species that live in more stable environments are predicted to loose the ability to mount a plastic response, and exhibit fixed phenotypes. Unfortunately, a strict genetic basis for phenotypic plasticity has remained elusive, and thus the evolutionary potential for this trait remains largely unknown. The goal of this research is to characterize the molecular basis for phenotypic plasticity of the teleost jaw. An emphasis on the jaws has direct ecological consequences, as different jaw shapes will determine where a fish lives and what it feeds on. Mutant and transgenic zebrafish will be used to assess the degree to which key molecules involved in bone formation, including those that underlie the primary cilia and Hedgehog signaling, are necessary to promote phenotypic plasticity in the skull and jaws. The molecular mechanisms that underlie plasticity will then be compared to patterns of genetic evolution in a textbook adaptive radiation, East African cichlid fishes, which exhibit extensive diversity in the shape of their jaws. It is predicted that the genes that underlie plasticity of the feeding apparatus, also underlie evolution of the jaws. This is because genetic variation that leads to plasticity is predicted to become "fixed" as populations adapt to new environments over time. In all, research under this award will facilitate a better understand of how the genome and environment interact to promote biodiversity.

随着时间的流逝，生物多样性的产生和维持仍然是一个重要的研究领域。 自适应辐射代表了对离散生态转移的响应形态进化的极端实例，并被认为对这个星球做出了重大贡献。这项研究旨在识别和表征促进适应性辐射的遗传和细胞机制，从而提供对生物多样性起源的新见解。 这个高度的跨学科项目为培训各种方法和理论培训学生提供了丰富的知识分子。它还提供了一个明确的框架，可以开发教学工具，以将进化原理传达给公众。这将是开发一系列动画和互动进化的“起源故事”的持续努力的一部分，这些故事详细介绍了遗传机制，这些遗传机制是著名特征的发展和发展的基础，包括乌龟壳，蝙蝠的翅膀和鲸鱼的肢体损失。在这里，团队提出了一个新的章节 - 制作面孔：鱼如何改变其头骨。该项目的一个焦点是表型可塑性，这是指生物体改变其外观的能力，以应对环境的变化。个人在不同环境中改变其表型的能力可能会增加其在改变和/或波动环境方面的适应性，这表明可塑性可能是适应性的，因此可以自身进行选择。 据预测，生活在波动环境中的物种将保持高度可塑性。相反，生活在更稳定的环境中的物种被预测可以松散安装塑料反应的能力，并表现出固定的表型。不幸的是，表型可塑性的严格遗传基础仍然难以捉摸，因此，这种性状的进化潜力在很大程度上是未知的。这项研究的目的是表征硬骨头下颌表型可塑性的分子基础。 强调下颌具有直接的生态后果，因为不同的下颌形状将决定鱼的生活何方和进食。突变体和转基因斑马鱼将用于评估与骨形成有关的关键分子的程度，包括那些基本纤毛和刺猬信号的骨形成，以促进颅骨和颚中的表型可塑性。然后将可塑性构成的分子机制与教科书自适应辐射（东非酸裂鱼类）中的遗传进化模式进行比较，东非酸裂鱼具有大量的颌骨形状。据预测，喂食设备可塑性的基因，也是下颌进化的基础。这是因为随着人群的适应新环境，预计导致可塑性的遗传变异将变得“固定”。总的来说，根据该奖项的研究将有助于更好地了解基因组和环境如何相互作用以促进生物多样性。