DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A PHYLOGENOMIC APPROACH FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEMATICS AND PHENOTYPIC DIVERSIFICATION OF AUSTRALASIAN GECKO LIZARDS

论文研究：了解澳大利亚壁虎蜥蜴的系统学和表型多样化的系统发育学方法

• 批准号: 1601806
• 负责人: Jimmy McGuire
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1601806&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; PHYLOGENOMIC; APPROACH; UNDERSTANDING

The evolutionary processes that have produced current patterns of species diversity are poorly understood. The best groups to better understand these processes are those that have radiated quickly both in terms of species number and morphological form. This study will use a group of gecko lizards restricted to Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and associated islands in the Pacific Ocean (Australasia) that exhibit a diversity of body-forms, ranging from fully limbed species that are very adept climbers to terrestrial forms completely lacking limbs. Researchers will reconstruct evolutionary relationships within the group and then investigate how changes in geographical distribution within the area have affected the rate of species formation and the rate of change in morphological form. One graduate student and several undergraduate students will be trained in laboratory techniques. Findings from the research will be incorporated into a K-12 classroom activity and will also be broadly disseminated to the public. This project aims to improve understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among Australasian geckos by using an ultraconserved elements (UCEs) phylogenomics approach. All of the estimated 200 species in the clade will be sampled for 5,000 published UCE loci to produce a well-supported phylogeny for the group. Pipelines developed in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology will be used for DeNovo assembly. Concatenated and coalescent species trees (ASTRAL, ASTRID, SNAPP, and MP-est) will be used. A large ecomorphology dataset for this group of geckos (150 species, 1,100 specimens) has been assembled using photographs and 24 linear measurements to test questions regarding phenotypic evolution. The resulting species-level phylogeny will then be used to infer heterogeneity in net diversification rate across the tree and heterogeneity in the diversification of certain ecologically relevant characters using phylogenetic comparative methods. These same ecomorphological characters will also be used to test the prevalence of convergent evolution in unrelated geckos in this clade.

人们对物种多样性的当前模式的进化过程知之甚少。更好地理解这些过程的最佳群体是那些在物种数和形态形式方面迅速辐射的过程。这项研究将使用一组壁虎蜥蜴限于澳大利亚，新西兰，新几内亚和太平洋（大澳大利亚）的相关岛屿，它们表现出各种各样的身体形式，从非常熟练的登山者到陆地完全缺乏肢体形式，不一致。 研究人员将重建小组内的进化关系，然后研究该地区内的地理分布的变化如何影响物种形成率和形态形式的变化率。一名研究生和几名本科生将接受实验室技术的培训。 研究结果将纳入K-12课堂活动中，并将广泛传播给公众。该项目旨在通过使用超保守的元素（UCES）系统生理学方法方法来提高澳大利亚壁虎之间的系统发育关系。该进化枝中估计的所有200种估计有200种，将为5,000个发表的UCE基因座​​进行采样，以为该组产生良好的系统发育。在脊椎动物动物学博物馆中开发的管道将用于Denovo大会。将使用联合和结合的物种树（Astral，Astrid，Snapp和MP-EST）。这组壁虎（150种，1,100个标本）的大型生态形态数据集已使用照片和24个线性测量组装，以测试有关表型进化的问题。然后，将使用系统发育比较方法来推断整个树的净多样化率的异质性以及某些生态相关特征多样化的异质性的异质性。这些相同的生态形态特征也将用于测试该进化枝中无关壁虎中收敛进化的普遍性。