Collaborative Research: Shedding light on firefly phylogenetic systematics and the evolution of their carnal signal types

合作研究：揭示萤火虫系统发育系统学及其肉体信号类型的进化

• 批准号: 1655981
• 负责人: Seth Bybee
• 金额: $ 38.85万
• 依托单位: Brigham Young University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1655981&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Shedding; light; firefly; Collaborative; Research; Shedding; light; firefly

Few organisms capture human attention and imagination better than fireflies. Yet, we know exceptionally little about the 2000 species of fireflies. Fireflies play important roles in medical sciences and evolutionary, ecological, and behavioral studies. New species are described regularly while many others are under imminent threat of extinction. What is lacking is a tree of life (i.e., a phylogeny) for fireflies to help organize all species and explore their evolutionary history. After constructing this tree, the research will explore the evolution of the different courtship signals of fireflies (flashes, glows, or chemical odors), while exploring the structure and shape of the organ that produces the light. In addition, the research will determine the trade-off in the size and shape of sensors (eyes and antenna), when the mating signal changes from odors to light (glows or flashes) and vice versa. With these data, the signals and behavior of fossil fireflies and museum specimens can be predicted and specific questions about their evolution can be answered. The project will train graduate students and include outreach and citizen science efforts to actively engage the public. Websites, videos, and identification keys will assist both scientists and the public to better understand the diversity and ecology of fireflies across the US and world. Bioluminescence is widely scattered across the tree of life. Fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) are the most diverse, well-known, and well-studied bioluminescent group. The bioluminescence and flash patterns of adult fireflies are often used as textbook example of species-specific courtship signals. However, we still remain in the dark about their phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of their sexual communication systems. We will reconstruct a phylogeny across the worldwide diversity of fireflies. The diversity of their sexual signals, light producing organs, and signal receptors make these beetles an ideal lineage to study how the evolution of traits associated with sexual signaling and may have affected species diversity. This research has three major goals: 1) reconstruct the first large-scale phylogenetic hypotheses for Lampyridae based on extensive taxon sampling (~350 taxa) using both NGS and morphological data sets; 2) characterize the morphological phenotypes associated with the three main types of sexual communication based on light organ, eye, and antennal morphology of extant and fossil taxa, as well as of rare museum specimens; 3) reconstruct the evolutionary history of firefly sexual signal modes, and test for relationships between signal mode and species diversification. This research will catalyze studies of the Lampyridae and provide important empirical data on the role of sexual signaling and diversification that will be of general use to researchers across numerous disciplines.

很少有生物比萤火虫更好地吸引人类的注意力和想象力。然而，我们对2000种萤火虫的了解鲜为人知。萤火虫在医学科学和进化，生态和行为研究中起着重要作用。定期描述新物种，而许多其他物种则受到迫在眉睫的威胁。缺少的是萤火虫的生命树（即系统发育），以帮助组织所有物种并探索其进化史。在建造这棵树后，研究将探索萤火虫（闪光，发光或化学气味）的不同求爱信号的演变，同时探索产生光的器官的结构和形状。此外，当交配信号从气味变为光线（发光或闪光）时，该研究将决定传感器（眼睛和天线）的大小和形状的权衡，反之亦然。有了这些数据，可以预测化石萤火虫和博物馆物种的信号和行为，并且可以回答有关其进化的具体问题。该项目将培训研究生，包括宣传和公民科学，以积极参与公众。网站，视频和标识密钥将帮助科学家和公众更好地了解美国和世界各地萤火虫的多样性和生态。生物发光广泛散布在生命树上。萤火虫（鞘翅目，Lampyridae）是最多样化，最知名和研究的生物发光群。成人萤火虫的生物发光和闪光图案通常用作特定规格特定求爱信号的教科书示例。但是，我们仍然对他们的系统发育关系和性交流系统的演变保持着黑暗。我们将重建全球萤火虫多样性的系统发育。它们的性信号，产生的器官和信号接收器的多样性使这些甲虫成为研究与性信号相关的特征的演变，并可能影响物种多样性。这项研究具有三个主要目标：1）基于广泛的分类单元采样（〜350群），使用NGS和形态数据集重建了第一个大规模的系统发育假设； 2）表征与基于延长和化石分类单元的光器官，眼睛和触角形态以及稀有博物馆标本的三种主要性交流类型相关的形态表型； 3）重建萤火虫性信号模式的进化历史，并测试信号模式与规格之间的关系。这项研究将催化对Lampyridae的研究，并提供有关性信号传导和多样化作用的重要经验数据，这些数据将对众多学科的研究人员普遍使用。