Dissertation Research: Genetic Diversity in Parthenogenetic Mites
{'Code': '08010207', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'DEB', 'LongName': 'Division Of Environmental Biology'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Tarri Joyner', 'PO_EMAI': 'tjoyner@nsf.gov', 'PO_PHON': '7032927742'}
Developing an understanding of the origin and maintenance of               sexual reproduction is currently considered one of the foremost                 theoretical problems of evolutionary biology.  Why do organisms                 continue to "waste" resources and "sacrifice" more rapid                        population growth by the production of males?  Learning the                     answers requires studying the opposite life-history strategy,                   thelytokous parthenogenesis, a process in which female progeny                  are produced from unfertilized eggs.                                                 Previous studies showed that the oribatid mite taxon                       Nothroidea contains the largest known grouping of parthenogenetic               animals; many of the included families contain no sexual species                at all.  For a long time it has been thought that without                       sexuality an organism cannot create the genetic flexibility                     necessary to survive and evolve; supposedly, it is an                           evolutionary "dead-end" at least in the long term.  The                         investigators will use modern methods to show that populations of               these parthenogenetic mites do have substantial genetic                         variability.  With these results, combined with previous studies                of evolutionary relationships among these mites, the                            investigators will show that parthenogenesis is not always a                    simple, evolutionary short-cut to eliminate the "waste" involved                in sexual reproduction.  If whole groups of animals have evolved                in the absence of sex, then the future search for the underlying                mechanism should indirectly increase our understanding of sexual                reproduction itself.
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{'Name': 'SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry', 'CityName': 'SYRACUSE', 'ZipCode': '132102712', 'PhoneNumber': '3154706606', 'StreetAddress': '1 FORESTRY DR', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'New York', 'StateCode': 'NY', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '22', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'NY22', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'LVVEB3CF8MB8', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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{'Code': '1127', 'Text': 'Evolutionary Processes'}
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