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How
does the community exploit these increased resources for functional
analyses needed to address the major questions in Evo-Devo?
The intent
of the First 100 is to provide a foundation for individual investigators
or collaborators to begin addressing the important questions about
the evolution of development. For example, homologs of developmentally
important genes can be isolated from BAC libraries, sequenced
and used for functional analysis. The next steps recommended depend
on the resources coming out of this First 100 Project and will
build upon it. Two types of projects are recommended to exploit
and enhance this initial resource.
The first
of these would be proposals that will focus on smaller groups
of organisms using one or more of the First 100 as a reference
point and will address very specific questions. These proposals
would be expected to include requests for additional support for
subcontracting for BAC libraries and eventually sequencing. For
example, investigators will want to create BAC libraries from
related organisms at critical phylogenetic nodes using one of
the first BAC libraries as a reference point. All resulting genomic
material will be deposited in genomic museums , vouchered and,
along with informatics data, will immediately be shared with the
community. We anticipate some projects will include collaborators
with complementary expertise and this also would require an increase
in award size. This approach will most quickly allow the greatest
number of researchers to engage in hypothesis-driven Evo-Devo
research. Individual grants will provide training opportunities
for the growing number of students attracted to Evo-Devo and ensure
that there is support for them to establish there own laboratories
with a focus on Evo-Devo questions. The rapid increase in academic
positions for faculty with Evo-Devo expertise requires sufficient
resources to enable their research progress.
The second
type of project recommended would make possible the development
of the techniques and tools necessary for functional analysis
in non-model systems. Crucial tools and techniques that will need
to be developed for specific systems include:
- Transgenic
approaches
- Transient
expression systems
- Regeneration
in plant systems
- In
situ hybridization
- Rearing
and husbandry of organisms
- Novel
approaches
There are
two potential enabling mechanisms necessary for the development
of these research tools and both should be available. Grants focused
specifically on developing tools that will be of value to those
working on a specific group of organisms that could later be used
to address substantive Evo-Devo questions will be needed. In addition,
question-driven grants that require additional support and time
for technique development for functional analysis (as well as
genomic resources) should be encouraged. The importance of the
questions and the severe limitations of current functional analysis
techniques for both model and non-model systems justifies the
investment and emphasis on technique development within the context
of hypothesis-driven science. Both types of enabling grants will
need to be of longer duration than standard NSF grant.
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