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2006-2007 - The Field Museum

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PRITZKER LABORATORY FOR MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION<br />

<strong>The</strong> Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution was named in recognition of generous<br />

support from <strong>The</strong> Pritzker Foundation. <strong>The</strong> Pritzker Lab is a <strong>Field</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> multi-user core facility whose<br />

mission is the collection and analysis of genetic data. <strong>The</strong> primary activity of lab users is the collection<br />

and analysis of genetic data for inferring the evolutionary, or phylogenetic, relationships among species.<br />

This knowledge of phylogenetic relationships is fundamental to understanding organismal evolution and<br />

the origins of biological diversity. Patterns of phylogenetic relationships among species can be used to<br />

trace evolutionary changes and provide insights to the biological and geological histories of geographic<br />

regions. Another focus of lab research involves characterizing the amount of genetic variation within and<br />

among populations. <strong>The</strong>se data can be used to help guide conservation efforts, and to study the<br />

processes driving evolution, such as natural selection.<br />

<strong>The</strong> majority of the data collected in the lab are DNA sequences. <strong>The</strong> main sources of specimens are the<br />

frozen tissue collections of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Field</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>’s Zoology and Botany Departments, although herbarium<br />

and traditional museum skins are also used. DNA sequence data are desirable for many reasons in<br />

evolutionary studies, but chiefly the fact that DNA sequences are composed of only four nucleotide<br />

bases, resulting in data that are, in some analytical respects, very simple. Another extremely useful<br />

property of DNA sequence data is the high level of comparability across species and across studies.<br />

Together, these properties mean that DNA sequence data can be used to investigate diverse questions at<br />

all levels in the biological hierarchy: questions about individuals, populations, species, and even phyla<br />

and kingdoms.<br />

In addition to projects that utilize DNA sequence data, the lab hosts several ongoing projects employing<br />

fragment analysis. For example, Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) data are<br />

being used by several mycologists to infer species diversity of fungi in soil communities, and microsatellite<br />

DNA data are being used in several projects mating system of lemon sharks, hybridization of oak species,<br />

and population structure peregrine falcons.<br />

<strong>The</strong> majority of lab users are <strong>Field</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> curators, their graduate students from the University of<br />

Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and their postdoctoral researchers. <strong>The</strong> lab has many<br />

international visitors every year; in <strong>2006</strong> it welcomed scientists from China, Germany, Thailand, New<br />

Zealand, Canada, and India. Each of these visitors was trained the proper methods for collecting genetic<br />

data for their various projects. In <strong>2006</strong>, more than 30 national and international scientists were trained to<br />

collect genetic data on a wide variety of organisms including sharks, mushrooms, coral reef fish,<br />

lichenized fungi, bivalves, birds, snakes, toucans, lice, bats, and frogs. <strong>The</strong> many areas of inquiry<br />

pursued by these researchers include coevolution of parasites and hosts, the evolution of life history<br />

traits, rates of evolutionary change, biogeography, conservation, sexual selection, speciation, and natural<br />

selection at the molecular level. More than 40 new and continuing projects used the DNA sequencing<br />

facilities in <strong>2006</strong>.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Pritzker Lab is a non-departmental unit of Academic Affairs supervised by a Management Committee<br />

that includes John Bates (Zoology), Thorsten Lumbsch (Botany), Shannon Hackett (Zoology), Rick Ree<br />

(Botany), and Kevin Feldheim (Pritzker Lab). It is available for use by the curators and staff members of<br />

the <strong>Museum</strong>, their collaborators and students. All users of the lab are responsible for designing,<br />

performing and financing their own lab work. For more information on specific research projects, please<br />

see the web pages of the Pritzker Lab:<br />

http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/pritzker_lab/pritzker/index.html; or the individual pages of the<br />

Management Committee.<br />

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