2006-2007 - The Field Museum

PRITZKER LABORATORY FOR MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION
The Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution was named in recognition of generous
support from The Pritzker Foundation. The Pritzker Lab is a Field Museum multi-user core facility whose
mission is the collection and analysis of genetic data. The primary activity of lab users is the collection
and analysis of genetic data for inferring the evolutionary, or phylogenetic, relationships among species.
This knowledge of phylogenetic relationships is fundamental to understanding organismal evolution and
the origins of biological diversity. Patterns of phylogenetic relationships among species can be used to
trace evolutionary changes and provide insights to the biological and geological histories of geographic
regions. Another focus of lab research involves characterizing the amount of genetic variation within and
among populations. These data can be used to help guide conservation efforts, and to study the
processes driving evolution, such as natural selection.
The majority of the data collected in the lab are DNA sequences. The main sources of specimens are the
frozen tissue collections of The Field Museum’s Zoology and Botany Departments, although herbarium
and traditional museum skins are also used. DNA sequence data are desirable for many reasons in
evolutionary studies, but chiefly the fact that DNA sequences are composed of only four nucleotide
bases, resulting in data that are, in some analytical respects, very simple. Another extremely useful
property of DNA sequence data is the high level of comparability across species and across studies.
Together, these properties mean that DNA sequence data can be used to investigate diverse questions at
all levels in the biological hierarchy: questions about individuals, populations, species, and even phyla
and kingdoms.
In addition to projects that utilize DNA sequence data, the lab hosts several ongoing projects employing
fragment analysis. For example, Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) data are
being used by several mycologists to infer species diversity of fungi in soil communities, and microsatellite
DNA data are being used in several projects mating system of lemon sharks, hybridization of oak species,
and population structure peregrine falcons.
The majority of lab users are Field Museum curators, their graduate students from the University of
Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and their postdoctoral researchers. The lab has many
international visitors every year; in 2006 it welcomed scientists from China, Germany, Thailand, New
Zealand, Canada, and India. Each of these visitors was trained the proper methods for collecting genetic
data for their various projects. In 2006, more than 30 national and international scientists were trained to
collect genetic data on a wide variety of organisms including sharks, mushrooms, coral reef fish,
lichenized fungi, bivalves, birds, snakes, toucans, lice, bats, and frogs. The many areas of inquiry
pursued by these researchers include coevolution of parasites and hosts, the evolution of life history
traits, rates of evolutionary change, biogeography, conservation, sexual selection, speciation, and natural
selection at the molecular level. More than 40 new and continuing projects used the DNA sequencing
facilities in 2006.
The Pritzker Lab is a non-departmental unit of Academic Affairs supervised by a Management Committee
that includes John Bates (Zoology), Thorsten Lumbsch (Botany), Shannon Hackett (Zoology), Rick Ree
(Botany), and Kevin Feldheim (Pritzker Lab). It is available for use by the curators and staff members of
the Museum, their collaborators and students. All users of the lab are responsible for designing,
performing and financing their own lab work. For more information on specific research projects, please
see the web pages of the Pritzker Lab:
http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/pritzker_lab/pritzker/index.html; or the individual pages of the
Management Committee.
115