NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

2016 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1612862
• 负责人: Chris Hamilton
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Hamilton Chris A
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612862&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Postdoctoral Fellow: Dr. Chris A. HamiltonProposal number: 1612862This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology in partnership with the Tribal Colleges and Universities program in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to engage in research and training that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Dr. Chris A. Hamilton is "Broadening Participation of Native Americans into Collections-Based Research: Testing Hypotheses on the Hawkmoth-Bat Evolutionary Arms Race." The host institution for this fellowship is The University of Florida and The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. Akito Kawahara and Dr. Charles Cobb. The Fellow's research focuses on the evolution of morphological diversity in hawkmoths, a species-rich group of insects. This research enhances our understanding of how evolutionary pattern and process produced Earth's diversity, a key question in biology. Hawkmoths are large, charismatic moths that are strong, fast fliers, with a diverse array of forewing shape variation and body size, yet few studies have investigated the drivers of this spectacular morphological diversity. Between 50-60 million years ago, major evolutionary lineages of echolocating bats emerged, along with a large radiations of the Macroheterocera, a group of moth species that includes the hawkmoths. The Fellow is testing the intriguing but unexplored hypothesis that differences in hawkmoth wing shape and body size are associated with the diversity of their primary nocturnal predators - bats. This idea challenges the conventional hypothesis that moth diversification was driven by plant evolution (because plants are their food source). Across the approximately 1,500 species of hawkmoths, anti-bat traits can be found which include ears keen to a bat's ultrasonic echolocation and ultrasound-producing organs that "jam" bat biosonar. The fast flight of hawkmoths, also thought to be an anti-bat trait, likely provides the ability to escape predators and cover large distances as adult hawkmoths seek out food for themselves or host plants for their larvae. These extended periods of flight would render hawkmoths vulnerable to predation by bats, putatively providing a strong selective force that led to evasive anti-bat traits, diverse body sizes, and wing shapes able to support acrobatic evasive flight; however, no one has tested this hypothesis in a phylogenetic context.The proposed project promotes the participation of Native American students in biology by using exciting research questions and an interactive learning approach to characterize hawkmoth wing shape, investigate the historical evolutionary sequence of anti-bat traits, and test for correlations between these traits and extant diversity. The Fellow is engaging middle and high school students from The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, by utilizing museum collections at the FLMNH to answer fundamental hypotheses regarding patterns of diversity - effectively linking two of NSF's missions: increasing minority participation and increasing the utility of biological collections. This collaborative research introduces the students to the usefulness of natural history collections (students gather morphometric data on hawkmoth wing shape and body size), demonstrates how researchers can use these resources to answer fundamental biological questions, and sparks students? interest in evolution. In addition, Chickasaw Nation students are being exposed to their own cultural history during summer trips to the FLMNH; during this time they work in the collections, assist in DNA extraction and preparation for sequencing of hawkmoth species, and importantly, discover the history of their Chickasaw ancestors through interactions with archeological artifacts.

博士后研究员：Chris A. Hamilton 博士提案编号：1612862 这项行动资助 2016 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，与教育和人类理事会的部落学院和大学计划合作，扩大生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与资源。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，以从事研究和培训，以增加生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。 克里斯·A·汉密尔顿博士的这项奖学金的研究计划的标题是“扩大美洲原住民对基于收藏的研究的参与：检验关于鹰蛾-蝙蝠进化军备竞赛的假设”。该奖学金的主办机构是佛罗里达大学和佛罗里达自然历史博物馆 (FLMNH)，赞助科学家是 Akito Kawahara 博士和 Charles Cobb 博士。 该研究员的研究重点是天蛾（一种物种丰富的昆虫类群）形态多样性的进化。这项研究增强了我们对进化模式和过程如何产生地球多样性的理解，这是生物学中的一个关键问题。天蛾是一种体型巨大、魅力十足的飞蛾，它们力量强大、飞行速度快，前翅形状变化和体型多种多样，但很少有研究调查这种壮观的形态多样性的驱动因素。 50-6000万年前，回声定位蝙蝠的主要进化谱系出现了，同时出现了Macroheterocera（包括天蛾在内的一组蛾类）的大量辐射。该研究员正在测试一个有趣但未经探索的假设，即天蛾翅膀形状和身体大小的差异与其主要夜间捕食者——蝙蝠的多样性有关。这个想法挑战了传统的假设，即蛾类多样化是由植物进化驱动的（因为植物是它们的食物来源）。在大约 1,500 种天蛾中，可以发现抗蝙蝠特征，其中包括敏锐于蝙蝠超声波回声定位的耳朵以及“干扰”蝙蝠生物声纳的产生超声波的器官。天蛾的快速飞行也被认为是一种抗蝙蝠特性，当成年天蛾为自己寻找食物或为幼虫寻找寄主植物时，天蛾的快速飞行可能提供了逃避捕食者并长途飞行的能力。这些长时间的飞行将使天蛾容易受到蝙蝠的捕食，这可能会提供强大的选择力，从而导致逃避的反蝙蝠特征、不同的体型和能够支持杂技逃避飞行的翅膀形状；然而，没有人在系统发育背景下测试这一假设。拟议的项目通过使用令人兴奋的研究问题和交互式学习方法来描述鹰蛾翅膀形状，研究反蝙蝠的历史进化序列，从而促进美国原住民学生对生物学的参与性状，并测试这些性状与现有多样性之间的相关性。该研究员正在吸引来自俄克拉荷马州契卡索族的中学生和高中生，利用 FLMNH 的博物馆藏品来回答有关多样性模式的基本假设 - 有效地将 NSF 的两项使命联系起来：增加少数族裔的参与和提高生物藏品的效用。这项合作研究向学生介绍了自然历史收藏的有用性（学生收集有关天蛾翅膀形状和身体大小的形态测量数据），展示了研究人员如何利用这些资源来回答基本的生物学问题，并激发学生的兴趣？对进化的兴趣。此外，契卡索族学生在夏季前往 FLMNH 旅行时可以接触到他们自己的文化历史；在此期间，他们在藏品中工作，协助天蛾物种的 DNA 提取和测序准备，更重要的是，通过与考古文物的互动，发现奇卡索祖先的历史。