Collaborative Research: Testing Mechanisms of Microgeographic Adaptation

合作研究：微观地理适应的测试机制

• 批准号: 1754821
• 负责人: Chris Funk
• 金额: $ 84.92万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754821&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Testing; Mechanisms; Microgeographic

One goal of evolutionary ecology is to understand the processes that lead to species becoming better adapted to their local environment. Studies of local adaptation have historically focused on geographically separated populations, where adaptive differences are maintained by limited dispersal of individuals between populations. Growing evidence, however, suggests that adaptive evolution can occur over small spatial distances. How this fine scale, adaptation arises and is maintained remains unresolved, despite applications for human health, agriculture, and biodiversity. On Santa Cruz Island, the Island Scrub Jay has two morphologies. Birds in pine habitat have long and thin beaks where as those in oak habitats have short and deep beaks. These differences are known to facilitate feeding on pine cones versus acorns, but how such adaptive genetic differences are maintained over very small geographic distances is unknown. The researchers will collect data on the genomes of individuals from both types of habitats to test if the same set of genes are differentiated between pine and oak populations, and how other regions of the genome change spatially across the island. These measurements will be coupled with telemetry studies that track how birds move and use oak and pine habitats. In addition, vocal experiments will test if males prefer females that originate within their habitat. The data obtained from this work will then be used to develop general models that can inform the conditions under with adaptive differences in can occur. Such models would be of interest to conservation managers that manage this and other unique or rare species. Additionally, the project will produce a learning module for high school classroom use, and will provide research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. Cases of microgeographic adaptation challenge classical evolutionary theory that posits adaptive divergence should be constrained by gene flow, leading to a reassessment of the spatial scale at which evolutionary processes occur. The research team has recently discovered replicated, adaptive divergence in jay bill shape in adjacent oak and pine habitats, despite gene flow between these adjacent habitats. This pattern occurs across habitats separated by less than one kilometer. The researchers will test alternative hypotheses about how divergent selection, dispersal, and non-random mating shape adaptive divergence in bill morphology. In Aim 1, they develop population genetic models that test the interacting effects of selection, gene flow, assortative mating, and genetic architecture at different spatial scales. In Aim 2, they will test for divergent selection by measuring selection gradients, examining patterns of genomic divergence, and by identifying candidate genes associated with variation in bill morphology. In Aim 3, they will use a combination of population genomics, telemetry, and transplant experiments to test for population genomic structure and if dispersal is non-random In Aim 4, they will test if divergence in bill morphology is correlated with vocalizations and facilitates assortative mating. Collectively, the proposed work takes an integrative approach in a tractable study system. This research has broad implications for understanding both the spatial scale at which adaptive divergence occurs, and the conditions that allow individuals within a single population to diverge across heterogeneous habitats.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

进化生态学的目标之一是了解导致物种变得更好地适应其当地环境的过程。 对局部适应性的研究历史上一直集中在地理分离的人群上，在这种情况下，由于人群之间的个体分散有限，可以维持适应性差异。然而，越来越多的证据表明，在小空间距离内可以进行适应性进化。尽管适用于人类健康，农业和生物多样性，但这种良好的规模，适应性如何仍未解决。在圣克鲁斯岛上，岛灌木丛Jay有两个形态。松树栖息地中的鸟有长而稀薄的喙，因为橡木栖息地中的鸟有短而深喙。已知这些差异可以促进松树锥与橡子的进食，但是这种适应性遗传差异如何在很小的地理距离上保持尚不清楚。研究人员将收集有关两个类型栖息地的个体基因组的数据，以测试在松树和橡木种群之间是否区分了相同的基因，以及该基因组的其他区域如何在整个岛上的空间变化。这些测量结果将与遥测研究结合在一起，该研究跟踪鸟类如何移动和使用橡木和松树栖息地。此外，声带实验将测试男性是否偏爱源自栖息地的女性。然后，从这项工作中获得的数据将用于开发可以在适应性差异的情况下告知条件的通用模型。这样的模型对于管理和其他独特或稀有物种的保护经理来说，这将引起人们的兴趣。此外，该项目将为高中课堂使用提供学习模块，并将为本科生和研究生提供研究机会。显微地理适应性挑战的案例经典进化论应该受到基因流量的限制，从而导致对发生进化过程的空间量表进行重新评估。尽管这些相邻的栖息地之间的基因流动，但研究小组最近发现了相邻橡木和松树栖息地的Jay Bill Shape的自适应差异。这种模式发生在不到一公里的栖息地之间。研究人员将测试有关账单形态中不同选择，分散和非随机交配形状自适应差异的替代假设。在AIM 1中，他们开发了种群遗传模型，以测试不同空间尺度下选择，基因流，分类交配和遗传结构的相互作用效果。在AIM 2中，他们将通过测量选择梯度，检查基因组差异的模式以及鉴定与帐单形态变异相关的候选基因来测试不同的选择。在AIM 3中，他们将使用种群基因组学，遥测和移植实验的组合来测试种群基因组结构，如果分散在AIM 4中是非随机的，他们将测试帐单形态的发散是否与发声相关并促进分类交配。总的来说，拟议中的工作采用了易于处理的研究系统的综合方法。这项研究对理解自适应差异发生的空间量表具有广泛的影响，以及使单个人群中的个人在异质栖息地之间差异的条件。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和广泛影响的评估来通过评估来获得支持的。

项目成果

Evolutionary conservatism will limit responses to climate change in the tropics

• DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0363
• 发表时间: 2021-10-06
• 期刊: BIOLOGY LETTERS
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Linck, Ethan B.;Freeman, Benjamin G.;Ghalambor, Cameron K.
• 通讯作者: Ghalambor, Cameron K.

The crucial role of genome-wide genetic variation in conservation

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2104642118
• 发表时间: 2021-11-30
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Kardos, Marty;Armstrong, Ellie E.;Funk, W. Chris
• 通讯作者: Funk, W. Chris

Body size is associated with yearling breeding and extra-pair mating in the Island Scrub-Jay

岛屿灌丛松鸦的体型大小与一岁繁殖和配对外交配有关

• DOI: 10.1093/ornithology/ukab045
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Ornithology
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Desrosiers, M. A.

Lack of avian predators is associated with behavioural plasticity in nest construction and height in an island songbird

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.08.017
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: Animal Behaviour
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: Sarah C. Hays;Rebecca Cheek;James C. Mouton;T. Sillett;C. Ghalambor