Collaborative Research: Understanding the rules of honest signaling

合作研究：了解诚实信号的规则

• 批准号: 2037735
• 负责人: Yufeng Zhang
• 金额: $ 50.45万
• 依托单位: University of Memphis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037735&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; rules; honest

Red feather coloration in the House Finch and other songbirds serves as an honest signal of individual condition. This finding is both well documented and quite remarkable. It is far from obvious why the hue of feathers reveals the individual quality or what prevents low-quality birds from cheating this system. A series of recent breakthrough studies brings us to the doorstep of understanding honest signaling via red feather coloration. We now know key enzymes and transporters responsible for the production and accumulation of red plumage pigments. In the proposed research, a team of scientists with expertise spanning animal physiology, cell biology, and genomics will use both whole animals and cell culture to study the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of coloration. The investigators will examine and compare these processes in House Finches in good or poor condition to deduce the specific mechanisms that promote or inhibit the production and accumulation of red pigments and hence, control plumage coloration. Understanding the biochemical and cellular rules that govern carotenoid coloration in songbirds is important not just for a better understanding of this central process in nature but because carotenoid pigments play a key role in cellular homeostasis in humans. A better understanding of carotenoid systems in birds will inevitably lead to a better understanding of ourselves. The investigators will share these insights and support STEM education through an ornithology summer camp program, curricula development and training workshops for public school teachers, and middle and high school student visits to investigator laboratories. The biochemical, genetic, and evolutionary processed that either prohibit or enable honest communication of information in the context of mate choice remain poorly understood. The proposed research will focus on uncovering fundamental rules of honest signaling by integrating subcellular, cellular, and whole-organism approaches. In birds including the House Finch, high-quality males produce feathers with brighter and redder carotenoid coloration than do low-quality males. Understanding how the condition of individuals affects the function of these genes and hence color expression is the focus of proposed work. The Resource Tradeoff Hypothesis proposes that stress causes loss of red coloration because carotenoids must be diverted away from ornamentation so they can function as antioxidants or immune system enhancers. Alternatively, the Shared Pathway Hypothesis proposes that oxidation of yellow dietary pigments to red ornamental pigments depends on core cellular processes, and particularly cellular respiration in mitochondria, that are sensitive to organism function and environmental conditions. These hypotheses make contrasting predictions regarding the cellular and environmental conditions that will affect ketolation and hence production of red coloration, and we will employ both whole animal and cell culture experiments to test these predictions. The proposed research holds the potential to significantly advance understanding of the ubiquitous links between stress, individual condition, and carotenoid coloration. The experiments that we propose will provide important new insights for how, at a mechanistic level, carotenoid color serves as a signal of condition and hence key insights into a fundamental rule of life—how to keep signaling honest.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.

家雀和其他鸣禽的红色羽毛颜色是个体状况的真实信号，这一发现既有据可查，也相当引人注目。为什么羽毛的颜色能够揭示个体品质或防止低品质鸟类的原因还不清楚。通过欺骗这个系统，我们现在已经知道了负责红色羽毛色素产生和积累的关键酶和转运蛋白。具有专业知识的科学家跨越动物生理学、细胞生物学和基因组学的研究将利用整个动物和细胞培养物来研究着色的分子和生化机制，研究人员将检查和比较处于良好或不良状态下的家雀的这些过程，以推断出促进着色的具体机制。或抑制红色素的产生和积累，从而控制羽毛着色，了解控制鸣禽类胡萝卜素着色的生化和细胞规则不仅对于更好地理解自然界的这一中心过程很重要，而且因为类胡萝卜素色素发挥着重要作用。研究人员将通过鸟类学夏令营计划、课程开发和公众培训研讨会分享这些见解并支持 STEM 教育。学校教师和中学生参观研究人员实验室，在择偶过程中禁止或促进诚实信息交流的生化、遗传和进化过程仍然知之甚少。拟议的研究将集中于揭示基本规则。通过整合亚细胞、细胞和整个生物体的方法来实现诚实的信号传递 在包括家雀在内的鸟类中，高质量的雄性羽毛比低质量的雄性羽毛颜色更亮、更红。资源权衡假说认为，压力会导致红色的丧失，因为类胡萝卜素必须从装饰中转移出来，这样它们才能起到抗氧化剂或免疫系统增强剂的作用。或者，共享途径假说提出，黄色膳食色素向红色装饰色素的氧化取决于核心细胞过程，特别是线粒体中的细胞呼吸，这些过程对生物体功能和环境条件敏感。这些假说对细胞和环境条件做出了相反的预测。我们将利用整个动物和细胞培养实验来测试这些预测，这项研究有望显着促进对压力、个体之间普遍存在的联系的理解。我们提出的实验将为在机制层面上类胡萝卜素颜色如何作为状况信号提供重要的新见解，从而为生命的基本规则——如何保持信号诚实——提供重要的见解。授予 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估反映使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Not just a cousin of the naked mole-rat: Damaraland mole-rats offer unique insights into biomedicine

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2022.110772
• 发表时间: 2022-10-01
• 期刊: COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY B-BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Wong，Hoi-Shan;Freeman，David A.;Zhang，Yufeng
• 通讯作者: Zhang，Yufeng