Collaborative Research: Understanding the rules of honest signaling

合作研究：了解诚实信号的规则

• 批准号: 2037741
• 负责人: Geoffrey Hill
• 金额: $ 32.44万
• 依托单位: Auburn University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037741&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.

房屋雀科和其他歌曲鸟的红色羽毛着色是个人状况的诚实信号。这一发现既有据可查，而且非常出色。为什么羽毛的色调揭示了个体质量或阻止低品质鸟类作弊的原因，这一点远远不算什么。一系列最近的突破性研究使我们进入了通过红色羽毛色彩理解诚实信号的门口。我们现在知道关键酶和转运蛋白负责红色羽毛色素的产生和积累。在拟议的研究中，具有跨动物生理学，细胞生物学和基因组学专业知识的科学家团队将使用整个动物和细胞培养来研究着色的分子和生化机制。研究人员将检查和比较状态良好或条件较差的房屋雀科中的这些过程，以推断出促进或抑制红色颜料的产生和积累的特定机制，从而控制羽毛颜色。了解鸣禽中类胡萝卜素色的生化和细胞规则不仅对于更好地理解自然界的这种中心过程而言重要，而且是因为类胡萝卜素颜料在人类的细胞稳态中起着关键作用。对鸟类中的类胡萝卜素系统的更好理解将不可避免地使我们对自己有更好的了解。调查人员将通过鸟类学夏令营计划，公立学校教师的课程开发和培训讲习班以及中学和高中学生访问调查员实验室，通过鸟类学夏令营计划，课程开发和培训讲习班来分享这些见解，并支持STEM教育。生化，遗传和进化的处理方法是，在伴侣选择的背景下，禁止或能够诚实地进行信息的交流仍然很众所周知。拟议的研究将着重于通过整合亚细胞，细胞和全生物的方法来揭示诚实信号的基本规则。在包括雀科在内的鸟类中，高质量的雄性产生的羽毛比低品质的男性更明亮和更红的类胡萝卜素色。了解个体的状况如何影响这些基因的功能，因此是颜色表达是拟议工作的重点。 The Resource Tradeoff Hypothesis proposals that stress causes loss of red color because carotenoids must be diverted away from ornamentation so they can function as antioxidants or Immune system enhancers.Alternatively, the Shared Pathway Hypothesis proposals that oxidation of yellow dietary pigments to red ornamental pigments depend on core cellular processes, and particularly cellular respiration in mitochondria, that are sensitive to organisation function and environmental conditions.这些假设对会影响酮化的细胞和环境条件做出了对比预测，从而产生了红色，我们将使用整个动物和细胞培养实验来测试这些预测。拟议的研究具有显着了解压力，个体状况和类胡萝卜素颜色之间的无处不在的联系。我们提出的实验将提供重要的新见解，说明在机械水平上，类胡萝卜素的颜色如何充当条件的信号，从而对基本生活规则进行关键见解，以保持诚实的信号。该奖项反映了NSF的法规任务，并认为通过基金会的知识优点和广泛的cribia criperia criperia crigitia criperia the Insportaution the Pociess cription supportiation。