Collaborative Research: IMAGINE FG: Linking the genetic basis of spatial cognition to natural selection in a food-caching bird

合作研究：IMAGINE FG：将空间认知的遗传基础与储存食物的鸟类的自然选择联系起来

• 批准号: 2119824
• 负责人: Vladimir Pravosudov
• 金额: $ 115.92万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 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: 2021-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2119824&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; IMAGINE; FG; Linking

Understanding the evolution of cognition and whether natural selection can shape cognitive abilities, is a major goal of the study of animal behavior and evolutionary biology. Cognition allows animals to adjust to changing conditions, and it is well known to be affected by both environmental and developmental conditions. At the same time, there is considerable variation in cognitive abilities both between and within species and causes of such variation remain unclear. It is generally assumed that variation in cognitive abilities can be shaped directly by natural selection and recently, we provided evidence that individual variation in spatial cognitive abilities involved in the recovery of food caches in food-caching mountain chickadees is under direct selection. Mountain chickadees are small birds that rely on their memory to hide and find thousands of food items and depend on their food caches for overwinter survival. The central goal of the research is to understand how natural selection shapes learning and memory ability and to uncover the genetic basis of variation in learning and memory ability. To share the importance of our research with a broad audience, we will use a multifaceted broader impacts strategy focused on student training, community engagement, and education with an overall focus on broadening participation of underrepresented groups through a commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity. We will engage the general public through public lectures at two field stations and both general public and students from local schools at Natural History Museums in Nevada and in Colorado. The project will provide training to two postdoctoral fellows as well as to numerous graduate and undergraduate students, who will be recruited through established programs that support students traditionally underrepresented in STEM.This research has four aims. The first is to understand the genetic basis of specialized spatial memory in food-caching mountain chickadees. The second is to measure heritability of specialized spatial memory. The third is to understand how natural selection shapes genetic variation in genomic regions that underlie specialized spatial memory. The fourth is to determine if the genetic basis of spatial memory is geographically consistent by comparing populations from different mountain ranges. To meet these aims, the research will sample mountain chickadees from populations in two different mountain ranges. Among other data types, the work will combine whole genome sequence data, sequence capture data, and spatial cognition data to develop a deep understanding of the mechanisms by which natural selection shapes variation in spatial cognition. This work is jointly funded by the Behavioral Systems Cluster in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology.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.

了解认知的演变以及自然选择是否可以塑造认知能力，是研究动物行为和进化生物学的主要目标。认知允许动物适应变化的条件，并且众所周知，它会受到环境和发育条件的影响。同时，物种之间和内部的认知能力存在很大差异，这种变化的原因尚不清楚。通常认为，认知能力的差异可以直接通过自然选择来塑造，最近，我们提供了证据表明，在食品 - 山山山雀中恢复食品缓存涉及的空间认知能力的个体变异是直接选择的。山山雀是小鸟，依靠记忆来隐藏并找到成千上万的食物，并依靠他们的食物缓存以使冬季生存。研究的核心目标是了解自然选择如何塑造学习和记忆能力，并发现学习和记忆能力变化的遗传基础。为了与广泛的受众分享我们的研究的重要性，我们将使用针对学生培训，社区参与和教育的多方面更广泛的影响，总体而言要通过对公平，包容性和多样性的承诺来扩大代表性不足的群体的参与。我们将通过两个野战站的公开演讲，一般公众和来自内华达州自然历史博物馆和科罗拉多州的当地学校的学生参与。该项目将为两名博士后研究员以及众多研究生和本科生提供培训，这些培训将通过已建立的计划招募，这些计划在STEM中为学生提供支持不足的学生。这项研究具有四个目标。首先是了解食品山山雀中专业空间记忆的遗传基础。第二个是测量专业空间记忆的遗传力。第三个是了解自然选择如何塑造构成专门空间记忆的基因组区域的遗传变异。第四个是通过比较来自不同山脉的种群来确定空间记忆的遗传基础是否在地理上保持一致。为了满足这些目标，研究将在两个不同山脉的种群中采样山山雀。在其他数据类型中，该工作将结合整个基因组序列数据，序列捕获数据和空间认知数据，以深入了解自然选择塑造空间认知变化的机制。这项工作是由综合有机体系统划分的行为系统集群共同资助的，在环境生物学划分中，进化过程集群集群。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。

项目成果

Females pair with males larger than themselves in a socially monogamous songbird

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.02.012
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: Animal Behaviour
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: J. Welklin;C. Branch;A. Pitera;B. R. Sonnenberg;L. M. Benedict;V. Heinen;D. Kozlovsky;V. Pravosudov

Natural variation in developmental condition has limited effect on spatial cognition in a wild food-caching bird

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1169
• 发表时间: 2022-10
• 期刊: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• 作者: B. R. Sonnenberg;V. Heinen;A. Pitera;L. M. Benedict;C. Branch;E. Bridge;J. Ouyang;V. Pravosudov

The genetic basis of spatial cognitive variation in a food-caching bird

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.036
• 发表时间: 2022-01-10
• 期刊: CURRENT BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 9.2
• 作者: Branch, Carrie L.;Semenov, Georgy A.;Pravosudov, Vladimir V.
• 通讯作者: Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

Do food-caching chickadees grow their hippocampus every autumn when they need to cache food and then shrink it for the rest of the year?

每年秋天，当山雀需要储存食物时，它们的海马体都会生长，然后在一年中的剩余时间里缩小它的海马体吗？

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.06.006
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Animal Behaviour
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

Long-term winter food supplementation shows no significant impact on reproductive performance in Mountain Chickadees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

长期冬季食物补充对内华达山脉山雀的繁殖性能没有显着影响

• DOI: 10.1093/ornithology/ukac051
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Ornithology
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Sonnenberg, Benjamin R.;Welklin, Joseph F.;Branch, Carrie L.;Pitera, Angela M.;Benedict, Lauren M.;Heinen, Virginia K.;Kozlovsky, Dovid Y.;Bridge, Eli S.;Pravosudov, Vladimir V.
• 通讯作者: Pravosudov, Vladimir V.