IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Evolutionary and Functional Trade-offs in Extreme Sensory Capabilities of Nocturnal Predatory Spiders

IntBIO：合作研究：夜间掠食性蜘蛛极端感官能力的进化和功能权衡

• 批准号: 2128027
• 负责人: Ronald Hoy
• 金额: $ 72.52万
• 依托单位: Cornell 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 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2128027&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IntBIO; Collaborative; Research; Evolutionary; Functional

If there is one thing everyone “knows” about spiders, it’s that they are deadly hunters of insects, which they catch with webs spun of super-strong silk. Studying spiders can provide numerous engineering insights by examining the specialized sensory systems and ingenious uses of webs and silk they use for detecting and capturing prey. This project focuses on net-casting deinopid spiders that hunt by striking at moving insects that they ensnare in small rectangular webs held with their legs. This study will examine the large eyes of deinopid spiders, eyes that are used at night to hunt. The project is expected to produce results with practical applications. For example, the biochemical and physiological design features of their eyes are expected to reveal new insights that could be applied for night motion-sensitive devices. In addition, the remarkable physical properties of spider silk--namely, its tensile strength, toughness, and flexibility--are currently being exploited by industry for consumer, industrial, and military applications. This project will also have educational impacts by providing research opportunities for under-represented high school and undergraduate students and by developing an interactive bilingual game in English and Spanish to help teach children mathematics through modeling. These activities will broaden participation in science and help train the next generation of the scientific workforce. This project will address complex questions requiring an integrative approach: How do sensory systems become specialized and what are the mechanisms behind these specializations? Net-casting spiders (Deinopidae) present an exciting model given their highly specialized sensory systems used to capture prey in near-total darkness. Net-casting spiders rely on enlarged eyes that are among the most light-sensitive on Earth. Yet some select species have diminutive eyes but forage under similar conditions. A recent discovery revealed that spiders use acoustic information transmitted through silk to perceive their environment and capture aerial prey. This suggests that trade-offs between sensory systems are a driver of adaptive variation. Functional trade-offs are inherent to all sensory systems, but the understanding of how these trade-offs manifest and evolve is limited and has not been studied in detail in a comparative fashion across multiple biological levels. Achieving this deep understanding of trade-offs requires integrative approaches and a diverse team of investigators willing to bridge the considerable gaps between their subdisciplines. This research will forge connections among investigators with complementary expertise in disparate biological fields. Together, they will identify the genetic, physiological, morphological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying the extraordinary visual and acoustic sensory adaptations within deinopids and elucidate how relative investments evolve in different ecological conditions. Results from the multidisciplinary empirical experiments will be integrated into an ecological and evolutionary model to generate predictions about sensory evolution that will be applicable to other biological systems. Cross-training of early career investigators will also strengthen the pipeline for integrative biology for generations.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.

如果每个人都对蜘蛛“知道”有一件事，那就是它们是致命的昆虫猎人，它们会抓住超级丝绸的网站。研究蜘蛛可以通过检查其用于检测和捕获猎物的网站和丝绸的专业感觉系统和巧妙用途来提供众多的工程见解。该项目的重点是净铸造的脱氧蜘蛛，这些蜘蛛是通过击中将昆虫击中的昆虫来狩猎的，而昆虫则在小矩形网中围绕着腿部。这项研究将检查脱氧蛋白蜘蛛的大眼睛，这些眼睛在晚上用于狩猎。该项目有望通过实际应用产生结果。例如，他们的眼睛的生化和物理设计特征有望揭示可用于夜间运动敏感设备的新见解。此外，工业目前正在为消费者，工业和军事应用探索蜘蛛丝的显着物理特性（即其拉伸强度，韧性和灵活性）。该项目还将通过为代表性不足的高中和本科生提供研究机会，并通过开发英语和西班牙语的互动双语游戏，以通过建模来帮助教师数学，从而产生教育影响。这些活动将扩大对科学的参与，并帮助培训下一代科学劳动力。该项目将解决需要集成方法的复杂问题：感觉系统如何变得专业化，这些专业背后的机制是什么？鉴于其高度专业化的感觉系统用于捕获近端黑暗中的猎物，因此净铸造蜘蛛（Deinopidae）提出了一个令人兴奋的模型。净铸造蜘蛛依赖于地球上最敏感的眼睛的扩大眼睛。然而，一些精选的物种的眼睛却小，但在相似条件下觅食。最近的发现表明，蜘蛛使用通过丝绸传递的声学信息来感知其环境并捕获空中猎物。这表明感觉系统之间的权衡是自适应变化的驱动力。功能折衷是所有感官系统的遗传，但是对这些权衡如何表现和进化的理解是有限的，并且尚未以多种生物学水平的比较方式进行详细研究。实现对权衡的深刻理解需要综合的方法，并且一支不同的调查人员团队愿意弥合其子学科之间的考虑差距。这项研究将在不同生物学领域具有完全专业知识的研究人员之间建立联系。他们将共同确定deinopids中非凡的视觉和声学适应性的遗传，物理，形态和行为机制，并阐明相对投资在不同的生态条件下的发展方式。多学科经验实验的结果将集成到生态和进化模型中，以产生有关感觉进化的预测，该预测适用于其他生物系统。早期职业调查人员的交叉培训还将加强世代相传的综合生物学管道。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为是通过评估而被视为珍贵的。