NSF PRFB FY23: How do endocrine-molecular mechanisms evolve when parental strategies diverge? Insights from stickleback fish ecotypes

NSF PRFB FY23：当父母策略出现分歧时，内分泌分子机制如何演变？

• 批准号: 2305741
• 负责人: Victoria Farrar
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Farrar, Victoria S
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305741&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY23; How; do

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. Parental care is critical for offspring survival, and thus, the parents’ reproductive success. However, as animals form new populations, environmental pressures might change in ways that also change parental strategies. For example, new populations may no longer need to protect young as extensively from predators, or may have access to new resources, such as nesting material that protects or nourishes young. Most research on the evolution of parental behavior compares species that split from each other millions of years ago. However, we know little about how natural selection shapes parental behaviors when populations are just starting to differentiate. This research will examine how parental care behaviors have been evolutionarily lost in a new population of three-spined stickleback fish (Gastereous aculeatus), a species in which fathers typically care for young. Alogether, this project will provide insight into how environmental changes, including those caused by humans such as climate change, may lead to changes in parental behavior and animal reproductive strategies. This research will examine how natural selection has shaped endocrine and behavioral phenotypes in recently-diverged populations of stickleback by (1) comparing differences in neural hormone sensitivity in the brain and (2) hormone production machinery in the gonads (i.e., enzymatic pathways) across breeding stages, and (3) using cutting-edge transgenic tools to functionally test links between genotype and behavioral phenotype in both populations. With this integrative and comparative approach, this research will uncover how novel behavioral strategies emerge both within individuals and between populations at microevolutionary timescales. The fellow will receive training in current bioinformatic analysis and functional neurogenomics using transgenics. The fellow will also contribute to broadening participation of underrepresented groups by cultivating support for mothers/parents in science, including at scientific conferences. The fellow will also mentor community college students, a population often excluded from undergraduate research, through an established NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate program. Finally, the fellow will contribute to infrastructure for scientific research by leading community trainings in open science, reproducibility and data management.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.

该行动为2023财年生物学的NSF博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，该研究综合研究调查了有关基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生活规则。父母的护理对于后代生存至关重要，因此，父母的生殖成功。但是，随着动物形成新的人群，环境压力可能会改变也改变父母策略的方式。例如，新人群可能不再需要广泛保护年轻人免受捕食者的影响，或者可能可以使用新资源，例如保护或滋养年轻人的嵌套材料。关于父母行为进化的大多数研究都比较了数百万年前彼此分裂的物种。但是，我们对自然选择刚刚开始差异化时的自然选择如何塑造父母的行为。这项研究将研究父母的护理行为如何在新的三刺粘背鱼（Gastereous aculeatus）的新种群中进化损失，该物种通常父亲通常会照顾Young。该项目将提供有关环境变化（包括由气候变化等人类引起的）如何导致父母行为和动物繁殖策略的变化的信息。这项研究将研究自然选择如何通过（1）比较大脑中神经元赛酮敏感性的差异以及（2）在性腺中的激素生产机制（即，使用繁殖阶段）在繁殖阶段（即（3）构成功能的工具，（即），（2）使用繁殖的工具，（即）构成了功能的工具，则（2）在大脑中的神经元雌激素敏感性以及（2）在大脑中的神经元雌激素敏感性以及（2）构成功能跨度的链接，以比较（2）在大脑中的神经元雌激素敏感性以及（2）构成功能的链接，从而构成了内分泌和行为表型。人群。通过这种综合和比较的方法，这项研究将发现新颖的行为策略如何在个人内部以及微观进化时间表的人群之间出现。该研究员将使用转化剂进行当前生物信息学分析和功能性神经基因组学的培训。该研究员还将通过培养对母亲/父母在科学的支持，包括在科学会议在内的母亲/父母的支持，从而有助于扩大代表性不足的群体的参与。这位研究员还将通过既定的NSF研究经验，通常是本科生研究的人群，通常被排除在本科研究之外。最后，该研究员将通过领先的开放科学，可重复性和数据管理领先的社区培训为科学研究的基础设施做出贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，认为通过评估来获得珍贵的支持。