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.

该行动资助 2023 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。随着动物形成新的种群，环境压力可能会发生变化，从而也会改变父母的策略，例如，新的种群可能不再需要广泛保护幼崽免受捕食者的侵害，或者可能获得新的资源，例如。作为保护或滋养后代的筑巢材料，大多数关于亲代行为进化的研究都比较了数百万年前彼此分裂的物种，然而，我们对当种群刚刚开始分化时自然选择如何塑造亲代行为知之甚少。研究将研究三刺刺鱼（Gastereous aculeatus）的新种群中亲代照顾行为是如何在进化过程中消失的，该物种通常由父亲照顾幼仔。总而言之，该项目将深入了解环境如何变化，包括环境变化。造成的这项研究将通过（1）比较神经激素敏感性的差异来研究自然选择如何塑造最近分化的棘鱼种群的内分泌和行为表型。大脑和（2）整个繁殖阶段性腺中的激素产生机制（即酶途径），以及（3）使用尖端转基因工具对两个群体的基因型和行为表型之间的联系进行功能测试。和比较方法，这项研究将揭示在微进化时间尺度上个体内部和群体之间如何出现新颖的行为策略。该研究员还将接受使用转基因的当前生物信息分析和功能神经基因组学的培训。培养对母亲/父母在科学方面的支持，包括在科学会议上，该研究员还将通过已建立的 NSF 本科生研究经验项目来指导社区学院的学生，这些学生通常被排除在本科生研究之外。将通过领导开放科学、可重复性和数据管理方面的社区培训，为科学研究基础设施做出贡献。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。