Molecular Mechanisms and Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity

表型可塑性的分子机制和进化

基本信息

批准号：
10790490
负责人：
JENNIFER A BRISSON
金额：
$ 1.83万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-01-01 至 2026-12-31
项目状态：
未结题

项目摘要

Phenotypic plasticity is used by an incredible diversity of organisms, from plants to humans. Its ubiquity attests to its fundamental importance in life. This project addresses the fascinating and understudied question of the mechanistic basis of phenotypic plasticity – i.e., how developmental processes are influenced by environmental cues to cause phenotypic differences -- and, importantly, how those processes evolve. The focus here is on an innovative model, the pea aphid, which exhibits a textbook example of phenotypic plasticity. This species offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine the role of nature and nurture in phenotype determination: it exhibits dramatically different winged and wingless morphs that are induced by environmental conditions in genetically identical, asexual females and controlled by a single genetic locus in males. Thus, strikingly, two dimorphisms, each under different control mechanisms, exist within this single species. The proposed experiments build on the exciting recent discoveries made by the PI about the role of hormones and horizontally transferred genes in the female wing plasticity and about the identification of the wing polymorphism locus in males, which has an insertion containing a duplication of a gene that influences signaling (follistatin) and which is specific to wingless males. The proposed, vigorous research program aims to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the function and evolution of plasticity. Experiments on the wing plasticity will examine the regulatory changes that control it, the epigenetic changes that accompany it, and test if horizontally transferred genes are preferentially recruited into the process. Experiments on the genetic male wing dimorphism will use functional and evolutionary studies of the follistatin paralogs to establish how changes in these paralogs underlie male morphological evolution. Studies in females and males will be united with experiments that will test whether or not the more recently derived male dimorphism evolved by genetic accommodation of the female plasticity, hypothesizing that males bypass the environmental signals used by the female plasticity. These studies will provide some of the first insights into the mechanistic basis of genetic accommodation, where trait variation shifts from being caused by “nurture” to “nature”. These experiments will have broad implications for understanding the mechanistic basis and evolution of plasticity, which is significant from a human health perspective because of the numerous plastic traits that influence human health and disease.

从植物到人类的生物多样性多样性使用表型可塑性。它的无处不在证明它在生活中的基本重要性。该项目解决了令人着迷和理解的问题表型可塑性的机械基础 - 即发育过程如何受到影响环境提示引起表型差异 - 重要的是，这些过程的发展方式。这这里的重点是创新模型，即豌豆蚜虫，该模型展示了表型的教科书示例可塑性。该物种提供了一个无与伦比的机会来检查自然和护士在表型的确定：它表现出明显不同的有翼和无翅的形态在遗传上相同的无性雌性中的环境条件，并由单个遗传基因座控制男性。令人惊讶的是，在这个单个中，每个二态性都存在于不同的控制机制下物种。拟议的实验建立在PI的最新发现的基础上恐怖和水平转移的基因在女性翼可塑性中以及关于识别的识别男性的机翼多态性基因座，其插入插入包含一个影响的基因的重复信号传导（follistatin），特定于无翅男性。拟议的，有力的研究计划旨在破译可塑性功能和演变的基础的分子机制。实验机翼可塑性将检查控制它的调节变化，伴随它的表观遗传变化，并测试是否优选将水平转移的基因募集到该过程中。实验遗传男性翼二态性将使用follistatin旁系同源物的功能和进化研究来建立这些旁系同源物的变化是男性形态进化的基础。女性和男性的研究将是结合实验，这些实验将测试最近得出的男性二态性。女性可塑性的遗传适应性，假设男性绕过环境信号由女性可塑性使用。这些研究将为机械基础提供一些最初的见解遗传适应性，特征的变化从“养育”引起的变化转变为“自然”。这些实验将对理解可塑性的机理基础和演变具有广泛的影响，从人类健康的角度来看，这很重要，因为众多影响的塑料特征人类健康和疾病。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（3）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Evolution and molecular mechanisms of wing plasticity in aphids.

DOI：
10.1016/j.cois.2023.101142
发表时间：
2023-11
期刊：
Current opinion in insect science
影响因子：
5.3
作者：
Kevin D. Deem;Lauren Gregory;Xiaomi Liu;Omid Saleh Ziabari;Jennifer A. Brisson
通讯作者：
Kevin D. Deem;Lauren Gregory;Xiaomi Liu;Omid Saleh Ziabari;Jennifer A. Brisson

Pea aphid winged and wingless males exhibit reproductive, gene expression, and lipid metabolism differences.