Whole-animal Physiological Performance: Natural Selection and Phenotypic Plasticity

[9410693]海斯动物的生理功能（例如，它们在寒冷环境中产生热量的能力或从捕食者那里逃跑的能力）被广泛认为会影响它们的生态和进化。尽管人们普遍认为，同一物种的动物个体之间的差异很少被证明会影响它们的生存和繁殖。生理上的个体差异是否影响生存和繁殖的数据对于理解生物体功能的进化（即生物体的生理特征）至关重要。因此，将在海拔3800米的鹿鼠（Peromyscus maniculatus）种群中研究全动物生理性能对生存和繁殖的影响。这些老鼠特别适合研究，因为它们的生理机能是众所周知的，而且它们在高海拔地区经历的极端寒冷和低氧，很可能使它们的生理跑步表现发生自然选择。将测量单个小鼠的生存、繁殖、在寒冷中产生热量的能力和短跑表现。由于生理功能可能会随着所遇到的环境（即，是可塑性的还是柔性的）而发生很大变化，因此通常不清楚个体动物之间的生理差异是遗传的还是环境的。先前的研究表明，高海拔和低海拔鹿鼠的产热能力差异是基于基因的。然而，发育环境对鹿鼠对随后环境变化的反应能力的影响尚不清楚。这些信息对于理解遗传与环境影响在应对环境变化中的相对重要性至关重要。发育环境的影响将通过比较在高海拔和低海拔地区长大的兄弟姐妹的生理表现来研究。最终，该研究将有助于更好地理解遗传变异与生理可塑性在应对环境压力方面的相对重要性，将为哺乳动物肺功能的发育限制提供见解，并将阐明广泛持有的生理表现个体差异具有生态和进化意义的观点是否有效。＊＊＊

9410693 Hayes The physiological functions of animals (e.g., their ability to produce heat in cold environments or sprint away from predators)are widely thought to impact their ecology and evolution. Despite this widespread belief, differences among individual animals of the same species rarely have been shown to affect their survival and reproduction. Data on whether individual differences in physiology affect survival and reproduction are essential to understanding the evolution of organismal function (i.e., physiological traits of organisms). Hence, the effects of whole animal physiological performance on survival and reproduction will be studied in a high altitude (3800m) population of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). These mice are particularly suitable for study because their physiology is well known and because the extreme cold and low oxygen availability they experience at high altitude makes it likely that natural selection on their physiological running performance occurs. Survival, reproduction, ability to produce heat in the cold, and sprint running performance of individual mice will be measured. Because physiological functions may vary substantially with the environment encountered (i.e., are plastic or flexible), it is usually unclear whether physiological differences among individual animals are genetic or environmental in nature. Previous studies indicate that differences in the heat producing capacity of high- and low- altitude deer mice are genetically based. However, the effects of the developmental environment on the ability of deer mice to respond to subsequent environmental change are poorly understood. This information is critical to understanding the relative importance of genetic versus environmental effects in coping with environmental change. The effects of developmental environments will be studied by comparing physiological performance of siblings raised at high versus low altitude. Ultimately, the proposed research will lea d to a better understanding of the relative importance of genetic variation versus physiological plasticity in coping with environmental stressors, will provide insight into developmental constraints on mammalian lung function, and will elucidate whether the broadly held belief that individual variation in physiological performance has ecological and evolutionary significance is valid. ***