CRUI: Phenotypic Plasticity in Reproduction: Molecular Mechanisms, Physiological Control, and Adaptive Significance

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This project is for Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions, involving molecular biology, physiology and ecology to understand how reproduction is affected by environmental stresses. It is well known from ecological and evolutionary research that organisms have considerable flexibility in how they respond to variable and unpredictable environments, and physiological and cellular mechanisms such as endocrine function have been well studied. However, the means by which the environmental stimuli mediate their effects through physiological and molecular mechanisms are not well understood. This project uses laboratory and field experiments on a large insect as a model system to determine how variations in temperature and food availability affect the cellular, molecular and physiological events that accompany egg production, egg laying, and the development and survival of offspring. Manipulations of these variables will indicate whether this reproductive plasticity represents an adaptive response or an environmental constraint. Results will have an impact on developmental biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, insect biology and pest control, and promises a novel integrative experience involving undergraduates in exciting research over an unusual range of levels of biological organization.