Senders & Their Sensory Environments: Acoustic Lessons From a Radiation of Ancient Grasshoppers

发件人

• 批准号: 0091189
• 负责人: Moira van Staaden
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Bowling Green State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2005-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0091189&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Senders; & Their; Sensory; Environments

Communication between individuals is ultimately dependent on the functioning of sensory organs, such as eyes or ears, and is affected by a variety of factors, ranging from the physics of signal transmission in the microhabitat, to the neural characteristics of peripheral receptor organs. Although mate choice scenarios have been thoroughly investigated, the evolutionary links between the environment and sensory systems remain virtually unexplored. Notable exceptions occur in fairly advanced vertebrate groups such as frogs and fish. However, the vertebrate central nervous system is almost certainly more plastic than is the peripheral nervous system, and changes in sensory characteristics at this level are difficult to evaluate. In contrast, sensory change in invertebrates is considerably more concentrated at the periphery, thus invertebrates may provide useful model systems. Bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Pneumoridae) are highly specialized for long distance (~2 km) acoustic signaling and presently occupy a range of contrasting sensory-ecological environments. This small family, in which each individual has a dozen ears of two distinct types, offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role of sensory biology in evolutionary processes. The contributions of environmental constraints and ear structure and function will be explored in this ancient group. To determine whether habitat is a significant selection pressure for divergent calling songs, a series of acoustic playback experiments will be performed to compare the efficiency of sound transmission in forest, grassland and desert habitats. The detailed morphological structure of both a tympanate- and pleural ears will be compared across species, and microscanning laser vibrometry will yield relative estimates of ear tuning and sensitivity. These will indicate to what extent ears are matched to the frequency spectra of species-specific calls, and the potential for sensory partitioning across different habitats. Finally, the evolutionary history of the pneumorid family will be reconstructed using DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene to provide the infrastructure for integrated comparative analyses. This project involves international travel, and will be carried out in collaboration with several undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral associates. The results of this study will provide insight into the complex associations that exist between the environment and sensory systems, and the potential role of these interactions in the speciation process. Moreover, evolved features of these unique invertebrate ears may be relevant in the design of small, highly sensitive hearing devices.

个体之间的交流最终依赖于感觉器官的功能，如眼睛或耳朵，并受到各种因素的影响，从微生境中的信号传输物理到外围感受器的神经特征。尽管已经对配偶选择的情景进行了彻底的研究，但环境和感觉系统之间的进化联系实际上仍然没有被探索。值得注意的例外出现在相当高级的脊椎动物群体中，如青蛙和鱼。然而，脊椎动物的中枢神经系统几乎肯定比周围神经系统更具可塑性，在这一水平上感觉特征的变化很难评估。相比之下，无脊椎动物的感觉变化更多地集中在外围，因此无脊椎动物可能提供有用的模型系统。膀胱蝗虫(直翅目，肺蝗科)是长距离(~2公里)声信号的高度专门化，目前占据着一系列不同的感觉-生态环境。在这个小家庭中，每个个体都有两种不同类型的十几只耳朵，这为研究感觉生物学在进化过程中的作用提供了一个独特的机会。在这个古老的群体中，将探索环境限制和耳朵结构和功能的贡献。为了确定栖息地是否是不同叫声的显著选择压力，将进行一系列声学回放实验，比较森林、草原和荒漠栖息地的声音传播效率。鼓膜和胸膜耳朵的详细形态结构将在不同物种之间进行比较，微扫描激光测振仪将产生对耳朵调谐和灵敏度的相对估计。这些将表明耳朵在多大程度上与物种特定叫声的频谱相匹配，以及跨不同栖息地进行感觉划分的可能性。最后，将利用线粒体16S rRNA基因的DNA测序重建肺炎家族的进化史，为综合比较分析提供基础。这个项目涉及国际旅行，将与几个本科生、研究生和博士后助理合作进行。这项研究的结果将提供对环境和感觉系统之间存在的复杂联系的洞察，以及这些相互作用在物种形成过程中的潜在作用。此外，这些独特的无脊椎动物耳朵的进化特征可能与设计小型、高度敏感的听力设备有关。