Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2002

本行动为2002财年NSF少数民族博士后研究奖学金提供资金。该奖学金的目标是为少数族裔科学家在学术界和工业界担任科学领导职位做好准备。为了实现这一目标，该奖学金为最近的博士获得者提供了最高质量的博士后培训机会。这个项目是美国国家科学基金会的一项努力，旨在增加来自代表性不足的少数群体的研究科学家的数量，从而为国家科学事业的未来活力做出贡献。预期通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来劳动力方面发挥重要作用。这项研究和培训计划的题目是“交配制度对一种吊带蛇（Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis）的亲子模式和适合度的影响”。本研究探讨亲缘关系在交配系统中的作用，通过询问亲缘关系是否影响父亲的贡献，进而影响母亲在红边袜带蛇自然种群中的适应性。这构成了对亲属识别存在的第一个测试，也是对任何蛇类近亲繁殖抑制的第一个严格研究。

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2002. The goal of the fellowship is to prepare minority scientists for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. This program is an effort by the NSF to increase the number of research scientists from underrepresented minority groups, thereby contributing to the future vitality of the Nation's scientific enterprise. It is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Influence of mating system on patterns of parentage and fitness correlates in a garter snake model, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis." This research explores the role of kin recognition in the mating system by asking whether parental relatedness influences paternal contribution and, in turn, maternal fitness in natural populations of the red-sided garter snake. This constitutes the first test for the presence of kin recognition and first rigorous study of inbreeding depression in any snake species.