DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary responses of associated hormonal, behavioral, and morphological traits following colonization: integration or independence?

当一种动物的环境发生变化时，动物的相关生物学特性也可能会发生变化。激素，如睾酮[T]，其分泌受到环境的影响，协调许多特征的表达，包括性、攻击性和父母行为、装饰和免疫功能。这些特征共同形成了动物的S表型，激素和表型之间的联系可能在促进或制约动物对环境变化的反应能力方面发挥核心作用。这项研究利用鸣禽种群在城市环境中的殖民优势，将新城市环境中的激素-表型联系与在附近祖先环境中观察到的联系进行比较。这一比较将检验在两种环境中观察到的特征是否表明？进化上的整合？或者？进化上的独立？T和目标性状之间的联系。这项研究还将评估观察到的特征变化是否代表非遗传发育变化或快速(遗传)进化。在一个全球快速变化和栖息地改变的时代，了解个人和种群如何应对新的环境变得至关重要。这项提案中描述的研究将增加对脊椎动物如何以及是否在非常快的时间尺度(30年)内适应新环境的基本理解。这项研究还将加强对十几名未来科学家的培训，其中包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家。

When an animal?s environment changes, interrelated biological characteristics of the animal may also change. Hormones such as testosterone [T], the secretion of which is influenced by the environment, coordinate the expression of many traits including sexual, aggressive, and parental behavior, ornamentation, and immune function. Together these traits form the animal?s phenotype, and linkages between hormones and phenotype may play a central role in facilitating or constraining an animal?s ability to respond to environmental change. This research takes advantage of the colonization of an urban environment by a songbird population to compare hormone-phenotype linkages in the new urban environment to those observed in the nearby ancestral environment. This comparison will test whether traits observed in the two environments indicate ?evolutionarily integrated? or ?evolutionarily independent? linkages between T and target traits. The research also will evaluate whether observed changes in traits represent non-genetic developmental alteration or rapid (genetic) evolution. In an age of rapid global change and habitat alteration, understanding how individuals and populations respond to novel environments has become critical. The research described in this proposal will add to the basic understanding of how and whether vertebrates adapt to novel environments over very rapid time scales (30yrs). The research will also enhance the training of more than a dozen future scientists, including those from underrepresented groups.