The evolution of life histories in geminate echinoderms: a comparative approach to unscrambling the relationships among environment, egg size, and the energetics of development.

双生棘皮动物生命史的进化：一种解读环境、卵大小和发育能量之间关系的比较方法。

• 批准号: 0850764
• 负责人: Amy Moran
• 金额: $ 44.11万
• 依托单位: Clemson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0850764&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: evolution; life; histories; geminate; echinoderms

Egg size is one of the most important and often-studied aspects of the life history of marine organisms, and is correlated with many traits including larval developmental mode, length of larval development, starvation resistance, larval form and function, size at metamorphosis, and juvenile growth and survival. Much attention has focused on the ecological factors that drive evolutionary changes in egg size, but the relationships between ecological, evolutionary, and physiological aspects of larval development have yet to be characterized. Likewise, while assumptions about the relationships between egg size and the utilization of egg energy by developing larvae are built into all major models of life history evolution in marine organisms, no study has explicitly tested the underlying assumptions of these models in a rigorous comparative framework with a well-described ecological and evolutionary context. To examine these assumptions, the principle investigator will use geminate species pairs of echinoderms separated by the closure of the Central American Seaway as a model system for understanding the evolution of egg size and its implications for a wide range of other life history correlates among marine invertebrates. Specific questions to address by the research include: (1) What are the changes in biochemical composition that are associated with evolutionary changes in egg size? (2) How do evolved differences in egg size, egg composition, and total egg energy affect the growth rates and developmental trajectories of larvae? (3) In planktotrophic species, do larger eggs contribute a higher proportion of energy to the total cost of development than smaller eggs? (4) How does egg size affect subsequent larval performance under different food regimes that mimic the contrasting natural food environments in the two oceans? The broader impacts include funding one postdoctoral researcher, two graduate students, and at least 3 undergraduates. Students will be directly involved working with samples collected in Panama, and will learn the principles of comparative biology, data acquisition and organization, and data analysis by working directly (under faculty supervision) with datasets they collect themselves. This research will be communicated to the public via a web page hosted at Clemson University and maintained by the principle investigator and will serve as the foundation for the development of a "Larval Wiki," a public web resource that can be contributed to and edited by anyone. The principle investigator hopes this Wiki will become a self-sustaining resource that will be of considerable use to the global community of larval biologists as a forum for discussing major issues, disseminating information, and sharing photographs for teaching and public presentations.

卵的大小是海洋生物生命史中最重要且经常被研究的方面之一，它与幼虫的发育方式、发育长度、耐饥饿性、幼虫的形态和功能、变态大小以及幼鱼的生长和存活等许多性状有关。许多注意力都集中在驱动卵大小进化变化的生态因素上，但幼虫发育的生态、进化和生理方面之间的关系尚未得到表征。同样，虽然关于卵的大小和幼体对卵能量的利用之间的关系的假设被建立在海洋生物生命史进化的所有主要模型中，但没有研究明确地在一个严格的比较框架中与一个描述良好的生态和进化背景下测试这些模型的潜在假设。为了检验这些假设，首席研究员将使用被中美洲海道封闭隔开的棘皮动物的双生殖物种对作为模型系统，以理解卵大小的进化及其对海洋无脊椎动物其他生活史相关的广泛影响。该研究需要解决的具体问题包括：(1)与鸡蛋大小的进化变化相关的生化成分的变化是什么？(2)卵大小、卵组成和卵总能量的进化差异如何影响幼虫的生长速度和发育轨迹？(3)在浮游营养性物种中，较大的卵比较小的卵在总发育成本中所占的能量比例更高吗？(4)在模拟两大洋不同自然食物环境的不同食物制度下，卵的大小如何影响随后的幼虫性能？更广泛的影响包括资助一名博士后研究员，两名研究生和至少三名本科生。学生将直接参与在巴拿马收集的样本的工作，并将学习比较生物学的原理，数据采集和组织，并通过直接（在教师监督下）与他们自己收集的数据集进行数据分析。这项研究将通过克莱姆森大学（Clemson University）的一个网页与公众交流，并由主要研究者维护，并将作为“幼虫维基”（Larval Wiki）开发的基础，这是一个任何人都可以贡献和编辑的公共网络资源。主要研究者希望这个Wiki将成为一个自我维持的资源，将对全球幼虫生物学家社区有相当大的用处，作为一个论坛，讨论重大问题，传播信息，分享教学和公开展示的照片。