Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology for FY 2009

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Environmental contributions to gene expression evolution during local adaptation and gene family expansion" for Benjamin Blackman. The host institution for this research is Duke University and the sponsoring scientist is John Willis.Evolutionary changes in gene regulation often play important roles in how natural populations adapt to their local habitats and also how different copies of the same gene persist after duplication. This research examines how variation in gene expression contributes to habitat adaptation and gene family diversification in the yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. Next-generation sequencing technology is being used to assess variation in gene expression observed in Mimulus grown across a variety of habitats: coastal areas with high soil salinity, inland dry habitats, and hybrid plants, reared both in greenhouses and in the wild. Analyzing expression on a genomic scale in multiple environmental conditions provides insight into three questions regarding how the environment and gene expression evolution interact. First, how are mutations affecting environmental regulation of gene expression distributed in the genome relative to the position of the gene they regulate? Second, how are ancestral and evolved environmental responses in gene expression related? Finally, to what extent do gene families diverge with respect to expression in different environments?Training objectives include learning laboratory, computational, and programming skills necessary for collecting, analyzing, and distributing genome-scale datasets. Broader impacts include an important database (an initial expression atlas for Mimulus) and new bioinformatics tools for analyzing gene expression patterns. This research also advances knowledge about the molecular basis of two important agronomic traits, responses to drought and salt stress.