Reproductive pairing, conflict and offspring size in a marine snail.

所有生物体都面临着两种分配权衡：一种是许多小后代和几个大后代之间的权衡；另一种是现在和未来繁殖之间的权衡。这些分配权衡在海洋无脊椎动物物种之间表现出的卵、后代和产卵大小的巨大差异中表现得尤为明显。越来越清楚的是，在海洋和陆地生物的许多分类群中，卵和孵化大小存在显著的种内差异。这个项目的重点是一个很少被考虑，但可能广泛存在的卵子和后代大小差异的来源，即在兄弟姐妹之间最佳分配父母资源时不可避免的利益冲突。生殖配对系统--因为它对相互作用的兄弟姐妹的关系产生影响--可以对这些冲突的规模和解决产生决定性的影响。这项研究描述了海洋蜗牛(Nucella Ostrina)配对系统的变异如何解释母体供应和后代大小的差异。这项工作还将确定生殖配对系统的变化是否与整个纽氏菌属母体提供的模式和模式相对应。这个项目有几个广泛的科学意义：1)一夫多妻和对后代的封装在海洋生物、被子植物和母性动物中广泛存在；然而，很少有研究考虑它们的进化分支，特别是它们的成本。2)生殖配对制度和亲子冲突也可能推动合子后生殖隔离的演变。这项研究揭示了一种新的、可能广泛存在的导致海洋系统这种隔离的机制。3)这项研究考察了影响藤壶和贻贝等被捕食物种与它们的捕食者之间的联系的海洋过程之间的联系。与海星等其他经过充分研究的捕食者不同，Nucella的扩散潜力有限，因此更有可能表现出空间受限的种群动态以及反映不同食物供应的适应能力。4)这项研究将增进我们对海洋群落成员之间生态和进化联系的规模的了解，为科学地设计维持物种和遗传多样性的海洋保护区网络提供基础。这种名为Nucella的蜗牛在具有商业价值的海洋资源物种上与海洋动物捕食者有相似之处。该项目将与三个外展/培训项目对接，包括一个面向数学和生物交汇点的本科生合作项目，一个REU项目，招募不同群体的当地高中生在教师研究项目上进行合作，以及一个项目，为博士生提供在K-12课堂上的实践经验，以及K-12教师和学生在海洋科学的最新技术和概念进展方面的经验。这个项目将支持一个分子生态学网站和相关的研讨会，以及一个多用户DNA设施，以培训这些学生、博士后和K-12教师进行最先进的分子遗传分析。它将支持一批年轻科学家，在行为学、生态学、进化论和海洋生物学的界面上为他们提供多学科培训。

All organisms face two allocation trade-offs: one between many small versus a few large offspring; and the second between present and future reproduction. Nowhere are these allocation trade-offs more apparent than in the vast range of variation in egg, offspring, and clutch size exhibited among species of marine invertebrates. It has become increasingly clear that, in many taxa of marine and terrestrial organisms, there is substantial intraspecific variation for egg and hatching size. This project focuses on a rarely considered, but potentially widespread, source of variation in egg and offspring size, namely, the inevitable conflicts of interest that arise over the optimal distribution of parental resources among siblings. The reproductive pairing system - because of its effects on the relatedness of interacting siblings - can have a decisive impact on the magnitude and resolution of these conflicts. This research characterizes how variation in the pairing system of a marine snail (Nucella ostrina) accounts for variation in maternal provisioning and offspring size. The work will also establish whether shifts in the reproductive pairing system correspond to patterns and modes of maternal provisioning across the entire genus of Nucella. This project has several broad scientific implications: 1) Polyandry and encapsulation of offspring are widespread in marine organisms, angiosperms, and matrotrophic animals; however, few studies have considered their evolutionary ramifications, especially their costs. 2) Reproductive pairing system and parental-offspring conflict may also drive the evolution of post-zygotic reproductive isolation. This research brings to light a novel and potentially widespread mechanism causing such isolation in marine systems. 3) This study examines consequence of the links between oceanographic processes that affect recruitment of prey species, such as barnacles and mussels, and their predators. Unlike other well-studied predators such as seastars, Nucella has limited dispersal potential, hence is far more likely to exhibit spatially constrained population dynamics as well as adaptations that reflect varying food supplies. 4) The research will advance our understanding of the scale of ecological and evolutionary connections among members of marine communities, providing the foundation for scientifically informed design of marine reserve networks that sustain both species and genetic diversity. The snail, Nucella, has similarities to marine animal predators on commercially important marine resource species.The project will interface with three outreach/training programs, including a collaborative program for undergraduates working at the interface of math and biology, an REU program that recruits a diverse population of local high-school students to collaborate on faculty research projects, and a program that provides Ph.D. students with hands-on experience in K-12 classrooms, and K-12 teachers and students experience with in the latest technical and conceptual advances in ocean science. This project will support a molecular ecology website and associated workshops, and a multi-user DNA facility to train these students, postdocs, and K-12 teachers in state-of-the-art molecular genetic analysis. It will support a number of young scientists, giving them multidisciplinary training at the interface of behavior, ecology, evolution, and marine biology.