Dissertation Research: Unraveling the genetic basis for complex life-history traits in natural populations of garter snakes

论文研究：揭示袜带蛇自然种群复杂生活史特征的遗传基础

• 批准号: 1011350
• 负责人: Anne Bronikowski
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1011350&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Unraveling; genetic; basis

How an individual responds to environmental stress (temperature changes, toxins, disease, social interactions) affects how that individual acts, its ability to reproduce, and its lifespan. Therefore, it is important to understand how the genetic make-up of an individual determines how it responds to stress; and how populations evolve in response to their environmental conditions. This project addresses these questions using natural snake populations that consist of either slow-living (low reproduction, extended lifespan) or fast-living (high reproduction, shortened lifespan) individuals who respond to environmental stresses in different ways, but only slightly differ in genetic make-up. Stress experiments on these populations are used to characterize their physiological differences in stress response. New DNA sequencing technologies are then used to identify the underlying genes that allow them to respond to stress in different ways. Once these genes have been identified, they are explored further to understand how they have changed in the different populations that have been living under different environmental conditions.This research will help us to understand what genes are important for stress response in natural populations, and how they evolve in response to different environmental stress conditions. Many of the genes investigated here are involved in metabolism, diabetes and aging. Because animals share many of the same genes with only slight differences, experiments using snakes populations that naturally differ in reproduction, lifespan and stress response can help us to understand the genes responsible for these traits in many animal species, including livestock and humans.

一个人如何应对环境压力（温度变化、毒素、疾病、社会交往）会影响到这个人的行为、繁殖能力和寿命。因此，重要的是要了解一个人的遗传组成如何决定它如何应对压力;以及种群如何进化以应对环境条件。该项目使用自然蛇种群来解决这些问题，这些自然蛇种群由慢活（低繁殖率，延长寿命）或快活（高繁殖率，缩短寿命）个体组成，这些个体以不同的方式对环境压力做出反应，但在遗传组成上略有不同。这些人群的压力实验是用来表征他们的生理差异，在压力反应。然后，新的DNA测序技术被用来识别使他们以不同方式应对压力的潜在基因。一旦这些基因被识别出来，我们将进一步研究它们在不同环境条件下的不同种群中是如何变化的，这项研究将帮助我们了解哪些基因对自然种群的应激反应是重要的，以及它们是如何在不同的环境应激条件下进化的。这里研究的许多基因与新陈代谢、糖尿病和衰老有关。由于动物有许多相同的基因，只有轻微的差异，使用在繁殖，寿命和压力反应方面自然不同的蛇种群进行实验可以帮助我们了解许多动物物种（包括牲畜和人类）中负责这些特征的基因。