A butterfly for all seasons: physiological mechanisms underlying environmentally induced morphologies and behaviors in Bicyclus anynana

四季皆宜的蝴蝶：环境诱导的双环蝴蝶形态和行为的生理机制

• 批准号: 1146933
• 负责人: Jeffrey Townsend
• 金额: $ 60.7万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-02-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146933&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: butterfly; seasons; physiological; mechanisms; underlying

Sexual behavior and ornaments used to attract the opposite sex are varied across the animal kingdom. Early exposure to certain environments can switch the developmental program and alter the outcome of these adult sexual ornaments and behaviors within a species. A remaining scientific mystery is how these cues from the outside environment are translated to the inside of the animal. Hormones, especially those produced by the gonads, play a crucial function in changing the development of brains, sexual ornaments and behaviors. However, hormones are only half the story. Hormones reach every cell in the body, but the developmental systems are only sensitive to hormones if they express hormone receptors to bind with the hormones into active complexes. Thus, the dynamics between hormones and hormone receptors can regulate when and how developmental trajectories change. This proposal aims to discover how these hormone signaling systems produce different sexual behaviors and ornaments in response to changes in the environment. The work will be carried out in the emerging model system, the squinting bush brown butterfly, Bicyclus anynana. This species displays a sex role reversal in courtship, mate preference and sexual ornaments depending on the external temperature the young insect experiences.The outcomes of this work will influence the many researchers interested in linking developmental dynamics to behavior and morphology thereby pushing forward our understanding of organisms as integrated systems. The project will involve training a post-doctoral researcher, a graduate student, and undergraduates in integrating cross-disciplinary techniques (biology, chemistry, and physics) into an evolutionary framework for understanding organisms as complex systems across their development. Current collaborators include members of the Yale Physics Department and the Medical School. To reach beyond the academy, the project will include development of an interactive educational module using a digital photo database to demonstrate the role of sexual selection and butterfly wing pattern evolution and to crowd source new discoveries in the evolution of sexual signals and butterfly wing patterns. This approach will be developed with the assistance of Yale computer science undergraduates and beta tested with the Peabody Museum's "Evolutions" science outreach program to minority high school students before being released more widely to high school educators and their students.

在整个动物界，用于吸引异性的性行为和装饰品各不相同。早期接触某些环境可以改变发展计划，并改变某个物种内这些成人性牙齿和行为的结果。剩下的科学谜团是如何将这些来自外部环境的线索转化为动物的内部。激素，尤其是性腺产生的激素，在改变大脑，性饰物和行为的发展方面起着至关重要的作用。但是，激素只是故事的一半。激素到达体内的每个细胞，但是当发育系统表达激素受体以与激素与激素结合到活性复合物中时，它们仅对激素敏感。因此，激素和激素受体之间的动力学可以调节何时以及如何变化。该建议旨在发现这些激素信号系统如何产生不同的性行为和装饰品，以应对环境的变化。这项工作将在新兴模型系统，斜视的灌木丛蝴蝶，自行车Anynana中进行。该物种根据年轻昆虫体验的外部温度表现出性别作用在求爱，伴侣的偏好和性装饰中。这项工作的结果将影响许多有兴趣将发展动态与行为和形态联系起来的研究人员，从而推动我们对有机体作为集成系统的理解。该项目将涉及培训博士后研究人员，研究生，并在将跨学科技术（生物学，化学和物理学）整合到一个进化框架中，以将其视为其开发过程中的复杂系统的进化框架。当前的合作者包括耶鲁大学物理系和医学院的成员。为了超越学院，该项目将包括使用数字照片数据库开发交互式教育模块，以展示性选择和蝴蝶翼模式演变的作用，并在性信号和蝴蝶翼模式的演变中群体中获取新发现。这种方法将在耶鲁大学计算机科学本科生的帮助下开发，并通过皮博迪博物馆的“进化论”科学外展计划对少数民族高中生进行了测试，然后再向高中教育者及其学生发布更广泛的释放。