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.

性行为和用来吸引异性的装饰品在动物王国中是多种多样的。早期暴露在某些环境中可以改变发育程序，并改变这些成年性装饰和行为的结果。一个遗留的科学之谜是这些来自外部环境的线索是如何被翻译到动物体内的。荷尔蒙，特别是性腺产生的荷尔蒙，在改变大脑、性装饰和行为的发育中起着至关重要的作用。然而，荷尔蒙只是故事的一半。激素到达体内的每一个细胞，但发育系统只有在表达激素受体与激素结合成活性复合物时才对激素敏感。因此，激素和激素受体之间的动态可以调节发育轨迹何时以及如何变化。这项提案旨在发现这些激素信号系统如何响应环境的变化而产生不同的性行为和装饰。这项工作将在新出现的模型系统中进行，斜视的灌木棕色蝴蝶，Bicyclus anynana。这一物种在求偶、择偶和性装饰方面表现出性别角色逆转，这取决于幼年昆虫所经历的外部温度。这项工作的结果将影响许多有兴趣将发育动力学与行为和形态学联系起来的研究人员，从而推动我们对有机体作为综合系统的理解。该项目将涉及培训一名博士后研究员，一名研究生和一名本科生，将跨学科技术（生物学，化学和物理学）整合到进化框架中，以了解生物体作为复杂系统的发展。目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一个互动教育模块，以展示性选择和蝴蝶翅膀图案进化的作用，并将性信号和蝴蝶翅膀图案进化的新发现集中在一起。这种方法将在耶鲁大学计算机科学本科生的帮助下开发，并在皮博迪博物馆的“进化”科学推广计划中对少数民族高中生进行beta测试，然后更广泛地发布给高中教育工作者及其学生。