NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2012

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Using gene network models in evolutionary ecology: Gene duplication roles in flowering time control under natural environmentsGene duplications are a rich source for evolutionary novelty and are thought to promote both speciation and adaptation. However, understanding why particular duplications are preserved by evolution is difficult because the functions of related genes tend to overlap. The Arabidopsis flowering time pathway is an ideal system to investigate the role of ecological factors in maintaining genetic redundancy due to a long history of detailed molecular genetic, modeling and evolutionary ecological work on floral control in this species. This fellowships supports research that will combine mathematical modeling to explore the role of redundancy within gene networks and gene expression profiling in field trials to identify functional differences among duplicate genes. These data will be used to test the hypothesis that seemingly redundant genes in the Arabidopsis flowering time pathway have different roles in regulating the timing of flowering under real-world environments.Training objectives include becoming proficient in fitting practical and realistic models of biological systems, and carrying out effective field and lab experiments to test predictions of these models. The broader impacts include incorporating evolutionary simulations into an ongoing summer training programs on genetics and evolution for high school teachers in Wyoming. Also, the Arabidopsis flowering time gene network has analogs in many important crop species. Models that can predict flowering under complex, natural environments in this model species may translate into improvements in crop models useful for agriculture.