Environmental, Endocrine and Epigenetic Drivers of Sociality in Birds

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The mechanisms that influence variation in the morphological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of animals are important because they determine how organisms cope with environmental challenges, and because these responses can affect behavior in later stages of life. Recent evidence suggests that so-called epigenetic mechanisms can affect how animals respond to environmental change. Epigenetic mechanisms are heritable changes in gene expression that are not encoded in the DNA sequence. When epigenetic changes occur early in life, there can be long-term consequences for physiology and behavior. For example, increased DNA methylation (a form of epigenetic control) in the machinery that controls the receptor for stress hormone during development can impair an adult's physiological response to stress. Because coping with stress represents a central way in which both humans and non-humans respond to environment change, it will be important to determine if and how developmental stressors might negatively affect organisms throughout their lives. Using a long-term study of superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) in Kenya this project will (1) explore the developmental effects of environmental stressors on DNA methylation in the stress hormone receptor machinery, as well as in the entire genome, and subsequently (2) determine how DNA methylation during development affects adult stress physiology, reproductive behavior, and fitness using a long-term DNA collection, stress hormone samples, and experimental manipulations. This work will create new avenues of research using epigenetic tools in non-model organisms, where the lessons learned can be applied back to other model systems including humans. This study will train American and Kenyan students through field courses, workshops, and research projects in the field and lab. Researchers will also work closely with a grassroots conservation organization in Kenya to educate rural school children about conservation and wildlife of threatened organisms and ecosystems and about climate change.