CAREER: The energetic costs of active sensory and communication signals: Integrating research and education through organismal, cellular, and molecular approaches

职业：主动感觉和通信信号的能量消耗：通过有机体、细胞和分子方法整合研究和教育

• 批准号: 1350753
• 负责人: Michael Markham
• 金额: $ 71.68万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1350753&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; energetic; costs; active; sensory

Animals sense the environment using a combination of active and passive sensory systems in order to detect and respond to external stimuli. Passive sensory systems such as vision require little energy input from the animal because the carrier signal (light) comes from the sun. Active sensory and communication systems such as echolocation in bats are advantageous because they do not require external energy sources, but these animals must expend energy to produce the acoustic carrier signal. Managing these energetic demands and responding to energy shortfalls is essential for their survival and reproductive fitness. Running out of energy to generate the signal renders the sensory system "blind" and makes it impossible to find food, respond to threats from competitors, or attract mates. The energetic demands of sensing and communicating are extreme in some species of electric fish - animals that generate and sense electric fields in the surrounding water to image their worlds and communicate in darkness. This project aims to elucidate the organizing principles that allow animals to manage and exploit energetically expensive sensory and communication channels. The investigator will adapt knowledge, software, and technical approaches developed from this project's research activities to improve science literacy and education regionally, nationally, and internationally. This project will test the hypothesis that energetic demands are a major force shaping the operation and regulation of active sensing at the organismal, cellular, and molecular levels using the weakly electric fish, Eingenmannia viriscens, as a model system. The research plan will study the electric organ discharge produced by the synchronized action potentials of specialized electric organ cells called electrocytes to (1) discover how hormones regulate electric signal intensity under normal conditions and in response to metabolic stress, (2) discover how the cells that generate the electric signal increase their energy efficiency and respond to energy shortfalls, and (3) identify molecular adaptations in the electric organ cells' ion channels and ion pumps that optimize energy utilization. This project will integrate research and education through investigating the mechanisms that allow animals to use metabolically demanding sensory and communication signals. This project's educational component will achieve four educational goals that extend the investigator's track record of integrating research and teaching: (1) expanding and improving the investigator's outreach program, "The Electric Fish Roadshow", that promotes scientific literacy in settings ranging from grade-school classrooms to retirement communities [www.markhamlab.com/outreach.html]. (2) extending the scope and distribution of grade-school and middle-school lesson plans regionally and nationally, as well as international deployment of educational software for high-school and college neurobiology classes [www.EOTNprogram.org], (3) transforming the way student scientist-educators are trained in the investigator's laboratory and, (4) developing an undergraduate laboratory class in the investigator's department that involves students directly in high-level research activities related to the project's research goals.

动物使用主动和被动感觉系统的组合来感知环境，以检测和响应外部刺激。被动的感觉系统，如视觉，只需要动物输入很少的能量，因为载波信号（光）来自太阳。主动感觉和通信系统，如蝙蝠中的回声定位，是有利的，因为它们不需要外部能源，但这些动物必须消耗能量来产生声学载波信号。管理这些能量需求并应对能量短缺对它们的生存和生殖健康至关重要。耗尽产生信号的能量会使感觉系统“失明”，使其无法找到食物，对竞争对手的威胁做出反应或吸引配偶。 感应和交流的能量需求在某些种类的电鱼中是极端的-这些动物在周围的水中产生和感应电场，以成像他们的世界并在黑暗中交流。 该项目旨在阐明动物管理和利用昂贵的感官和沟通渠道的组织原则。研究人员将调整从该项目的研究活动中开发的知识，软件和技术方法，以提高区域，国家和国际的科学素养和教育。 该项目将测试的假设，充满活力的需求是一个主要的力量塑造的操作和调节的主动传感在有机体，细胞和分子水平使用弱电鱼，Eingenmannia viriscens，作为一个模型系统。 该研究计划将研究由称为电细胞的专门电器官细胞的同步动作电位产生的电器官放电，以（1）发现激素如何在正常条件下调节电信号强度并应对代谢应激，（2）发现产生电信号的细胞如何提高其能量效率并应对能量不足，以及（3）识别电器官细胞的离子通道和离子泵中优化能量利用的分子适应。该项目将通过调查允许动物使用代谢要求的感觉和通信信号的机制来整合研究和教育。该项目的教育部分将实现四个教育目标，以扩大研究者在整合研究和教学方面的记录：（1）扩大和改善研究者的推广计划，“电鱼路演”，促进从小学教室到退休社区的科学素养[www.markhamlab.com/outreach.html]。 (2)在区域和国家范围内扩大小学和中学课程计划的范围和分布，以及在国际上部署高中和大学神经生物学课程的教育软件[www.EOTNprogram.org]，（3）改变学生科学家教育工作者在研究者实验室接受培训的方式，（4）在研究者部门开发本科实验室课程，让学生直接参与与项目研究目标相关的高水平研究活动。