Physiological and life history differences arising from variation in tracheal development and mitochondrial aging in an ecological model organism

这项研究继续了分子生态学的转变：发现和研究影响表型的遗传变异的能力，这些表型是生态模型系统中适合度差异的基础。本研究的结果将在个体、群体和（通过其他实验室的研究）元群体的水平上，将编码代谢酶的机械遗传变异与信号通路、发育、形态、生理和自然表现联系起来。研究结果为该生态模型系统提供了信息，也为更广泛地理解适应性权衡、通过平衡选择维持种群遗传变异和衰老提供了信息。昆虫模型系统将用于研究遗传变异和生理性状如何与景观特征和种群动态相互作用。通过确定缺氧诱导因子信号通路如何控制氧气输送网络（气管）和线粒体衰老的发展，也将获得新的生理学见解。本研究将通过实验研究编码中心代谢酶（琥珀酸脱氢酶；Sdh）基因的遗传变异如何影响生态环境下的生活史、气管网络发育差异和线粒体衰老。在果蝇模型系统中采用可用的Sdh突变体的补充实验将用于测试机制关系。核心论点是，气管发育的差异通过影响飞行代谢、呼吸失水、栖息地夏季干燥的存活率和飞行肌线粒体的老化速度来影响适应性权衡。PI和他的学生已经帮助美国、欧洲和澳大利亚的实验室进行了他们的第一次转录组研究。PI和他的团队现在正在扩大这一努力，与100多所本科院校合作，帮助他们加强功能基因组学的本科教学和教师培训。该项目的工作人员将与由附近的朱尼亚塔学院领导的主动教学下一代测序组基因组联盟（GCAT-SEEK）合作，直接指导本科生，并通过研讨会培训所有成员机构中感兴趣的教师。这些研讨会是为本科生教育工作者和对下一代技术和生物信息学不熟悉的学生量身定制的。讲习班培训将通过评估协助实验设计的各个阶段，并为参与者提供易于融入课堂的主动学习模块。PI还大力参与学生培训（包括一些代表性不足的少数民族和妇女学生），并与公众传播科学。

This study continues a transformation in molecular ecology: the ability to find and study genetic variation affecting phenotypes that are the basis for fitness differences in ecological model systems. Results from this study will connect mechanistically genetic variation encoding a metabolic enzyme to a signaling pathway, development, morphology, physiology and performance in nature, at the level of individuals, populations and (via the research in other labs) a metapopulation. The results are informative for this ecological model system and for a broader understanding of fitness tradeoffs, maintenance of genetic variation in populations by balancing selection, and aging. An insect model system will be used to examine how genetic variation and physiological traits interact with landscape features and population dynamics. New physiological insight will also be obtained via determination of how the hypoxia inducible factor signaling pathway controls both the development of the oxygen delivery network (tracheae) and mitochondrial aging. This research will examine experimentally how genetic variation in a gene encoding a central metabolic enzyme (succinate dehydrogenase; Sdh) affects life history, differences in tracheal network development and mitochondrial aging in an ecological context. Complementary experiments employing available Sdh mutants in the model system Drosophila will be used to test mechanistic relationships. The central thesis is that differences in tracheal development affect fitness tradeoffs via effects on flight metabolism, respiratory water loss, survival of summer drying of the habitat, and the rate of aging of flight muscle mitochondria.The PI and his students have helped labs in the U.S., Europe and Australia perform their first transcriptome studies. The PI and his team are now scaling up this effort by working with a consortium of more than 100 undergraduate institutions to help them enhance undergraduate teaching and faculty training in functional genomics. The personnel of this project will work with the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching NextGen Sequencing Group (GCAT-SEEK), headed by nearby Juniata College, to instruct undergraduates directly and, via workshops, train interested faculty across the entire array of member institutions. These workshops are tailored for undergraduate educators and students who are novices with respect to NextGen technology and bioinformatics. The workshop training will assist in all stages of experimental design through assessment, and provide participants with active learning modules that are easy to integrate into classes. The PI is also involved heavily in student training (including a number of students who are under-represented minorities and women), and communicating science with the general public.