OPUS: Geographical gradients and contemporary end points of organic evolution

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OPUS awards fund previously supported NSF scientists to re-evaluate several years of projects and synthesize them into a product to stimulate the research community. This project will synthesize the PIs' forty years of experimental studies on the evolutionary ecology of the pitcher plant mosquito, a model system for understanding climate-driven evolution of a disease vector. This work will include the first evidence that the effects of recent rapid climate change have penetrated to the level of the gene. These data explain not only ongoing changes observed in the timing of seasonal events in the surrounding world, but also help direct new research into shifting patterns of host/vector interactions of some of Earth's most debilitating diseases: malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. The synthesis will focus on how the physiological capacity of mosquitos to function within a given environment determines whether or not they can transmit disease. This laboratories' work has had a major impact on research examining geographic variation and local adaptation and this synthesis ls likely to expand that influence. The themes of the book will demonstrate how knowing a specific organism well is key to developing the backbone for discovery and transformational research as new challenges emerge over time. The combined results from biogeography, seasonal timing, physiology, population biology, evolutionary genetics, and genomics will be woven into each chapter, punctuated by an on-line video describing pattern and process in both natural field and controlled laboratory environments. This project will provide a unique perspective on this approach to science that will serve as inspiration and education for graduate students and early-career researchers.