Understanding Growth and Developmental Responses of Ectotherms to Fluctuating Environments: Beyond Performance Curves

了解生物体如何应对和适应波动的环境是生物学家面临的一个重大挑战。生物体对当前环境条件的反应可能取决于它过去经历的条件，由于压力（负面影响）或适应（正面影响）。 生物学家目前缺乏一个框架来理解和量化这些影响：该项目的目标是开发和测试这样一个框架，使用模型系统的生长反应，烟草Hornworm（Manduca sexta），可变温度。该研究整合了生理实验，基因组学分析和数学模型，以预测压力和适应对生长，发育和生存的影响，并测试这些预测对不可预测的温度条件的影响。这个新的框架将允许定量了解烟草角虫和其他农业害虫对天气变化的反应;一般框架应该适用于大多数其他“冷血”动物。 该项目为本科生和研究生提供研究培训和经验，并开发了一个新的公民科学计划，用于监测北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特地区的蝴蝶和飞蛾。在单一的生命周期中，陆地外温动物经常经历温度和其他环境因素的广泛变化。个体的表现可以随温度而变化，表示为热性能曲线（TPC），并且TPC是许多预测生物体对波动温度的反应的模型的基础。然而，许多外温动物表现出时间依赖性的影响，包括应激反应和适应，其中先前温度暴露的持续时间和顺序影响生物体的性能;这些影响在标准TPC方法中被忽略。这里提出的研究开发和测试一个新的框架，将时间依赖性的影响模型的外温动物的性能，使用的生长速度的天蛾幼虫在波动的温度作为一个模型系统。拟议的研究整合生理实验，功能基因组和蛋白质分析，数学模型开发和参数化的系统建模框架的压力和驯化反应，并测试预测从这个模型在响应昼夜温度波动的随机变化。该研究将为理解和预测温度和气候变化对外温动物生长和适合度的影响提供一个新的概念和模型框架。该项目为本科生和研究生提供研究培训和经验，并制定了一项新的公民科学计划，用于监测北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特地区的蝴蝶和飞蛾。

Understanding how organisms respond and adapt to fluctuating environments is a major challenge for biologists. The responses of an organism to current environmental conditions can depend on conditions it experienced in the past, due to either stress (negative effects) or acclimation (positive effects). Biologists currently lack a framework for understanding and quantifying those effects: the goal of this project is to develop and test such a framework, using the growth responses of a model system, the Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta), to variable temperatures. The research integrates physiological experiments, genomics analyses and mathematical models to predict the consequences of stress and acclimation on growth, development and survival, and to test these predictions for unpredictable temperature conditions. This new framework will allow a quantitative understanding of responses of Tobacco Hornworms and other agricultural pests to variability in weather; the general framework should be applicable to most other 'cold-blooded' animals. The project provides research training and experience for undergraduate and graduate students, and develops a new citizen science program for monitoring butterflies and moths in the piedmont region of North Carolina.During the course of a single lifespan, terrestrial ectotherms often experience wide variation in temperature and other environmental factors. An individual's performance can vary with temperature, represented as a thermal performance curve (TPC), and TPCs are the basis for many models predicting organismal responses to fluctuating temperatures. However, many ectotherms exhibit time-dependent effects, including stress responses and acclimation, where the duration and order of prior temperature exposure affect organismal performance; these effects are ignored in the standard TPC approach. The studies proposed here develop and test a new framework for incorporating time-dependent effects into models of ectotherm performance, using growth rate of Manduca sexta larvae in fluctuating temperatures as a model system. The proposed studies integrate physiological experiments, functional genomic and protein analyses, and mathematical models to develop and parameterize a systems modeling framework for stress and acclimation responses, and test predictions from this model in response to stochastic variation in diurnal temperature fluctuations. The proposed research will provide the bases for a new conceptual and modeling framework for understanding and predicting the effects of variation in temperature and climate on growth and fitness of ectotherms. The project provides research training and experience for undergraduate and graduate students, and develops a new citizen science program for monitoring butterflies and moths in the piedmont region of North Carolina.