Physiological Genomics of Seasonal Plasticity

发育可塑性是有机体对环境条件作出反应而改变身体和/或行为特征的能力。可塑性能力是大多数生物体使用的一种基本能力，因为它允许个人对环境变化做出反应。虽然几十年的实验工作已经使人们对胚胎发育期间和成人体内可塑性的许多机制有了很好的理解，但潜在的遗传机制却不太清楚。更鲜为人知的是，这些塑料反应过程是如何在多代人中遗传适应的。这个项目将开始利用七叶树蝴蝶实验系统的优势来填补我们知识的这一空白：自然的、可遗传的可塑性地理变异加上实验室操作。该项目的目标是定义固定(非塑料)性状与季节性塑料性状的基因表达如何变化，并确定导致不同群体可塑性自然变化的基因。这项研究将是将所有这些机制结合在一起，以产生季节性可塑性的综合肖像的最早努力之一。这笔资金还将用于本科生和研究生的培训，并帮助开发昆虫基因组学资源。该项目的目的是研究七叶树蝴蝶Junonia coenia反应规范变异的遗传基础。季节翅膀颜色可塑性的地理差异，加上通过人工选择操纵反应标准的能力，使这种蝴蝶成为研究环境反应遗传基础的有用模型。Reed将整合生理、发育和遗传作图方法，以解决长期存在的关于可塑性遗传基础的问题，包括：(1)可塑性区域变异的生理和转录基础是什么？(2)可塑性自然变异的遗传基础是什么？(3)在不同的本地适应群体中选择了哪些与可塑性相关的基因组区域？

Developmental plasticity is the ability of an organism to alter physical and/or behavioral traits in response to environmental conditions. The capacity for plasticity is a fundamental ability that most organisms use, as it allows for individuals to respond to environmental variation. While decades of experimental work have led to a well-developed understanding of many the mechanisms underlying plasticity during embryonic development and in the adult, the underlying genetic mechanisms are less well understood. Even more poorly understood is how these plastic response processes adapt genetically over multiple generations. This project will begin to fill this gap in our knowledge by leveraging the advantages of the buckeye butterfly experimental system: natural, heritable geographic variation in plasticity coupled with a laboratory manipulation. The goals of this project are to define how gene expression changes for traits that are fixed (not plastic) versus seasonally plastic traits, and to identify genes responsible for natural variation of plasticity in different populations. This study would represent one of the first efforts to combine all these mechanisms to produce an integrated portrait of seasonal plasticity. This funding will also contribute to the training of undergraduate and graduate students and help develop resources in insect genomics.The aim of this project is to study the genetic basis of reaction norm variation in the buckeye butterfly Junonia coenia. Geographic variation in seasonal wing color plasticity, coupled with the ability to manipulate reaction norms via artificial selection, makes this butterfly a useful model to study the genetic basis of environmental response. Reed will integrate across physiological, developmental, and genetic mapping approaches to address long-standing questions regarding the genetic basis of plasticity including: (1) What is the physiological and transcriptional basis of regional variation in plasticity? (2) What is the genetic basis of natural variation in plasticity? (3) What plasticity-associated genomic regions have been under selection in different locally adapted populations?