Physiological Genomics of Seasonal Plasticity

发育可塑性是生物体根据环境条件改变身体和/或行为特征的能力。可塑性是大多数生物使用的一种基本能力，因为它允许个体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和成人中可塑性的许多机制有了很好的了解，但潜在的遗传机制却知之甚少。更不清楚的是，这些可塑性反应过程是如何在几代人的遗传过程中适应的。这个项目将通过利用七叶蝶实验系统的优势来填补我们知识上的空白：自然的，可遗传的可塑性地理变异加上实验室操作。该项目的目标是确定基因表达在固定（非可塑性）性状与季节性可塑性性状之间的变化，并确定在不同种群中负责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起来，形成季节性可塑性综合画像的首次努力之一。这笔资金还将用于培养本科生和研究生，并帮助开发昆虫基因组学方面的资源。本项目旨在研究七叶蝶（Junonia coenia）反应规范变异的遗传基础。季节性翅膀颜色可塑性的地理差异，加上通过人工选择操纵反应规范的能力，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来解决关于可塑性遗传基础的长期问题，包括：(1)可塑性区域差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)在不同的局部适应人群中，哪些可塑性相关的基因组区域已经被选择？

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?