NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

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Postdoctoral Fellow: Dr. Shane Cornell Campbell-StatonProposal Number: 1612283This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton is "Exploring the genetic basis of high altitude adaptation in deer mice." The host institutions for this fellowship are the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and the University of Montana, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Julian Catchen (UI) and Zachary Cheviron (UM). The Fellow's research addresses a major goal of evolutionary biology, to identify the genes that allow organisms to adapt to their environment and understand how these genes function to accomplish this feat. In this project, the Fellow is using the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, as a model species for studying adaptation to high altitude. Identifying the genetic basis of complex traits has proven challenging, partly because complex traits are often the result of interactions of many physiological and molecular pathways. Studying the genetic basis of physiological adaptation to high altitude offers unique advantages for disentangling the complex genetic interactions that produce adaptation because the specific steps involved in oxygen transport and use have been described. Deer mice are an excellent model species because they are distributed from sea level to above 4300 meters elevation in western North America. They display a suite of physiological adaptations of the heart, lungs, blood and skeletal muscle that work together, allowing high elevation populations to survive the cold temperatures and low oxygen levels characteristic of their environments, by transporting and using greater amounts of oxygen than their lowland counterparts. The Fellow is interbreeding highland and lowland deer mice populations and conducting a series of experiments to (1) identify the genes that contribute to differences in oxygen use; (2) partition those genes into the different steps that contribute to overall oxygen use (respiration, oxygen transport and metabolism in the muscle) and (3) identify the mechanisms by which those genes influence total oxygen use. This research will provide valuable insights into the genetic basis complex traits and serve as a model of animal adaptation to high elevation.This Fellow is helping to broaden the participation of groups under-represented in biology in several ways. The Fellow is a member of an under-represented community and is mentoring and training future scientists from underrepresented backgrounds, and is teaching and disseminating research findings to students and the general public. The tremendous diversity of expertise among collaborators at the University of Illinois and the University of Montana provides a rich intellectual community for idea sharing that strengthens the outcomes of this project and advances the Fellow?s development as a scientist. Learning the analytical tools needed to complete the major goals of this proposal will allow the Fellow to develop an interdisciplinary approach to evolutionary biology. Through this fellowship, the Fellow is recruiting students from underrepresented groups through established channels at both host universities, and mentoring these student researchers. Additionally, he is expanding his experience in outreach programs geared towards recruitment of students from under-represented backgrounds at national and university levels. All of these activities are enhancing and expanding the Fellow?s ?toolbox? of analytical, managerial and mentoring skills, which will position him to become an emerging leader in the study of climate-mediated evolution, and to continue developing programs that will broaden participation of minorities in the sciences.