RAPID: Using an extreme climatological event to inform the evolutionary systems biology of thermogenic performance in deer mice.

进化生理学和生态生理学的两个主要目标是了解生理表现的机制，并评估生理性状个体差异的生态后果。在这项研究中，PI将利用最近的极端寒冷天气事件，即2013-2014年冬季极地涡旋向南入侵，来扩展他正在进行的高海拔和低海拔鹿鼠种群（Peromyscus maniculatus）产热性能的机制基础研究。PI目前的研究工作（最近被NSF推荐资助- IOS 1354934）旨在应用系统生物学方法来开发和参数化适应性修改有氧产热能力的分层计算模型。在这项研究中，他将通过直接估计自然选择作用于影响整个生物体产热性能的各种特征的强度来补充这些机制见解。2013/2014年的严冬代表了一个极端的选择性事件，对鹿鼠等小型冬季活跃恒温动物的产热性能起作用。因此，研究人员有一个独特的机会来评估自然选择对影响野生生物体产热性能的性状的作用强度，并将选择强度的数据直接纳入他们对产热性能进化的综合分析。这项研究将为了解对严重气候事件的快速表型和进化反应的机制提供关键见解。尽管许多研究已经记录了表型变化对假设的选择事件的反应，但没有一个研究使用详细的机制见解来预测哪些表型性状可能是这种规模的自然选择的目标。PIs正在进行的产热性能机制分析将使他能够确定最有可能影响O2通量和整体产热能力的表型和调控变化，而本研究中提出的工作将使研究人员能够在性状的选择强度与其对途径通量的调控控制的定量分析之间建立直接联系。研究人员将使用表型性状手段的变化来正式估计影响缺氧条件下产热性能的各种从属性状和调节网络状态的选择差异。这些实验室和实地研究的结合将为理解复杂生理性状的适应性变异的综合进化系统生物学框架迈出重要的一步。

Two of the primary goals of evolutionary and ecological physiology are understand the mechanisms of physiological performance, and to assess the ecological consequences of individual variation in physiological traits. In this study, the PI will take advantage of a recent extreme cold weather event, the southward incursion of the polar vortex during the winter of 2013-2014, to extend his ongoing studies of the mechanistic underpinnings of thermogenic performance in high- and low-elevation populations of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). The PI's current research efforts (recently recommend for funding by NSF - IOS 1354934) are aimed at applying systems-biology approaches to develop and parameterize hierarchical computational models of the adaptive modification aerobic thermogenic capacity. In this study, he will complement these mechanistic insights with direct estimates of the strength of natural selection acting on various traits that influence whole-organism thermogenic performance. The brutal winter of 2013/2014 represents an extreme selective episode acting on thermogenic performance in small, winter-active endotherms like deer mice. As a result, the researchers have a unique opportunity to evaluate the strength of natural selection acting on traits that influence whole-organism thermogenic performance in the wild, and to directly incorporate data on selection intensities into their integrative analysis of the evolution of thermogenic performance. This study will provide key insights into the mechanisms underlying rapid phenotypic and evolutionary responses to severe climatic events.Although many studies have documented phenotypic changes in response to putative selective episodes, none have used detailed mechanistic insights to predict which phenotypic traits are likely to be the targets of natural selection on this scale. The PIs ongoing mechanistic analysis of thermogenic performance will allow him to identify phenotypic and regulatory changes that are most likely to influence O2 flux and overall thermogenic capacity, while the work proposed in this study will allow the researchers to make direct connections between the intensity of selection acting on a trait and quantitative analysis of its regulatory control over pathway flux. The researchers will use shifts in phenotypic trait means to formally estimate selection differentials acting various subordinate traits and regulatory network states that influence thermogenic performance under hypoxia. The combination of these lab and field studies will make important strides toward an integrated evolutionary systems biology framework for understanding adaptive variation in complex physiological traits.