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

进化和生态生理学的两个主要目标是了解生理表现的机制，并评估个体在生理特征上变异的生态后果。在这项研究中，PI将利用最近的极端寒冷天气事件，即2013-2014年冬季极地涡旋的南下入侵，来扩展他正在进行的关于高海拔和低海拔鹿鼠种群产热性能的机制基础的研究。PI目前的研究努力(最近被美国国家科学基金会-IOS 1354934建议资助)旨在应用系统生物学方法来开发和参数化自适应修饰好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对影响整个生物体产热性能的各种特征的作用强度来补充这些机械论的见解。2013/2014年的严冬代表着一段极端选择性的插曲，影响了鹿鼠等冬季活动的小型吸热动物的产热性能。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外整个生物体产热性能的性状的作用强度，并直接将选择强度的数据纳入他们对产热性能进化的综合分析中。这项研究将对严重气候事件的快速表型和进化反应的机制提供关键的见解。尽管许多研究记录了对假定的选择性事件的表型变化，但还没有人使用详细的机制洞察力来预测哪些表型性状可能成为这种规模的自然选择的目标。PI正在进行的生热性能的机制分析将使他能够识别最有可能影响O2通量和总体生热能力的表型和调控变化，而本研究中提议的工作将使研究人员能够在作用于某个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在低氧条件下影响产热性能的选择差异、作用于各种从属性状和调控网络状态。这些实验室和实地研究的结合将在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方面取得重要进展。

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.