DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The role of volatile organic compounds in antagonistic selection in the moss Ceratodon purpureus

本研究将探讨自然选择对雄性和雌性的差异如何影响苔藓（Ceratodon purpureus）气味差异的遗传基础。在许多植物和动物中，雄性和雌性在形态和生理上表现出许多差异。这些差异被认为是因为对一种性别有益的品质可能对另一种性别有害。虽然男性和女性之间的身体差异非常明显，但我们对产生这些差异的遗传机制及其许多好处的了解很少。在角齿藓中，雌性苔藓产生气味来吸引携带雄性植物精子的小昆虫，促进繁殖，而雄性植物很少产生这种气味。这项研究将测试这样一种观点，即男性产生这些气味的代价很高，而且产生气味的基因存在，但在男性中被关闭。此外，该项目将涉及指导本科生和高中生，包括来自科学界代表性不足的群体的个人。该项目将使用定量遗传学和转录组学实验来了解塑造性二态气味特征的进化力量。香味是由挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的混合物组成的。在一个家系人口的VOC生产措施提供了一个估计的加性遗传方差和协方差的VOC生产在男性和女性。竞争性交配试验将被用来评估的健身结果的变化在VOC生产的男性和女性，无论是在存在和不存在的精子分散节肢动物。在高和低VOC产生的男性和女性中进行的RNAseq分析将与现有的生物化学途径数据库结合使用，以识别与VOC产生相关的转录本。转录组学的工作将为研究全基因组遗传冲突的解决奠定基础。

This project will investigate how differences in natural selection on males and females effects the genetic basis of scent differences in the moss, Ceratodon purpureus. In many plants and animals, males and females exhibit many differences in form and physiology. These differences are thought to arise because qualities that are beneficial in one sex may be deleterious in the opposite sex. Although physical differences between males and females are very conspicuous, we have a poor understanding of the genetic mechanisms that generate these differences, and many of their benefits. In Ceratodon, female mosses produce scents to attract small insects that carry sperm from male plants, promoting reproduction, while male plants make few such scents. This research will test the idea that the production of these scents is costly in males, and that the genes for scent production are present but turned off in males. In addition, the project will involve mentoring both undergraduate and high school students, including individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences.The project will use quantitative genetics and transcriptomic experiments to understand the evolutionary forces shaping sexually dimorphic scent profiles. Scents are comprised of a cocktail of volatile organic compunds (VOC). Measures of VOC production in a pedigreed population is providing an estimate of the additive genetic variance and covariance for VOC production in males and females. Competitive mating trials will be used to evaluate the fitness consequences of variation in VOC production in males and females, both in the presence and absence of sperm-dispersing arthropods. RNAseq analyses in high and low VOC producing males and females will be used in conjunction with existing biochemical pathway databases to identify transcripts linked to VOC production. The transcriptomic work will lay the foundation for studying the resolution of genome-wide genetic conflict.