NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Morphological Variation and Molecular Origination of Chiropteran Wing Membranes

2017 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：翼手目动物翼膜的形态变异和分子起源

• 批准号: 1707519
• 负责人: Daniel Urban
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Urban Daniel J
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1707519&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Research Using Biological Collections. The fellow, Daniel Urban, is conducting research and receiving training that utilizes biological collections in innovative ways, and is being mentored by two sponsoring scientists at two host institutions: Nancy Simmons (American Museum of Natural History) and Karen Sears (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). The project aims to understand the origination and diversification of novel traits, specifically bat wings. The wing membranes of bats are novel structures with no known associations to features in any other mammals. Additionally, the importance of the wing membranes cannot be overstated as they have allowed bats to diversify in an extraordinary manner - bats account for over 20% of all mammalian species. While conducting this research, the fellow is training and mentoring several undergraduates from groups traditionally underrepresented in science, while utilizing the wealth of knowledge in museum collections in innovative ways. Furthermore, the fellow is broadening public engagement by generating hands-on learning activities at the American Museum of Natural History, which have the potential to reach over 5 million children and adults annually. The fellow's research consists of three primary aims. Aim 1 characterizes varying wing forms among diverse bat species. This aim is being achieved by conducting wing shape analysis on adult specimens housed at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), which contains over 60,000 bats in its collection. In Aim 2 the fellow is identifying when during development the wing membranes begin to form, and from what tissue sources they originate. The fellow is also determining at what point differences in the wing forms begin to emerge among species. Aim 2 specimens are being acquired from a combination of AMNH fluid collections and newly captured bats (which will then be added to the AMNH collections). Finally, Aim 3 seeks to establish the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of the wing membranes, and how these mechanisms diverge among various species. This aim uses developing embryos to visualize cellular processes, gene expression, and protein localization. Identifying the mechanisms driving the origination and diversification of bat wing membranes will advance our understanding of bat development and evolution and, more generally, the developmental drivers of evolutionary innovations and adaptive radiations. In the process, the fellow is also generating outreach activities to assist in educating the public about the importance of bats and their amazing novel wing structures.

这是美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金，隶属于生物馆藏研究项目。该研究员丹尼尔·厄本（Daniel Urban）正在进行研究并接受培训，以创新的方式利用生物馆藏，他的导师是来自两个主办机构的两位赞助科学家：南希·西蒙斯（美国自然历史博物馆）和凯伦·西尔斯（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）。该项目旨在了解新特征的起源和多样化，特别是蝙蝠的翅膀。蝙蝠的翼膜是一种新的结构，与任何其他哺乳动物的特征都没有已知的联系。此外，翅膀膜的重要性不能被夸大，因为它们使蝙蝠以一种非凡的方式多样化——蝙蝠占所有哺乳动物物种的20%以上。在进行这项研究的同时，这位研究员正在培训和指导几名来自传统上在科学领域代表性不足的群体的本科生，同时以创新的方式利用博物馆收藏的丰富知识。此外，他还通过在美国自然历史博物馆开展动手学习活动来扩大公众参与，这些活动每年有可能惠及500多万儿童和成人。这位研究员的研究包括三个主要目标。目标1描述了不同蝙蝠物种的不同翅膀形式。这一目标是通过对美国自然历史博物馆（AMNH）收藏的成年标本进行翅膀形状分析来实现的，该博物馆收藏了6万多只蝙蝠。在第二项目标中，研究人员正在确定翅膀膜在发育过程中何时开始形成，以及它们来自什么组织来源。他还在研究不同物种之间翅膀形态的差异是从什么时候开始出现的。目标2标本正在从AMNH液体收集和新捕获的蝙蝠（然后将其添加到AMNH收集）中获取。最后，Aim 3试图建立负责翅膀膜发育的细胞和分子机制，以及这些机制在不同物种之间的差异。目的是利用发育中的胚胎可视化细胞过程、基因表达和蛋白质定位。确定驱动蝙蝠翼膜起源和多样化的机制将促进我们对蝙蝠发育和进化的理解，更广泛地说，进化创新和适应性辐射的发展驱动因素。在这个过程中，他还开展了一些外展活动，帮助公众了解蝙蝠的重要性和它们惊人的新奇翅膀结构。