NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Investigating drivers of ecological speciation in a symbiotically luminous coral reef fish

2017 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：调查共生发光珊瑚鱼生态物种形成的驱动因素

• 批准号: 1711430
• 负责人: Alison Gould
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Gould Alison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1711430&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2017, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. In doing so, the proposed research will highlight the importance of natural history collections in broadening our understanding of how biodiversity arises relative to ecological variables such as habitat and to symbiotic associations with microbes, upon which all animals depend. Specifically, this study investigates the role of habitat use and a symbiosis with luminous bacteria on the diversification of a group of bioluminescent coral reef fish. The methods that will be developed to extract both host and symbiont DNA from museum specimens will establish new opportunities to understand the way in which host animals and their bacterial symbionts change over time relative to each other and to their environments. Such information is especially valuable at this critical time when rapidly changing environments threaten to de-couple essential symbiotic associations. The historical patterns of species' dependencies on particular habitats and their abilities to adapt to new conditions, along with their symbionts, can be used to predict their future responses to impending environmental changes.This project examines the symbiotically luminous genus of coral reef fish Siphamia (Perciformes: Apogonidae) as a model with which to investigate both habitat use and its symbiosis with luminous bacteria as drivers of speciation in the host. By applying next generation sequencing methods to archived museum specimens, the specific research objectives are (i) to infer the phylogenetic relationships among Siphamia fishes, (ii) to compare the defined divergence patterns in Siphamia relative to species-habitat use and biogeographic distributions, (iii) to identify the luminous symbionts of various Siphamia hosts species, and (iv) to compare symbiont genotypes and phylogenic relationships with both host divergence patterns and environmental characteristics such as depth and temperature. To carry out these objectives, the fellow will extract DNA from the tissue of all 23 described Siphamia species archived in museum collections from sites representative of their geographic ranges and will apply restriction site associated sequencing (RAD-Seq) methods to resolve the phylogeny of the host fish. The fellow will also extract the DNA of the luminous symbionts from Siphamia light organs, including those from modern specimens collected during this project, and will sequence genes known to vary between luminous bacteria in the Vibrionaceae family to infer a phylogeny of the light organ symbionts. The divergence patterns in the host fish will then be compared to their habitat use, distributions, and patterns of symbiont diversification to test for signatures of ecological speciation driven by these factors, revealing the underlying ecological processes that might have shaped the diversification of this coral reef fish and its bioluminescent symbiosis. This research will be based at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will foster public engagement on the underlying themes of microbial symbioses and of species-adaptive responses to their environment through outreach programs and exhibits designed to highlight the importance of biodiversity in coral reef ecosystems and its current threats. Other important aspects of this project include the incorporation of new specimens in the ichthyology, microbiology, and frozen DNA collections at CAS for use in future research as well as the training of undergraduate students on the applied molecular methods.

该行动为使用生物学收集的研究基金为2017财年的生物学生物学奖学金提供了资金。奖学金支持将以创新的方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。在这样做的过程中，拟议的研究将强调自然历史收集在扩大我们对生物多样性如何相对于生态变量（例如栖息地）和与微生物的共生关联的重要性，所有动物都依赖于这些变量。具体而言，这项研究调查了栖息地使用的作用和发光细菌的共生对一组生物发光珊瑚礁鱼类多样化的作用。从博物馆标本中提取寄主和共生型DNA的方法将开发出来的方法，将建立新的机会，以了解宿主动物及其细菌共生体的方式随着时间的流逝而相对于彼此以及他们的环境而变化。在这个关键时刻，迅速变化的环境威胁要解散基本共生关联时，此类信息尤其有价值。物种对特定栖息地的依赖的历史模式及其适应新条件的能力以及它们的共生体，可用于预测其未来对即将发生的环境变化的反应。该项目研究了珊瑚礁鱼siphamia的共生性属性（Perciformes：Apogonidae：apogonidae）作为模型，并将其作为习惯性使用，并将其作为模型来研究。 主持人。通过将下一代测序方法应用于归档的博物馆标本，具体的研究目标是（i）推断siphamia鱼类之间的系统发育关系，（ii）比较相对于物种狂暴的使用和生物地理学分布的siphamia中所定义的差异模式，以确定各种symii symbiiy symbiiy symts and sipsts and Symtss and Symts and Symts，并（与宿主差异模式和环境特征（例如深度和温度）的基因型和系统发育关系。为了实现这些目标，该研究员将从所有23种描述的siphamia物种的组织中提取DNA，这些siphamia物种从代表其地理范围的地点存档在博物馆集合中，并将采用限制性位点相关的测序（RAD-SEQ）方法来解决宿主鱼的系统发育。该研究员还将从siphamia轻器官中提取发光共生体的DNA，包括该项目期间收集的现代标本的DNA，并将序列基因在振动曲科家族中已知的发光细菌之间变化，以推断出光构成的系统发育。然后将将宿主鱼类中的差异模式与它们的栖息地使用，分布和共生型多样化的模式进行比较，以测试由这些因素驱动的生态物种形成的签名，从而揭示了可能影响这种珊瑚礁鱼类及其生物发光共生式的潜在生态过程。这项研究将基于加利福尼亚科学院（CAS），并通过外展计划和展览旨在强调生物多样性在珊瑚礁生态系统及其当前威胁中的重要性，从而促进公众参与微生物共生主题和对环境的物种适应性反应。该项目的其他重要方面包括将新标本纳入CAS的鱼类学，微生物学和冷冻DNA收集，以便在未来的研究中使用，以及在应用分子方法中培训本科生。