RII Track-4: A role for epigenetic modifications driving seasonal patterns of reproduction?

非技术性描述温带和北极地区全年的环境条件变化很大。 为了使动物能够在这些环境中成功地养育后代，繁殖必须限制在确保有利条件的短时间窗口内（即，温和的温度和丰富的食物资源）。虽然先前的研究已经揭示了雄性动物如何为交配做准备，但关于雌性动物如何精确地确定繁殖时间（以及后代出生或孵化的时间）的了解要少得多，尽管雌性动物的时间最终决定了何时养育后代。一个人表达的特征（即，表型）是由动物的遗传和环境之间的相互作用形成的。该项目将促成在哥伦比亚大学的培训和技术和技能的知识转让，旨在揭示能够对环境作出反应和调节关键基因表达以影响女性生殖时间决定的遗传过程。这种培训和知识转移将提高PI实验室的研究能力，并促进PI在北达科他州州立大学和其他地方的家庭机构内的未来合作。这些知识不仅有助于建立健全的基础知识，而且有可能加强动物畜牧业育种计划（例如，技术说明生物体的表型是其基因组与环境相互作用的结果。理解影响个体进化适应性（即终生生殖成功）的过程需要研究形成个体表型的分子结构。环境可以影响哪些基因被表达（这引起表型）的一个主要方式是通过表观遗传修饰。一个个体生产和成功抚养后代的能力直接决定了一个个体？的进化适应性。生活在温带或北极圈的动物，繁殖必须限制在一个短的时间窗口内，以确保养育后代的有利条件。调节蛋黄前体蛋白产生的DNA的季节性表观遗传修饰可以实现适当的年度响应，当在一年中不适当的时间经历有利条件时抑制蛋黄前体的产生（例如，冬季温暖期后期），同时当在适当的季节经历有利的条件时能够产生蛋黄前体。利用季节性繁殖的鸣禽模型，黑眼Junco（Junco hyemalis），这项建议将测试新的假设，即在一个重要的基因的调控区的DNA甲基化所需的蛋黄和最后的卵泡成熟是季节性调制。该项目将提供培训和知识转让的技能和工具，用于发现表观遗传修饰，可能会影响个人的表型和健身。在哥伦比亚大学接受的检测基因组甲基化方法的培训将使我们的研究小组能够验证这样一个假设，即季节信息影响基因启动子区域的表观遗传调节，该基因编码一种关键的蛋黄前体蛋白，卵黄蛋白原（VTG）。

Non-technical DescriptionTemperate and arctic regions experience dramatic variations in environmental conditions across the year. For animals to be able to successfully rear offspring in these environments, reproduction must be limited to a short window of time that ensures favorable conditions (i.e., mild temperatures and abundant food resources). While prior research has revealed how male animals prepare for mating, much less is known regarding how females precisely time reproduction (and thus, the time when offspring are born or hatch), even though it is female timing that ultimately dictates when rearing of offspring will occur. Traits expressed by an individual (i.e., phenotype) are shaped by interactions between an animal's genetics and the environment. This project will enable training at Columbia University and knowledge transfer of techniques and skills aimed at uncovering the genetic processes that are capable of responding to the environment and regulating expression of key genes to influence female reproductive timing decisions. This training and knowledge transfer will enhance the research capabilities of the PI's laboratory and facilitate future collaborations within the PI's home institution of North Dakota State University and beyond. Such knowledge will not only contribute to robust basic knowledge, but also has the potential to enhance animal livestock breeding programs (e.g., sheep, which are seasonal breeders) to enhance economic productivity.Technical DescriptionAn organism's phenotype is the result of interactions between its genome and the environment. Understanding the processes that influence an individual's evolutionary fitness (i.e. lifetime reproductive success) requires investigations of the molecular architecture that shape an individual's phenotype. One primary way whereby the environment can influence which genes are expressed (which gives rise to the phenotype) is via epigenetic modification. The ability of an individual to produce and successfully rear young directly dictates an individual?s evolutionary fitness. In animals inhabiting temperate or arctic clines, reproduction must be limited to a short window of time that ensures favorable conditions for rearing offspring. Seasonal epigenetic modification of the DNA regulating production of yolk-precursor proteins may enable appropriate annual responses, inhibiting production of yolk precursors when favorable conditions are experienced at inappropriate times of year (e.g., the late winter warm period) while enabling yolk precursor production when favorable conditions are experienced in the appropriate season. Utilizing a songbird model of seasonal breeding, the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), this proposal will test the novel hypothesis that methylation of DNA in the regulatory region of an important gene needed for yolking and final follicle maturation is seasonally modulated. This project will provide training and transfer of knowledge of the skills and tools utilized to uncover epigenetic modifications that may influence an individual's phenotype and fitness. The training received at Columbia University for methods of detecting methylation in the genome will allow our group to test the hypothesis that seasonal information influences epigenetic modulation of the promoter region of a gene the codes for a key yolk pre-cursor protein, vitellogenin (VTG).