Collaborative Research: Cognitive deficiency as a source of reproductive isolation between hybridizing species

合作研究：认知缺陷是杂交物种之间生殖隔离的根源

• 批准号: 1754898
• 负责人: Scott Taylor
• 金额: $ 31.85万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754898&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Cognitive; deficiency; source

When different species breed with each other, or hybridize, the two original species can lose their distinctiveness unless hybrids become disadvantaged and less fit than their parents. Most research into hybrid disadvantage has focused on hybrid sterility or embryonic developmental problems. However, reductions in cognitive abilities such as learning and memory could also cause disadvantages for hybrids. Learning and memory are important for many species, but whether deficits in hybrids' learning and memory can function in keeping species separate is unknown. This collaborative project will evaluate the possibility that learning and memory deficiencies maintain the species boundary between hybridizing chickadee species. This work will fill an important void in our understanding of the development and maintenance of species, a fundamental evolutionary process. It will inspire new avenues of research in evolution, behavior, and neuroscience. The research also has important implications for the conservation of biodiversity. With this project, the researchers will train postdoctoral and graduate students. Additionally, underrepresented undergraduate students will gain integrative training in research and science communication. Students involved in mentored research at each institution during the academic year will work on a different aspect of the project at one of the other involved institutions during the summer. As a part of the summer experience, the students will collaborate with the Bird Academy at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to develop a high-traffic online module on bird hybridization. They will therefore learn to employ diverse research approaches to address a common question, and to communicate science to the public. How learning and memory function in hybrids is relatively unexplored. These traits have been shaped by natural selection, but their role in the maintenance of species boundaries is unknown. The overall objective of the proposed research is to integrate behavior with neuroanatomy and genomics to evaluate the potential for hybrid deficiencies in cognitive ability to contribute to postzygotic reproductive isolation. Using naturally-hybridizing black-capped and Carolina chickadees, the proposed research will test the central hypothesis that selection acts against hybrids deficient in memory and learning, and that these deficiencies are reflected in neuroanatomic and genomic variation. This system is well suited for testing the role of cognition in postzygotic reproductive isolation because learning and memory are important for fitness in both species. Preliminary data suggest that hybrid chickadees have deficient memories and small hippocampal neurons, and that genes linked to learning and memory are involved in reproductive isolation. The research team will address the central hypothesis in an eastern Pennsylvania hybrid zone transect. With behavioral tests of learning and memory, comparative neuroanatomy, RNA sequencing, and whole-genome resequencing, the research will: 1) determine the relative learning and memory abilities of black-capped, Carolina, and hybrid chickadees; 2) quantify neuroanatomic differences between hybrid and parental-species chickadees; and 3) identify signatures of reproductive isolation and misexpression in genes underlying cognition. Through the completion and integration of these aims, this research will connect cognition with speciation in the first test of hybrid learning and memory deficiency as a postzygotic reproductive isolating barrier.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

当不同的物种相互繁殖或杂交时，两个原始物种可能会失去它们的独特性，除非杂交后代变得不利或不如它们的亲本。大多数关于杂交劣势的研究都集中在杂交不育或胚胎发育问题上。然而，学习和记忆等认知能力的下降也可能对混血儿造成不利影响。学习和记忆对许多物种来说都很重要，但混血儿的学习和记忆缺陷是否能起到保持物种分离的作用尚不清楚。这个合作项目将评估学习和记忆缺陷维持杂交山雀物种之间物种边界的可能性。这项工作将填补我们对物种发展和维持这一基本进化过程的理解上的一个重要空白。它将激发进化、行为和神经科学研究的新途径。该研究对生物多样性的保护也具有重要意义。通过这个项目，研究人员将培养博士后和研究生。此外，代表性不足的本科生将获得研究和科学传播方面的综合培训。在学年期间参与每个机构指导研究的学生将在夏季期间在其他参与机构之一从事项目的不同方面。作为暑期体验的一部分，学生们将与康奈尔鸟类学实验室的鸟类学院合作，开发一个关于鸟类杂交的高流量在线模块。因此，他们将学会采用不同的研究方法来解决一个共同的问题，并向公众传播科学。混血儿的学习和记忆功能是如何发挥作用的，目前还没有研究。这些特征是由自然选择形成的，但它们在维持物种界限方面的作用尚不清楚。拟议研究的总体目标是将行为与神经解剖学和基因组学相结合，以评估认知能力的杂交缺陷对合子后生殖隔离的影响。利用自然杂交的黑冠山雀和卡罗莱纳山雀，这项研究将检验一个中心假设，即选择对缺乏记忆和学习能力的混血儿起作用，这些缺陷反映在神经解剖学和基因组变异上。这个系统非常适合测试认知在合子后生殖隔离中的作用，因为学习和记忆对两个物种的适应性都很重要。初步数据表明，杂交山雀记忆力不足，海马神经元小，与学习和记忆有关的基因与生殖隔离有关。研究小组将在宾夕法尼亚州东部的一个杂交带样带中解决中心假设。通过学习和记忆行为测试、比较神经解剖学、RNA测序和全基因组重测序，研究将：1)确定黑冠山雀、卡罗莱纳山雀和杂交山雀的相对学习和记忆能力；2)量化杂交和亲本种山雀的神经解剖学差异；3)识别生殖隔离和认知基因错误表达的特征。通过这些目标的完成和整合，本研究将在混合学习和记忆缺陷作为合子后生殖隔离屏障的第一次测试中将认知与物种形成联系起来。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Geographically consistent hybridization dynamics between the Black-crested and Tufted titmouse with evidence of hybrid zone expansion

黑冠山雀和簇绒山雀之间地理上一致的杂交动态，并有杂交区域扩张的证据

• DOI: 10.1093/ornithology/ukad014
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Ornithology
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Semenov, Georgy A.;Curry, Claire M.;Patten, Michael A.;Weir, Jason T.;Taylor, Scott A.
• 通讯作者: Taylor, Scott A.

Quantitative Analyses of Coupling in Hybrid Zones

• DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a041434
• 发表时间: 2023-12-01
• 期刊: COLD SPRING HARBOR PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 7.2
• 作者: Firneno Jr，Thomas J.;Semenov，Georgy;Gompert，Zachariah
• 通讯作者: Gompert，Zachariah