Collaborative Research: Expression and dynamics of reproductive tactics in a wild population of smallmouth bass

在许多动物中，繁殖的雄性动物分为不同的类别，这些类别中的雄性动物看起来可能彼此截然不同。大马哈鱼种群中的虎鼻和杰克雄鱼就是众所周知的例子，虎鼻雄鱼体型大且好斗，而杰克雄鱼体型小且不显眼。这些雄性表现出所谓的另类繁殖策略。另一种生殖策略通常不是遗传的。它们可能取决于雄性在发育过程中所经历的环境条件。父母的行为有时决定了雄性采取的策略，父母的行为甚至会导致它们的后代表达与父母相反的策略。一般来说，其他的繁殖策略还没有被很好地理解，因为很难跟踪动物的多代，并确定个体在成年之前的发育条件。项目研究人员将从先前收集的长达十年的数据集中确定小嘴鲈鱼（一种经济上重要的运动鱼）替代策略表达的原因，该数据集跟踪了多代雄性，并记录了个体生殖行为的详细信息。亲子关系分析将确定父亲、儿子和孙子，发育条件和个人成长将从环境数据和尺度来确定，如树木年轮，记录生长历史。来自STEM中代表性不足群体的本科生和研究生将接受遗传学、基因组学、生物信息学和渔业技术方面的培训。结果将通过公开的动画录像分享，并分发给资源管理人员和其他人，以显示出售捕鱼许可证的地点。认识到许多，也许是大多数，可选择的生殖策略，或ARTs，取决于个体条件，引发了对群体内策略表达的近似控制和策略频率的最终控制的普遍兴趣。抗逆转录病毒如何在一个种群中共存是一个进化难题，目前只得到部分解决。ARTs被假设是由个体之间的遗传差异造成的，通过频率依赖的选择来平衡，但似乎更普遍地取决于个体所经历的发育条件。art适合于更广泛的投资策略类别，其中包括生活史决策，并且是考虑到个人条件或地位的生殖竞争的进化解决方案，是一种投资策略的产物，这种投资策略取决于个人发展的社会和环境状况。在某些情况下，抗逆转录病毒受非遗传亲本效应控制，这可能影响抗逆转录病毒的动态，促进或阻碍适应性进化过程。项目研究人员将详细介绍小嘴鲈鱼（Micropterus dolomieu）种群中的art，其中假设非遗传亲代效应导致谱系内跨代的策略交替。为了详细描述亲本和后代的策略选择，并测试策略多态性的遗传基础，将使用保存组织样本的RADSeq在基因组中产生数千个snp，并应用父权分析来追踪240-381个谱系中1-5代的男性策略选择。将根据现场数据和规模样本确定发展条件和生长历史，以确定对战术表达施加近似控制的环境因素。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。

In many animals, reproducing males fall into distinct categories and the males in these categories can look quite different from one another. The hooknose and jack males in salmon populations are well-known examples, where hooknose males are big and aggressive while jacks are small and inconspicuous. These males exhibit what are called alternative reproductive tactics. Alternative reproductive tactics are typically not genetically inherited. They can depend on the environmental conditions a male experienced as he developed. The behavior of parents sometimes determines the tactic a male adopts and parental behavior can even cause their young to express the tactic opposite that of their parents. In general, alternative reproductive tactics are not well understood because it is difficult to follow multiple generations of animals and determine the conditions under which individuals develop before they reach adulthood. Project researchers will identify causes of alternative tactic expression in smallmouth bass - an economically important sport fish - from a previously collected, decade-long dataset where multiple generations of males were followed and detailed information on individual reproductive behavior was documented. Paternity analysis will identify fathers, sons, and grandsons and developmental conditions and individual growth will be determined from environmental data and scales which, like tree rings, record growth histories. Undergraduates from underrepresented groups in STEM and graduate students will be trained in genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and fisheries techniques. Results will be shared through an animated video made publicly available and distributed to resource managers and others to display where fishing licenses are sold.The realization that many, perhaps most, alternative reproductive tactics, or ARTs, depend on individual condition sparked a general interest in the proximate control of tactic expression and the ultimate control of tactic frequencies within populations. How ARTs coexist within a population is an evolutionary puzzle that is only partially resolved. ARTs were hypothesized to result from genetic differences amongst individuals, balanced by frequency-dependent selection, but appear to more generally depend on the developmental conditions an individual has experienced. ARTs fit into a broader category of investment strategies, which includes life history decisions, and are evolutionary solutions to reproductive competition that account for individual condition or status, products of an investment strategy that is contingent the social and environmental situations under which individuals have developed. In some instances, ARTs are controlled by non-genetic parental effects, which can influence the dynamics of ARTs and facilitate or impede adaptive evolutionary processes. Project researchers will detail ARTs in a population of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) where a non-genetic parental effect is hypothesized to cause tactic alternation within lineages, across generations. To detail parent and offspring tactic choices and test the genetic basis of tactic polymorphism RADSeq from preserved tissue samples will be used to generate thousands of SNPs across the genome and paternity analysis will be applied to trace male tactic choices in 240-381 lineages, across 1-5 generations. Developmental conditions and growth histories will be determined from field data and scale samples to identify environmental factors that exert proximate control over the expression of tactics.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.