NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: The evolution of mate-choice traits and genomic architecture of speciation in swallows \(genus Hirundo\)

这项行动资助了2019财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，使用生物收集的研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式利用生物收藏。描述生物多样性（地球上生命的多样性）是进化生物学的核心目标。这项研究旨在了解生物体基因组的变化如何创造新物种。研究员将利用自然历史收集的数据与基因组数据相结合，以了解燕子如何形成新物种。为了增加科学的更广泛参与，研究员还将指导来自托管实验室机构代表性不足群体的学生，并与当地企业组织外展和娱乐活动，以促进科学家和更广泛的社区之间的接触。基因组资源的积累使我们对生殖隔离的基因组基础的理解取得了最新进展，并导致了非-阻碍基因流动的基因座之间的随机关联可能是物种形成的强大驱动力。然而，这种“耦合”的屏障位点需要进一步的经验证明，以确认其在物种形成的重要性。这项研究将通过综合分析从自然历史标本中收集的表型数据和来自燕子属Hirundo代表的新生成的基因组数据来解决这一需求。由于Hirundo包括谱系在不同阶段的物种形成的连续性和相当大的表型变异的择偶性状，这是一个理想的系统来测试的经验证据，耦合的障碍基因座的基础上选择的性状驱动物种形成。此外，这项研究将通过量化遗传多样性，重组景观，以及基因组组成和结构的区域潜在的择偶性状，彻底研究物种形成的基因组架构。最终，这项研究将整合表型数据和比较人口基因组学的分析，以测试在物种形成过程中不同性状之间耦合的重要性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. Characterizing biodiversity (the diversity of life on the planet) is a central goal of evolutionary biology. This research aims to understand how changes in an organism's genome create new species. The Fellow will use data from natural history collections combined with genome data to understand how swallows may have formed new species. To increase broader participation in science, the Fellow will also mentor students from underrepresented groups at the host-lab institution, and organize outreach and entertainment events with local businesses to promote engagement between scientists and the broader community.The accumulation of genomic resources has allowed for recent advances in our understanding of the genomic basis of reproductive isolation and has led to the hypothesis that non-random associations between loci that confer barriers to gene flow may be powerful drivers of speciation. However, further empirical demonstration of this 'coupling' of barrier loci is required to confirm its importance in speciation. This research will address this need through integrative analysis of phenotypic data collected from natural history specimens and newly-generated genomic data from representatives across the swallow genus Hirundo. Because Hirundo includes lineages at various stages of the speciation continuum and considerable phenotypic variation in mate choice traits, it is an ideal system to test for empirical evidence that the coupling of barrier loci underlying selected traits drives speciation. Further, this research will thoroughly examine the genomic architecture of speciation by quantifying genetic diversity, the recombination landscape, and genomic composition and structure in regions underlying mate-choice traits. Ultimately, this study will integrate analyses of phenotypic data and comparative population genomics to test the importance of coupling between divergent traits in the process of speciation.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.