NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: What?s in a name? Linking type specimens, reproductive mode, and genetics in Pteridaceae

2019 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：名字有什么含义？

• 批准号: 1907294
• 负责人: Kathryn Picard
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Picard Kathryn T
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-01 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1907294&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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. Tied to each species name is a reference (type) specimen. Type specimens are critically important for biologists for identifying new species and inferring relationships between species. However, due to poor DNA quality in preserved specimens, there are few type specimens for which genetic data are available. This poses a significant challenge to scientists studying evolution in groups of organisms with unclear species boundaries or complex evolutionary histories. Ferns are particularly noteworthy for their similar morphologies and complicated genetic makeup, all of which can obscure evolutionary relationships. To address this problem, the fellow will use advances in DNA sequencing technology to generate gene sequence data from decades- and centuries-old type specimens of ferns to estimate the role of genome changes and hybridization as drivers of fern species diversity. The results of this research will not only provide new molecular tools and important life history data for the fern community, but will also contribute to the emerging discipline of museum genomics, helping to unlock the wealth of biodiversity data contained within natural history collections.In the initial phase of the research, the fellow will use spore analysis to determine reproductive mode and estimate ploidy level for the 500+ type specimens in the diverse fern family Pteridaceae at the US National Herbarium. In the second phase of the project, the fellow will extract DNA from all type specimens and use custom DNA hybridization probes to enrich for two important chloroplast genes (the barcode loci rbcL and matK) and 25 low- to single-copy nuclear genes. This phylogenomic dataset will be used to (1) infer a family-wide phylogeny for the Pteridaceae; (2) confirm the ploidy level of each type specimen; and (3) identify speciation events driven by whole-genome duplications and hybridization. This research will be hosted at the US National Herbarium at the National Museum of Natural History. The fellow will receive training in phylogenomics, computational biology, molecular biology and microscopy. The fellow will also direct a science communication workshop series for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Workshop participants and the fellow will develop classroom activities based on their research, which will be brought to K-12 schools in the Washington, DC metro area through 'Meet a Scientist' events.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.

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。每一个物种名称都有一个参考（模式）标本。模式标本对于生物学家识别新物种和推断物种之间的关系至关重要。然而，由于保存标本的DNA质量差，有几个模式标本的遗传数据是可用的。这对研究物种界限不清或进化历史复杂的生物群体进化的科学家提出了重大挑战。蕨类植物特别值得注意的是它们相似的形态和复杂的基因组成，所有这些都可能掩盖进化关系。为了解决这个问题，该研究员将利用DNA测序技术的进步，从几十年和几百年的蕨类植物标本中生成基因序列数据，以估计基因组变化和杂交作为蕨类植物物种多样性驱动因素的作用。这项研究的结果不仅将为蕨类植物群落提供新的分子工具和重要的生活史数据，而且还将为博物馆基因组学这一新兴学科做出贡献，有助于解锁自然历史藏品中包含的丰富的生物多样性数据。该研究员将使用孢子分析来确定美国国家植物标本馆的500多个蕨类植物科类型标本的生殖模式并估计倍性水平。在该项目的第二阶段，研究员将从所有模式标本中提取DNA，并使用定制的DNA杂交探针来富集两个重要的叶绿体基因（条形码位点rbcL和matK）和25个低拷贝至单拷贝的核基因。该基因组数据集将用于（1）推断蕨类植物的全科同源性;（2）确认每个类型标本的倍性水平;（3）识别由全基因组复制和杂交驱动的物种形成事件。这项研究将在美国国家自然历史博物馆的美国国家植物标本馆进行。该研究员将接受生物基因组学、计算生物学、分子生物学和显微镜学方面的培训。该研究员还将指导研究生和博士后学者的科学传播研讨会系列。研讨会的参与者和研究员将根据他们的研究开发课堂活动，这些活动将通过“会见科学家”活动带到华盛顿大都会地区的K-12学校。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。