EAGER: Evolutionary mechanisms and repeatability of adaptive evolution in urban heat islands

预测生物系统对生态系统变化的反应需要一个框架，以了解进化变化的速度和模式。由于城市化，城市现在是人类的主要居住地。因此，更多的野生动物必须与城市景观构成的新奇和极端环境作斗争。城市化的一个主要后果是生态同质化，即全球各地的城市环境彼此更相似，而不是与邻近未受干扰的环境更相似。这种环境相似性引出了一个问题：成功殖民城市的物种是否遵循可预测的进化道路走向成功？这项研究使用一种广泛分布的蜥蜴物种(Anolis Cristatellus)来研究与适应城市热岛有关的进化机制，这种蜥蜴物种已经独立地在波多黎各的几个城市定居。这项研究将详细说明城市人口在多大程度上表现出比森林人口更强的耐热性。这项研究将测量不同温度范围内的各种表现特征。这些数据将被用来识别参与热适应的基因组，这些基因在每个城市-森林对中显示出更大的差异性。此外，还将制作一部面向公众的音频纪录片系列，重点关注人类活动塑造非人类物种生物学的各种方式。这项高风险、高回报的研究采用了一种新的方法，可以极大地促进我们对人类时间尺度上热生理和适应的遗传学的理解。初步数据显示，这些定殖化事件中有三个与生物、调控和遗传水平上的选择特征有关。这就提出了在城市环境中推动平行选择的候选机制。这项研究将整合种群和生理基因组学，以确定热氢表型的遗传基础，这些表型对适应城市热岛非常重要。这项研究将把几种现代生理学方法整合到一个单一的实验设计中。该计划将同时对与代谢、呼吸和肺生理相关的21个从属性状的热性能曲线进行高通量量化。然后将检查这些群体的等位基因特异性表达模式，以确定重复适应性调节进化的进化机制。比较不同的生理、基因表达、遗传变异和它们在三个焦点种群对中的进化机制，将为面对人类栖息地改变时的适应性生理进化提供前所未有的见解。推动热生理局部适应和可塑性的机制可能在新环境的殖民化、适应分歧和对环境扰动的恢复方面发挥重要作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Predicting the responses of living systems to ecosystem alteration requires a framework for understanding the pace and pattern of evolutionary change. Because of urbanization, cities now host the majority of the human population. As a result, more wildlife must contend with the novel and extreme environments posed by urban landscapes. A major consequence of urbanization is ecological homogenization, wherein urban environments across the globe are more similar to each other than they are to adjacent undisturbed surroundings. This environmental similarity begs the question: Do species that successfully colonize cities follow predictable evolutionary paths to success? This study examines evolutionary mechanisms involved in adaptation to urban heat islands using a widespread lizard species (Anolis cristatellus) that has independently colonized several cities across Puerto Rico. This research will detail the extent to which urban populations display greater heat tolerance than their forest counterparts. The study will measure diverse performance traits over a range of temperatures. Those data will be used to identify groups of genes involved in thermal acclimation that display elevated divergence within each urban-forest pair. Additionally, an audio documentary series for the general public will be produced which focuses on the various ways human activity shapes the biology of nonhuman species. This high risk-high reward research exploits a novel methodology that could greatly advance our understanding of the genetics underlying thermal physiology and adaptation on anthropogenic time scales. Preliminary data show that three of these colonization events are associated with signatures of selection at the organismal, regulatory, and genetic levels. This suggests candidate mechanisms that drive parallel selection in urban environments. The research will integrate population and physiological genomics to identify the genetic basis of thermo-hydric phenotypes important for adaptation to urban heat islands. This study will integrate several modern physiological approaches into a single experimental design. The plan is to conduct simultaneous high-throughput quantification of thermal performance curves across 21 subordinate traits associated with metabolic, respiratory and pulmonary physiology. These populations will then be examined for patterns of allele specific expression to identify evolutionary mechanisms of repeated adaptive regulatory evolution. Comparing divergent physiology, gene expression, genetic variation, and the mechanisms by which they have evolved across the three focal population pairs will provide unprecedented insights into adaptive physiological evolution in the face of anthropogenic habitat alteration. The mechanisms driving local adaptation and plasticity of thermal physiology are likely to play important roles in colonization of novel environments, adaptive divergence, and resilience to environmental perturbation.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.