NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Investigation of the Ancestral Modulation Rule, a Proposed Rule for Reversal of Sex-biased Traits

这一行动为NSF 2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持该研究员的研究和培训，这将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。偏向于一种交配类型或另一种交配类型的显著多样性的特征被低估了，而且经常被忽视。在一个物种中，几乎所有具有交配类型偏好的性状都可以在不同的物种中发现相反的交配类型偏好。这位研究员建议测试一种观点，即这些逆转的进化史预测了导致交配类型偏向特征表达的生理、遗传和行为途径。这项研究将促进对交配型偏向性状如何发展的理解，并可用于解释交配型偏向性状在物种内和物种间的多样性。这位研究员将致力于开发呈现行为和进化主题的教育材料，让学生能够发现自己的想法，从而使受试者更容易接近。交配偏向类型的表型最终反馈到推动多样性甚至物种形成的进化中，因此需要一个研究偏向特征进化的框架。这样的总体框架将具有预测能力，在许多物种中提出可检验的假设，即使在模式不明显的情况下也是如此。这位研究员提出的祖先调节规则，汇集了明显不同的结果，确定了明显相反的表型的进化起源时间，作为两种潜在机制模式中哪一种应该进化的解释。当交配类型偏向的性状从头开始出现时，新的途径和基因被增选，因此依赖于交配类型-典型的激素(改变的控制假说)；然而，当偏向的特征从祖先的偏见逆转时，对传统调节激素的敏感性将进化(改变的敏感性假说)，从而保持祖先的遗传框架，并可能将塑料对环境的反应作为返祖特征。这位研究员将使用几种经历了交配型偏向特征(育儿、攻击性和装饰性)变化的鱼类(西鱼和凤尾鱼)来测试祖先的调节规则是否可以正确地预测存在哪些激素控制机制。这项研究的结果将提供对一般交配型偏向性状的驱动因素和后果的洞察，并具体地逆转交配型偏向性状，从而增加对交配型偏向性状进化的理解。教育外展将作为项目的一部分进行。这一奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports a research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. The remarkable diversity of characteristics biased toward one mating type or the other is underappreciated and often overlooked. Almost every trait with mating type-bias in one species can be found with the opposite mating type-bias in a different species. The fellow proposes to test an idea that the evolutionary history of these reversals predicts the physiological, genetic, and behavioral pathways that are responsible for the expression of a mating type-biased trait. This research will advance understanding of how mating type-biased traits develop and can be used to explain the diversity of mating type-biased traits within and across species. The Fellow will work to develop educational materials that present behavioral and evolutionary themes in ways that students can discover ideas for themselves so that the subjects are more approachable.Mating type-biased phenotypes ultimately feed back into evolution driving diversity and even speciation, thereby necessitating the need for a framework for studying biased trait evolution. Such an overarching framework would have predictive power to suggest testable hypotheses in numerous species even in cases where the patterns are not obvious. The Fellow’s proposed ancestral modulation rule, brings together apparently disparate results, identifying the time of evolutionary origin of the apparently reversed-biased phenotype as the explanation for which of two underlying mechanistic patterns should evolve. When a mating type-biased trait emerges de novo, new pathways and genes are co-opted and therefore rely on the mating type-typical hormones (altered control hypothesis); however, when the biased trait is reversed from the ancestral bias, increased sensitivity to the traditionally regulating hormone will evolve (altered sensitivity hypothesis) thereby preserving the ancestral genetic framework and possibly the plastic response to the environment as an atavistic trait. The Fellow will use several species of fishes (cichlids and gouramis) that have undergone shifts in mating type-biased traits (brood care, aggression, and ornamentation) to test if the ancestral modulation rule can correctly predict which hormonal control mechanisms are present. Results of this study will provide insight into the drivers and consequences of mating type-biased traits generally and reversed mating type-biased traits specifically, leading to an increased understanding of mating type-biased trait evolution. Educational outreach will be conducted as part of the project.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.