NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Mechanisms of sensory reception in the hydrodynamically-adapted skin of cetaceans

P这一行动为2020财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，综合研究调查管理基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这个项目旨在揭示鲸目动物(鲸鱼和海豚)触觉(触摸)接收的潜在机制。这些受保护物种中的许多都濒临灭绝，难以捉摸，因此很难研究它们的感官系统是如何支持觅食和其他关键行为的。作为陆地哺乳动物的后代，它们的皮肤神经随着波浪、振动、压力变化、运动和被捕食的鱼类的水上运动而进化。这位研究员将利用从巨型鲸鱼(座头鲸)身上采集的皮肤样本，使用分子标记来识别神经的类型。有趣的是，多条神经结合在一起形成了线状的束状物。这位研究员将使用尖端显微镜来分析这些不寻常的神经束的结构。这项研究将展示哺乳动物的神经如何重组为流体动力学传感器，这是鲸目动物掌握海洋环境的关键转变。为了扩大该项目的影响，该研究员将指导那些研究机会有限的学生科学家，提供观察鲸鱼行为和实验神经生物学的培训。/p p该项目的目标是破译鲸类体感解剖学的生理含义。该系统的基本结构是异源轴突束。通过对座头鲸皮肤切片进行免疫组织化学，这位研究员将量化每一束的A-β，A-三角洲和C-纤维轴突，因为这些更高级别的组合中的每一种都构成了触觉表型。据预测，不同类型的功能将与感受性终端的皮肤深度相关，也就是它们被调谐以检测的信号。描述性分析还将比较形态特征、轴突成分和轴突间关系。这项工作旨在揭示鲸目动物的一种多模式机械感受器，该感受器将水生刺激转换为电信号。图像的数据集还将在组织、细胞和超微结构尺度上进行注释，并公开供伍兹霍尔开放获取服务器上的其他研究使用。为了扩大这项工作的科学影响，该研究员将指导学生，开发鲸目动物触觉的在线教育模块，并协调海洋哺乳动物感觉生态学的国际研讨会。/p p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。/p

pThis 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 research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This project is designed to reveal mechanisms underlying tactile (touch) reception in cetaceans (whales and dolphins). Many of these protected species are endangered and elusive, making it difficult to study how their sensory systems support feeding and other critical behaviors. As descendants of land mammals, their skin nerves evolved in response to the aquatic motion of waves, vibrations, pressure changes, locomotion and prey fish. Using skin samples collected from Megaptera novaeangliae (humpback whales), the Fellow will use molecular markers that identify nerves by their type. Interestingly, multiple nerves combine to form thread-like bundles. The Fellow will use cutting-edge microscopy to analyze the structure of these unusual nerve bundles. This investigation will show how mammalian nerves have reconfigured into hydrodynamic sensors, a critical transformation for cetaceans' mastery of the marine environment. To broaden the impact of the project, the Fellow will mentor student scientists who have had limited research opportunities, offering training in observing whale behavior and experimental neurobiology./p pThe project goal is to decipher the physiological implications of cetacean somatosensory anatomy. The fundamental structure of this system is the heterogenous axon bundle. By performing immunohistochemistry on humpback whale skin sections, the Fellow will quantify each bundle's A-beta, A-delta and C-fiber axons, as each of these higher-order combinations constitutes a tactile phenotype. It is predicted that the function of different types will be correlated with the skin depth of the receptive terminals, the signals they are tuned to detect. Descriptive analyses will also compare morphological features, axonal components and inter-axonal relationships. This work is designed to uncover a cetacean multimodal mechanoreceptor that converts aquatic stimuli into electrical signals. A dataset of images will also be annotated at the tissue, cellular and ultrastructural scales, and made publicly accessible for other studies on the Woods Hole Open Access Server. To broaden the scientific impacts of this work, the Fellow will mentor students, develop an online educational module for cetacean tactile sensation, and coordinate an international workshop in marine mammal sensory ecology./p pThis 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. /p