NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020:Courting death or reproductive success? Analysis of interactions underlying rapid evolutionary change in crickets

该行动资助了NSF 2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。生物体不断地在与配偶、竞争对手和敌人的互动网络中穿行。在一生中，这些不同的相互作用的结果塑造了个体生存和繁殖的可能性。然而，在一种互动类型中成功的策略在其他环境中可能是灾难性的。例如，发出华丽的求爱信号可能会引起潜在配偶的注意，但也会提醒附近的捕食者和寄生虫下一餐。了解这种权衡如何塑造特征和行为的进化，将提高预测生物如何应对快速变化的世界的能力。该项目将利用太平洋蟋蟀（Teleogryllus oceanicus）求偶声的快速和持续进化来测试关键特征是如何随着交配行为的变化和与天敌的生态互动而进化的。为了增加影响，该项目将通过一对一的密切指导、沉浸式的本科课程研究体验（CURE）和生成开源的在线进化教材，吸引K-16学生增加对科学的参与。这位研究员将结合三种经验方法来研究进化适应性是如何通过太平洋蟋蟀之间的小规模社会互动以及它们与一种致命的寄生蝇（Ormia ochracea）的生态互动产生的，这种寄生蝇通过倾听雄性蟋蟀的鸣叫来捕猎。利用先进的分子技术，他将首先确定基因组中导致蟋蟀翅膀形态变异的区域，这些区域会发出求偶声——这是一种既涉及交配又涉及寄生易感性的表型。其次，该研究员将使用基于视频的跟踪方法生成社会网络，以表征具有不同翅膀形态和信号的蟋蟀的交配行为，并估计在不同社会背景下的择偶强度。最后，他将在夏威夷群岛进行实地选择实验，在量化生存和自然交配模式的同时，操纵蟋蟀种群的组成和暴露于寄生环境中，以估计自然和配偶选择对适应性和性状进化的相对影响。该研究员将在丹佛大学和圣安德鲁斯大学（英国）接受全生物实验方法、实地研究和进化基因组学专家的培训。该研究员还将开发有效的科学课程，并将在夏威夷一所拥有多元化学生群体的本科院校领导沉浸式研究型教育体验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Living organisms constantly navigate a web of interactions with mates, competitors, and enemies. Over lifetimes, the outcomes of these diverse interactions shape an individual’s likelihood of survival and reproduction. However, strategies that are successful in one type of interaction may be catastrophic in other contexts. For instance, producing a flashy courtship display may gain the attention of potential mates, but can also alert nearby predators and parasites to their next meal. Understanding how such tradeoffs shape the evolution of traits and behaviors will improve the ability to predict how organisms will respond to a rapidly changing world. This project will capitalize on the rapid and ongoing evolution of acoustic courtship songs in the Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus) to test how key characteristics evolve in concert with changes to mating behaviors and ecological interactions with natural enemies. To increase the impact, this project will engage K-16 students to increase participation in the sciences through close one-on-one mentoring, an immersive course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE), and the generation of open-source online evolution teaching materials. The fellow will combine three empirical approaches to investigate how evolutionary fitness emerges through both fine-scale social interactions between Pacific field crickets and their ecological interactions with a fatally parasitic fly, Ormia ochracea, that hunts by listening for singing male crickets. Using leading-edge molecular techniques, the fellow will first identify regions of the genome that underlie variation in cricket wing morphology that produces courtship song—a phenotype involved in both mating and susceptibility to parasitism. Second, the fellow will generate social networks using video-based tracking methods to characterize mating behaviors used by crickets with different wing morphologies and signals, and to estimate the strength of mate selection operating under various social contexts. Finally, the fellow will conduct field-based selection experiments in the Hawaiian Islands that manipulate the composition and exposure to parasitism of cricket populations—while quantifying survival and natural mating patterns—¬in order to estimate the relative effects of natural and mate selection on fitness and trait evolution. The fellow will receive training from experts in experimental approaches with whole organisms, field-based studies, and evolutionary genomics at both the University of Denver, and the University of St. Andrews (UK). The fellow will also develop effective science curriculum and will lead immersive research-based educational experiences at a Hawaiian undergraduate institution with a diverse student body.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.