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

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：追求死亡还是生殖成功？

• 批准号: 2010983
• 负责人: David Zonana
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Zonana, David Michael
• 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: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010983&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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.

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。活着的有机体不断地在与配偶、竞争对手和敌人的互动网络中导航。在一生中，这些不同互动的结果塑造了一个人生存和繁殖的可能性。然而，在一种类型的互动中取得成功的策略在其他情况下可能是灾难性的。例如，制造一个华丽的求偶展示可能会引起潜在配偶的注意，但也可以提醒附近的捕食者和寄生虫下一顿饭。了解这种权衡如何塑造特征和行为的进化，将提高预测有机体将如何应对快速变化的世界的能力。该项目将利用太平洋野板球(Teleogrolus Ocean Anicus)中声学求爱歌曲的快速和持续演变，以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相互作用而演变的。为了增加影响，该项目将通过封闭的一对一指导、身临其境的基于课程的本科生研究体验(CURE)和生成开源在线进化教材来吸引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，研究太平洋田野蟋蟀之间的细微社会互动以及它们与致命的寄生苍蝇--苍蝇--之间的生态互动--进化适合度是如何出现的，这种苍蝇通过倾听雄蟋蟀的歌声来捕食。利用前沿的分子技术，这位研究员将首先识别基因组中产生求偶歌曲的基因组区域，这些区域是产生求爱歌曲的板球翅膀形态变异的基础，求爱歌曲是一种与交配和寄生虫易感性有关的表型。其次，该研究员将使用基于视频的跟踪方法生成社交网络，以表征具有不同翅膀形态和信号的蟋蟀所使用的交配行为，并估计在不同社会背景下进行交配选择的强度。最后，这位研究员将在夏威夷群岛进行实地选择实验，操纵板球种群的组成和对寄生的暴露--同时量化生存和自然交配模式--以估计自然选择和配偶选择对健康和特征进化的相对影响。这位研究员将接受丹佛大学和圣安德鲁斯大学(英国)的整体生物体实验方法、实地研究和进化基因组学方面的专家的培训。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不同学生群体的本科生机构领导身临其境的研究型教育体验。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。