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

这项行动资助了2020财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，综合研究调查了基因组，环境和表型之间的生命相互作用的规则。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。生物体不断地在与配偶、竞争对手和敌人的互动网络中航行。在一生中，这些不同的相互作用的结果塑造了一个人的生存和繁殖的可能性。然而，在一种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，炫耀求偶可能会引起潜在配偶的注意，但也可能会提醒附近的捕食者和寄生虫注意它们的下一餐。了解这种权衡如何塑造性状和行为的进化，将提高预测生物体如何应对快速变化的世界的能力。该项目将利用太平洋田野蟋蟀（Teleogryllus oceanicus）中声学求爱歌曲的快速和持续演变来测试关键特征如何与交配行为和与天敌的生态相互作用的变化相一致。为了增加影响力，该项目将通过密切的一对一指导，沉浸式课程为基础的本科生研究体验（CURE）以及生成开源在线进化教材，吸引K-16学生增加对科学的参与。 这位研究员将联合收割机结合三种经验方法来研究进化适应性是如何通过太平洋田野蟋蟀之间的精细社会互动以及它们与致命寄生蝇Ormia ochracea的生态互动出现的，Ormia ochracea通过倾听雄性蟋蟀的歌声来狩猎。利用前沿的分子技术，这位研究员将首先确定蟋蟀翅膀形态变异的基因组区域，这些变异产生求爱歌一种与交配和寄生易感性有关的表型。其次，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的交配行为，并估计在各种社会背景下进行的择偶强度。最后，该研究员将在夏威夷群岛进行基于实地的选择实验，这些实验操纵蟋蟀种群的组成和寄生率，同时量化生存和自然交配模式，以估计自然和交配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）接受整个生物体实验方法、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的本科院校领导沉浸式研究型教育体验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.