Collaborative Research: RoL: The evo-devo of male pregnancy and its effects on the brood pouch microbiome

新特征的进化可以改变生物体与环境相互作用的方式，以生存、生长和繁殖。对大多数进化创新背后的潜在基因和发育变化的深入了解，以及对新特征出现的生物体及其在群落中相互作用的生物体的生态后果的理解，都是稀缺的。在理解上的一个特殊差距是新性状的进化如何影响其相关微生物群落的生物多样性。这个项目将通过研究一项非凡的创新来填补我们知识上的空白——海马、管鱼和海龙的雄性怀孕。该项目将包括创建新的基因组序列，并详细研究使男性怀孕成为可能的胚胎孵化结构的发育遗传基础。我们还将研究育儿袋进化对育儿袋内微生物群落的复杂性和功能的影响，以及这种独特的寄主相关微生物群如何影响育儿袋内胚胎的适合度。该项目将通过沉浸式外展和有针对性的支持项目，为来自代表性不足群体的高中生、教师和本科生提供研究培训。该项目还将通过培养博士生和博士后来支持下一代科学家的培养。与公众的接触将通过公开演讲和创建一个关于合颌生物的博物馆展览以及网络资源来支持K-12教育。雄性怀孕，伴随着形态多样的胚胎孵化结构，是合颌鱼类的一个决定性的进化创新。该项目的目的是建立一个综合理解的发育遗传起源的这种显著的新合胞体及其在介导多层次的生态相互作用与宿主相关的微生物群的作用。该项目将包括生产19个新的带注释的参考基因组，在一个比较框架中对发育中的育儿袋进行形态发生分析和转录/表观遗传分析，利用该家族复杂育儿袋结构的重复、独立进化，并分析育儿袋生物复杂性作为育儿袋相关微生物组组装的决定因素。完成后，该项目将为合颌纲的基因组结构进化提供新的见解，确定育儿袋发育过程中涉及的蛋白质序列和基因调控变化，并解决育雏组织的进化是否导致宿主对微生物群的特化调节，从而对育雏后代产生影响。这项工作将吸引新的研究人员对合虫进行进化创新和多样化的研究。该项目将为来自弱势群体的高中生、教师和本科生提供研究培训，并将支持研究生和博士后学者的教育，包括有机会参加高强度的短期课程，学习下一代测序、生物信息学、复杂统计分析和基因组编辑。对公众的教育推广将通过pi的公开讲座和创建一个关于合颌生物的博物馆展览来完成，该展览将与一个针对K-12教育的相关网络资源相匹配。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。

The evolution of novel traits can change the way that organisms interact with their environments to survive, grow and reproduce. Deep knowledge of the underlying genes and developmental changes that underly most evolutionary innovations is sparse, as is understanding of the ecological consequences for both the organisms in which novel traits emerged and the organisms with which they interact in communities. A particular gap in understanding is how the evolution of novel traits influences the biodiversity of their associated microbial communities. This project will help fill this gap in our knowledge by studying a remarkable innovation – male pregnancy in seahorses, pipefish and seadragons. This project will include the creation of new genome sequences and detailed studies of the developmental genetic underpinnings of the embryo brooding structures that make male pregnancy possible. The consequences of pouch evolution on the complexity and function of the community microbes in the pouch will also be studied, as well as how this unique host-associated microbiota can affect the fitness of embryos in the pouch. This project will provide research training to high school students, teachers, and undergraduates from underrepresented groups through immersive outreach and targeted support programs. The project will also support training of the next generation of scientists via education of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars. Outreach to general public will be accomplished through public talks and through creation of a museum exhibit on syngnathid biology paired with web resources to support K-12 education.Male pregnancy, accompanied by morphologically diverse embryo brooding structures, is a defining evolutionary innovation in syngnathid fishes. The goal of this project is to build an integrative understanding of the developmental genetic origin of this remarkable syngnathid novelty and its role in mediating multi-level ecological interactions with host-associated microbiota. This project will include production of 19 new annotated reference genomes strategically sampled across the syngnathid lineage, morphogenetic analysis and transcriptional/epigenetic profiling of the developing pouch in a comparative framework that leverages the repeated, independent evolution of complex brooding structures in the family, and analysis of brood pouch biocomplexity as a determinant of pouch-associated microbiome assembly. When complete, this project will provide novel insights into genome structural evolution in syngnathids, identify protein sequence and gene regulation changes involved in brood pouch development, and address whether the evolution of the brooding tissues created specialization in host regulation of microbiota with consequences for brooded progeny. The work will attract new researchers to syngnathids for studies of evolutionary innovation and diversification. The project will provide research training to high school students, teachers, and undergraduates from underrepresented groups, and will support education of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, including the opportunity to take intense short courses to learn next generation sequencing, bioinformatics, complex statistical analyses, and genome editing. Educational outreach to general public will be accomplished through public lectures by the PIs, and through creation of a museum exhibit on syngnathid biology, which will be paired with an associated web resource directed toward K-12 education.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.