BII-Implementation: Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI): Transforming the Study of Phenotypic Plasticity through Biological Integration

蝗虫是一种蝗虫，可以形成巨大的迁徙群，曾经在古代文献中生动地记录过，但直到今天仍然发生，影响着地球上十分之一的人的生计。目前，多个大陆都在遭受蝗灾，威胁到当地和更大范围的、可能是全球范围的粮食安全。使蝗虫特别具有破坏性的是它们根据人口密度改变行为的能力-这被称为蝗虫阶段多型性。在低密度时，它们是孤独的、无害的蚱蜢，但在高密度时，它们变成了群居的、贪婪的害虫。这种行为、外观和生理上的可塑性或变异是惊人的，人口密度如何促进这种变化仍然没有完全了解。研究这种转变的机制是开发有效控制这种生物的方法，确保食品安全，以及了解社会/人口压力如何推动这些动物发生根本性变化的关键。 这项工作需要在不同的生物学科之间进行全面的科学整合。为了应对这一挑战，一组研究人员成立了一个跨机构，跨学科的生物整合研究所-行为可塑性研究所（BPRI）。在从分子到景观的研究项目中使用尖端技术，BPRI将大大提高我们对蝗虫阶段多型性和其他生物体可塑性的理解。该研究所致力于改善多样性，包容性和公平性，将培养下一代能够有效地跨学科导航的综合生物学家。该研究所将通过视频纪录片、专题讨论会和讲习班向公众和科学界宣传开创性的研究。BPRI将与全球蝗虫倡议合作，将科学进步转化为管理，以改善全球粮食系统的可持续性。表型可塑性-一个单一的基因型，以产生不同的表型，以应对不同的环境条件的能力-是普遍存在的性质，并发生在所有规模的生物组织。为了了解其机制，维护和进化，需要完整的生物整合。蝗虫阶段的多型性是表型可塑性的最显著的例子之一。它还提供了一个强大的比较系统，用于了解基因表达模式和表观遗传调控如何与导致爆发，集体运动和大规模迁移的行为，生理和生态变化相关联。行为可塑性研究所（BPRI）将全面剖析这一现象，并将其作为模型系统，改造表型可塑性的研究。具体而言，BPRI将开展十项综合研究活动，使用Schistocerca属中具有不同程度可塑性的三种蝗虫和三种非群集蝗虫物种。BPRI的研究将通过生成高质量的参考基因组，辅以组织特异性和时间分辨的转录组和表观基因组，以及CRISPR/Cas9和反向遗传学工具来了解功能遗传学，从而深入了解蝗虫阶段多型性的近似机制。这些机械方法将与生物生物学和生态学相结合，以研究与阶段相关的营养生理学和生态因素，有助于在实验室和现场条件下的群集。所有研究活动将在基于遗传学的比较框架内跨物种进行。这些活动之间的反馈将产生协同作用，并为从基因组到生态和可持续性的模式生物表型可塑性的综合研究奠定基础。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。

Locusts are grasshoppers that can form enormous migrating swarms, once vividly recorded in ancient texts, but still occurring to this day and affecting the livelihood of one in ten people on Earth. Currently, multiple continents are experiencing locust plagues that threaten food security both locally and on a larger, potentially global, scale. What makes locusts particularly devastating is their ability to change their behavior depending on population density – this is known as locust phase polyphenism. At low density, they are solitary and harmless grasshoppers, but at high density, they become gregarious and voracious pests that migrate. This plasticity, or variation, in behavior, appearance, and physiology is striking and how population density facilitates this change is still not fully understood. Studying the mechanism of this transformation holds the key to developing effective methods of control for this organism, ensuring food safety, and understanding how social/population pressures can fuel radical change in these animals. This undertaking will require comprehensive scientific integration across different biological disciplines to be accomplished. To address this challenge, a group of researchers has formed a cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary Biological Integration Institute – the Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI). Using cutting-edge technologies in research projects spanning from molecules to landscapes, the BPRI will greatly enhance our understanding of locust phase polyphenism and plasticity in other organisms. With a commitment to improving diversity, inclusion and equity, the institute will train the next generation of integrative biologists who can efficiently navigate across different disciplines. The institute will communicate groundbreaking research to the general public and the scientific community through video documentaries, symposia and workshops. The BPRI will partner with the Global Locust Initiative to translate the scientific advances to management for improving global food system sustainability. Phenotypic plasticity – the ability of a single genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to different environmental conditions – is ubiquitous in nature and occurs across all scales of biological organization. To understand its mechanisms, maintenance, and evolution, complete biological integration is needed. Locust phase polyphenism represents one of the most striking examples of phenotypic plasticity. It also provides a powerful comparative system for understanding how gene expression patterns and epigenetic regulation are linked to shifts in behavior, physiology, and ecology that result in outbreaks, collective movement, and mass migration. The Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI) will comprehensively dissect this phenomenon and use it as a model system to transform the study of phenotypic plasticity. Specifically, the BPRI will carry out ten integrative research activities, using three locust and three non-swarming grasshopper species with varying degrees of plasticity in the genus Schistocerca. The BPRI research will provide in-depth understanding of proximate mechanisms of locust phase polyphenism by generating high-quality reference genomes, complemented by tissue-specific and time-resolved transcriptomes and epigenomes, as well as CRISPR/Cas9 and reverse genetics tools to understand functional genetics. These mechanistic approaches will be integrated with organismal biology and ecology to investigate phase-associated nutritional physiology and ecological factors contributing to swarming under laboratory and field conditions. All research activities will be performed across species in a phylogeny-based comparative framework. The feedback among these activities will create synergies and lay the groundwork for the integrative study of phenotypic plasticity across model organisms from genomes to ecology and sustainability.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.