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

蝗虫是一种蚱蜢，可以形成巨大的迁徙群，在古代文献中曾经有过生动的记录，但直到今天仍然存在，影响着地球上十分之一的人的生计。目前，多个大洲正在经历蝗灾，威胁着当地以及更大范围、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种群密度改变行为的能力——这被称为蝗虫期多表型。在低密度时，它们是独居的、无害的蚱蜢，但在高密度时，它们变成了群居的、贪婪的、迁徙的害虫。这种行为、外表和生理上的可塑性或变化是惊人的，而人口密度如何促进这种变化仍未完全了解。研究这种转变的机制是开发控制这种生物的有效方法、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变化的关键。这项工作将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）。BPRI在从分子到景观的研究项目中使用尖端技术，将大大提高我们对蝗虫期多表型和其他生物可塑性的理解。该研究所致力于改善多样性、包容性和公平性，将培养能够有效驾驭不同学科的下一代综合生物学家。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传播突破性研究。BPRI将与全球蝗虫倡议合作，将科学进步转化为管理，以提高全球粮食系统的可持续性。表型可塑性——单一基因型在不同环境条件下产生不同表型的能力——在自然界中普遍存在，并发生在生物组织的所有尺度上。为了了解其机制、维持和进化，需要完整的生物整合。蝗虫期多表型是表型可塑性最显著的例子之一。它还为理解基因表达模式和表观遗传调控如何与导致暴发、集体运动和大规模迁移的行为、生理和生态变化相关联提供了一个强大的比较系统。行为可塑性研究所（Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute， BPRI）将对这一现象进行全面剖析，并将其作为一个模型系统来改造表型可塑性的研究。具体而言，BPRI将开展10项综合研究活动，利用血吸虫属3种蝗虫和3种可塑性不同的非群集蚱蜢。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，从而深入了解蝗虫期多表型的近似机制。这些机械方法将与有机生物学和生态学相结合，在实验室和野外条件下研究与阶段相关的营养生理学和生态因素对蜂群的影响。所有的研究活动将在基于系统发育的比较框架下跨物种进行。这些活动之间的反馈将产生协同效应，并为从基因组到生态学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。

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.