Collaborative Research: Understanding the rules of honest signaling

合作研究：了解诚实信号的规则

• 批准号: 2037739
• 负责人: Matthew Toomey
• 金额: $ 61万
• 依托单位: University of Tulsa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037739&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; rules; honest

Red feather coloration in the House Finch and other songbirds serves as an honest signal of individual condition. This finding is both well documented and quite remarkable. It is far from obvious why the hue of feathers reveals the individual quality or what prevents low-quality birds from cheating this system. A series of recent breakthrough studies brings us to the doorstep of understanding honest signaling via red feather coloration. We now know key enzymes and transporters responsible for the production and accumulation of red plumage pigments. In the proposed research, a team of scientists with expertise spanning animal physiology, cell biology, and genomics will use both whole animals and cell culture to study the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of coloration. The investigators will examine and compare these processes in House Finches in good or poor condition to deduce the specific mechanisms that promote or inhibit the production and accumulation of red pigments and hence, control plumage coloration. Understanding the biochemical and cellular rules that govern carotenoid coloration in songbirds is important not just for a better understanding of this central process in nature but because carotenoid pigments play a key role in cellular homeostasis in humans. A better understanding of carotenoid systems in birds will inevitably lead to a better understanding of ourselves. The investigators will share these insights and support STEM education through an ornithology summer camp program, curricula development and training workshops for public school teachers, and middle and high school student visits to investigator laboratories. The biochemical, genetic, and evolutionary processed that either prohibit or enable honest communication of information in the context of mate choice remain poorly understood. The proposed research will focus on uncovering fundamental rules of honest signaling by integrating subcellular, cellular, and whole-organism approaches. In birds including the House Finch, high-quality males produce feathers with brighter and redder carotenoid coloration than do low-quality males. Understanding how the condition of individuals affects the function of these genes and hence color expression is the focus of proposed work. The Resource Tradeoff Hypothesis proposes that stress causes loss of red coloration because carotenoids must be diverted away from ornamentation so they can function as antioxidants or immune system enhancers. Alternatively, the Shared Pathway Hypothesis proposes that oxidation of yellow dietary pigments to red ornamental pigments depends on core cellular processes, and particularly cellular respiration in mitochondria, that are sensitive to organism function and environmental conditions. These hypotheses make contrasting predictions regarding the cellular and environmental conditions that will affect ketolation and hence production of red coloration, and we will employ both whole animal and cell culture experiments to test these predictions. The proposed research holds the potential to significantly advance understanding of the ubiquitous links between stress, individual condition, and carotenoid coloration. The experiments that we propose will provide important new insights for how, at a mechanistic level, carotenoid color serves as a signal of condition and hence key insights into a fundamental rule of life—how to keep signaling honest.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.

家雀和其他鸣禽的红色羽毛颜色是个体状况的诚实信号。这一发现有据可查，而且相当引人注目。为什么羽毛的颜色能够揭示个体的品质，或者是什么阻止低品质的鸟类欺骗这个系统，这一点还很不明显。最近的一系列突破性研究使我们迈出了通过红色羽毛着色来理解诚实信号的大门。我们现在知道负责红色羽毛色素的产生和积累的关键酶和转运蛋白。在拟议的研究中，具有动物生理学、细胞生物学和基因组学专业知识的科学家团队将使用整个动物和细胞培养物来研究着色的分子和生化机制。研究人员将检查和比较状况良好或状况不佳的家雀的这些过程，以推断出促进或抑制红色素产生和积累的具体机制，从而控制羽毛着色。了解控制鸣禽类胡萝卜素着色的生化和细胞规则非常重要，不仅有助于更好地理解自然界的这一中心过程，而且因为类胡萝卜素色素在人类细胞稳态中发挥着关键作用。 更好地了解鸟类的类胡萝卜素系统将不可避免地导致更好地了解我们自己。研究人员将通过鸟类学夏令营计划、公立学校教师课程开发和培训研讨会以及中学生和高中生参观研究人员实验室来分享这些见解并支持 STEM 教育。 在配偶选择的背景下，禁止或促进诚实信息交流的生化、遗传和进化过程仍然知之甚少。 拟议的研究将侧重于通过整合亚细胞、细胞和整个生物体的方法来揭示诚实信号传导的基本规则。 在包括家雀在内的鸟类中，优质雄性的羽毛比低质雄性的类胡萝卜素颜色更亮、更红。 了解个体的状况如何影响这些基因的功能以及颜色表达是拟议工作的重点。资源权衡假说提出，压力会导致红色的丧失，因为类胡萝卜素必须从装饰中转移出来，这样它们才能起到抗氧化剂或免疫系统增强剂的作用。 或者，共享途径假说提出，黄色膳食色素向红色装饰色素的氧化取决于核心细胞过程，特别是线粒体中的细胞呼吸，这些过程对生物体功能和环境条件敏感。这些假设对影响酮化并因此产生红色的细胞和环境条件做出了对比预测，我们将采用整体动物和细胞培养实验来测试这些预测。 拟议的研究有可能显着促进对压力、个体状况和类胡萝卜素颜色之间普遍存在的联系的理解。我们提出的实验将为在机械层面上类胡萝卜素颜色如何作为状况信号提供重要的新见解，从而为生命的基本规则（如何保持诚实的信号）提供关键见解。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

A mechanism for red coloration in vertebrates.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.013
• 发表时间: 2022-10-10
• 期刊: CURRENT BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 9.2
• 作者: Toomey, Matthew B.;Marques, Cristiana, I;Araujo, Pedro M.;Huang, Delai;Zhong, Siqiong;Liu, Yu;Schreiner, Gretchen D.;Myers, Connie A.;Pereira, Paulo;Afonso, Sandra;Andrade, Pedro;Gazda, Malgorzata A.;Lopes, Ricardo J.;Viegas, Ivan;Koch, Rebecca E.;Haynes, Maureen E.;Smith, Dustin J.;Ogawa, Yohey;Murphy, Daniel;Kopec, Rachel E.;Parichy, David M.;Carneiro, Miguel;Corbo, Joseph C.
• 通讯作者: Corbo, Joseph C.