NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Using butterfly wing color patterns to elucidate an uncharacterized Wnt pathway

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：利用蝴蝶翅膀颜色模式阐明未表征的 Wnt 通路

• 批准号: 2109536
• 负责人: Anyimilehidi Mazo-Vargas
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Mazo-Vargas, Anyimilehidi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109536&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Multicellular animals share common signaling pathways that are responsible for patterning and regulating development in early animals (embryos) all the way to adults. One such pathway is called the Wnt signaling pathway, and its study has been instrumental to our understanding of cell-cell communication, animal development, stem cell biology, and cancer. Wnt pathways have been well studied, and a “canonical pathway” is the best understood. However, there are non-canonical functions of the Wnt pathway as well. This research aims to integrate genomic tools and the attributes of butterfly wing patterns to determine how Wnt signals instruct pattern formation in these wings. Furthermore, the fellow will take advantage of butterfly biology's natural appeal to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in life sciences. Specifically, (1) creating a Spanish-language active learning module for bilingual schools, (2) providing summer internships to two high-school students per year with the sponsoring scientist Dr. Arnaud Martin. (3) Encouraging the participation of diverse scientists at the postdoctoral level.Butterfly wing patterns are visually compelling, two-dimensional arrays of differentiated cells where signaling outputs from the tissue are directly translated into color patterns. Preliminary data from the fellow's Ph.D. work and the sponsoring lab proposes that the conserved WntA molecule organizes discrete domains of color-forming scale cells, potentially independently of the canonical Wnt pathway. Hence, the fellow will generate a laboratory colony of the butterfly Junonia coenia deficient for the WntA protein; then, she will survey how WntA presence/absence impacts gene expression and chromatin accessibility during wing development. Those data will provide a genome-wide landscape of the cellular responses to WntA signaling, which the fellow will use to select candidate genes for specific assays:visualizing mRNA and protein in the developing wings (i.e., immunochemistry), and CRISPR/cas9 gene knock-outs. The fellow will formally test the non-canonicity of WntA signaling and tackle the molecular mechanisms that mediate signal integration and result in sharp cell specification domains, as observed in the sharp boundaries that delineate color patterns. This original work will be important for a comprehensive understanding of Wnt signaling and may shed light on novel aspects of the pathway that could extend across the animal kingdom. In this proposal, the fellow will work with outreach programs, training and mentoring of future scientists, and develop a networking group for Latin-American and first-generation graduate students and postdocs interested in EvoDevo.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.

该行动资助 2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学领域代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。多细胞动物具有共同的信号传导途径，负责早期动物（胚胎）一直到成年动物的模式化和调节发育。其中一种通路称为 Wnt 信号通路，它的研究有助于我们理解细胞间通讯、动物发育、干细胞生物学和癌症。 Wnt 通路已得到充分研究，其中“规范通路”是最好理解的。然而，Wnt 通路也有非规范功能。这项研究旨在整合基因组工具和蝴蝶翅膀图案的属性，以确定 Wnt 信号如何指导这些翅膀的图案形成。此外，该研究员还将利用蝴蝶生物学的天然吸引力来增加生命科学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。具体来说，(1) 为双语学校创建西班牙语主动学习模块，(2) 每年为两名高中生提供赞助科学家阿诺·马丁博士的暑期实习机会。 (3) 鼓励博士后水平的不同科学家的参与。蝴蝶翅膀图案是视觉上引人注目的分化细胞的二维阵列，其中来自组织的信号输出直接转化为颜色图案。该研究员的博士学位的初步数据。工作和赞助实验室提出，保守的 WntA 分子组织成色鳞片细胞的离散域，可能独立于规范的 Wnt 通路。因此，该研究员将在实验室中培育出一个缺乏 WntA 蛋白的蝴蝶 Junonia coenia 群体。然后，她将调查 WntA 的存在/缺失如何影响翅膀发育过程中的基因表达和染色质可及性。这些数据将提供细胞对 WntA 信号反应的全基因组图谱，研究员将用它来选择用于特定测定的候选基因：可视化发育​​中翅膀中的 mRNA 和蛋白质（即免疫化学），以及 CRISPR/cas9 基因敲除。该研究员将正式测试 WntA 信号传导的非规范性，并解决介导信号整合并导致清晰细胞规范域的分子机制，如在描绘颜色模式的清晰边界中观察到的那样。这项原创工作对于全面理解 Wnt 信号传导非常重要，并可能揭示该途径的新方面，该途径可能延伸到整个动物界。在这项提案中，该研究员将参与外展计划、对未来科学家的培训和指导，并为对 EvoDevo 感兴趣的拉丁美洲和第一代研究生和博士后建立一个网络小组。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

Cis-regulatory modes of Ultrabithorax inactivation in butterfly forewings

• DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.18.553910
• 发表时间: 2023-10
• 期刊: eLife
• 影响因子: 7.7
• 作者: A. Tendolkar;Anyi Mazo-Vargas;L. Livraghi;Joseph J. Hanly;Kelsey C. Van Horne;L. Gilbert;Arnaud Martin-Arna

Deep cis-regulatory homology of the butterfly wing pattern ground plan

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abi9407
• 发表时间: 2022-10-20
• 期刊: SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 56.9
• 作者: Mazo-Vargas, Anyi;Langmueller, Anna M.;Reed, Robert D.
• 通讯作者: Reed, Robert D.