NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Parallel evolution of lizards in urban heat islands: locomotor performance, muscle physiology, and gene regulation

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：城市热岛蜥蜴的平行进化：运动性能、肌肉生理学和基因调控

• 批准号: 2109550
• 负责人: Andrea Rummel
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Rummel, Andrea
• 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=2109550&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Temperature has a pervasive effect on animal performance and are of concern for both wildlife and humans. Because urban areas tend to be hotter than rural areas, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect, cities provide an opportunity to study how animals acclimate and adapt to high temperatures. This research explores adaptation to high temperatures in crested anole lizards living in cities relative to lizards living in forests in Puerto Rico through the lens of the locomotor system. The Fellow will compare the relationship to temperature of running speeds and muscle performance in city and forest lizards, and then examine genetic changes which underlie differences in responses to temperature. This research will deepen our understanding of how animals respond and adapt to the increasing temperatures predicted during climate change. The Fellow will also develop educational materials for K-12 students and incarcerated students as well as mentoring undergraduates. This project associates morphological, locomotor, and physiological phenotypes with features of the crested anole transcriptome to test the hypothesis that adaptive modification of fine-scale muscle physiology underlies divergence in the thermal tolerance of locomotor performance. The study system consists of multiple, independently derived urban and forest populations of crested anole lizards in Puerto Rico. Locomotor performance will be assessed by measuring sprint speeds across a range of temperatures, as well as morphological variables that are known to influence sprint speed in lizards. To disentangle the contributions of morphological and physiological subordinate traits to whole animal performance, the Fellow will then measure the intrinsic contractile properties of the locomotor muscles powering sprinting across temperatures to assess the impact of muscle thermal sensitivity on locomotor performance. Finally, muscle transcriptomes will be compared between urban–forest pairs and across localities to identify differentially expressed genes and signatures of selection which are associated with differences in temperature-dependent performance. This work will significantly expand our current knowledge of how urban environments modify complex phenotypes on rapid timescales. Under the guidance of Dr. Campbell-Staton, the Fellow will receive training in thermal physiology and transcriptomics, and enhance mentorship and communication skills by working with undergraduates and other students.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.

这项行动为2021财年的生物学生物学奖学金提供了一项NSF博士后研究奖学金，综合研究研究了基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生活规则。奖学金支持对研究员的研究和培训，这些研究和培训将以创新的方式为生活规则做出贡献。温度对动物性能具有普遍的影响，并且对野生动植物和人类都关注。由于城市地区往往比粗糙的地区更热，这种现象称为城市热岛效应，因此城市为研究动物如何适应和适应高温提供了机会。这项研究探讨了生活在城市中的高温蜥蜴的适应性，相对于生活在波多黎各的森林中的蜥蜴，通过运动系统的镜头。该研究员将将城市和森林蜥蜴中跑步速度和肌肉表现的温度进行比较，然后检查遗传变化，这是对温度反应的差异的基础。这项研究将加深我们对动物如何反应和适应气候变化期间预测的温度升高的理解。该研究员还将为K-12学生和继承的学生以及心理本科生开发教育材料。该项目将形态学，运动和物理表型与Crested Anole转录组的特征相关联，以检验以下假设：适应性修饰精细肌肉生理学的修饰是运动能力表现的热耐受性的差异。研究系统由波多黎各的多个，独立衍生的城市和森林种群组成。运动性能将通过测量一系列温度的冲刺速度以及已知会影响蜥蜴冲刺速度的形态变量来评估。为了解除形态和物理下属特征对整个动物表现的贡献，然后该研究员将测量运动肌肉的内在收缩性能，从而在温度下驱动冲刺，以评估肌肉热敏感性对运动运动的影响。最后，将比较城市 - 孔对之间和跨部位之间的肌肉转录组，以识别与温度依赖性性能差异相关的不同表达基因和选择的特征。这项工作将大大扩展我们当前对城市环境如何修改快速时标的复杂表型的知识。在坎贝尔·斯塔顿（Campbell-Staton）博士的指导下，该研究员将通过与本科生和其他学生合作，接受热生理学和转录组学，增强心态和沟通能力。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为通过使用基金会的知识和更广泛的影响来通过评估来进行评估，并被认为是值得的支持。