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.

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。温度对动物的表现有普遍的影响，对野生动物和人类都有影响。由于城市地区往往比农村地区更热，这一现象被称为城市热岛效应，城市为研究动物如何适应和适应高温提供了机会。这项研究通过运动系统的镜头，探索生活在城市中的冠齿变态蜥蜴与生活在波多黎各森林中的蜥蜴对高温的适应。这位研究员将比较城市蜥蜴和森林蜥蜴的跑步速度和肌肉表现与温度的关系，然后研究导致对温度反应差异的基因变化。这项研究将加深我们对动物如何应对和适应气候变化期间预测的气温上升的理解。该研究员还将为K-12学生和被监禁学生开发教育材料，以及指导本科生。这个项目将形态、运动和生理表型与冠状anole转录组的特征联系起来，以检验细微尺度肌肉生理学的适应性修改是运动表现热耐力差异的基础的假说。该研究系统由波多黎各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定温度范围内的冲刺速度以及已知影响蜥蜴冲刺速度的形态变量来评估。为了弄清形态和生理上的从属特征对整个动物表现的影响，该研究员随后将测量在不同温度下为冲刺提供动力的运动肌肉的内在收缩特性，以评估肌肉热敏感度对运动表现的影响。最后，将比较城市和森林之间以及不同地区的肌肉转录本，以确定与温度依赖性能差异相关的差异表达基因和选择签名。这项工作将极大地扩展我们目前关于城市环境如何在快速时间尺度上改变复杂表型的知识。在坎贝尔-斯塔顿博士的指导下，该研究员将接受热生理学和转录学方面的培训，并通过与本科生和其他学生的合作来加强指导和沟通技能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。