NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Does genomic recombination stabilize populations and enhance ecosystems?

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：基因组重组能否稳定种群并增强生态系统？

• 批准号: 2109605
• 负责人: Christopher Nadeau
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Nadeau, Christopher Paul
• 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 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109605&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. Ecosystems provide invaluable services to humans such as maintaining water quality and reducing coastal flooding effects. A key rule of life is that ecosystems with more species often provide better and more consistent services. The same rule might also apply within species, where populations with a higher diversity of individuals – that is higher genetic diversity – are more stable and provide better ecosystem services. If this is true, managing communities of species to maintain high genetic diversity could provide significant benefits to humans. However, within a single species, sexual reproduction alters genetic diversity over time by producing offspring with new combinations of genes (a result of recombination). This project asks whether this circumstance breaks down the aforementioned rule of life by disrupting optimal states of genetic diversity. By answering this question, new insights will be made about how to appropriately manage genetic diversity across geographic regions that encompass multiple levels of biological organization. The Fellow will provide outreach activities associated with this work by involving members of underrepresented groups in research and training activities. This project will address how recombination at the intraspecific level alters predictions from interspecific theory, and therefore contributes to a cross-scale synthesis in biology. Specifically, interspecific theory predicts that communities with a mix of highly diverged species will have higher stability and function. Recombination at the intraspecific level could change this prediction because it can produce offspring with low fitness and thereby reduce stability and function (outbreeding-depression hypothesis). Conversely, recombination between highly diverged genotypes could increase genotypic diversity among offspring and thus increase stability and function (increased-diversity hypothesis). The Fellow will use genomics, lab-based breeding experiments, and field-based mesocosm experiments in a model system - Daphnia magna - to test how divergence and recombination interact to alter population stability and function. The Fellow will learn, apply, and advance genomic techniques for measuring the various forms of genetic divergence within species. The Fellow will also produce a Guide to Genetic Management for Conservation Practitioners, provide training and research exposure to two technicians from underrepresented communities in biology, and continue outreach to K-12 educators.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.

该行动资助了2021财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即调查基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。生态系统为人类提供了宝贵的服务，如保持水质和减少沿海洪水的影响。生命的一个关键规则是，拥有更多物种的生态系统通常会提供更好、更一致的服务。同样的规则也适用于物种内部，在物种内部，个体多样性更高的种群--也就是更高的遗传多样性--更稳定，提供更好的生态系统服务。如果这是真的，管理物种群落以保持高度的遗传多样性可以为人类带来巨大的好处。然而，在一个单一的物种中，有性生殖通过产生具有新的基因组合（重组的结果）的后代来改变遗传多样性。该项目询问这种情况是否通过破坏遗传多样性的最佳状态来打破上述生命规则。通过回答这个问题，将对如何在包含多个生物组织水平的地理区域中适当管理遗传多样性提出新的见解。研究员将开展与这项工作有关的外联活动，让代表人数不足的群体的成员参与研究和培训活动。 该项目将解决种内水平的重组如何改变种间理论的预测，从而有助于生物学中的跨尺度合成。具体而言，种间理论预测，高度分化物种的混合群落将具有更高的稳定性和功能。在种内水平的繁殖可能会改变这一预测，因为它可以产生低适应性的后代，从而降低稳定性和功能（远交抑郁假说）。相反，高度分化的基因型之间的重组可以增加后代之间的基因型多样性，从而增加稳定性和功能（增加多样性假说）。该研究员将使用基因组学，基于实验室的育种实验，并在一个模型系统-大型蚤-实地实验，以测试如何分歧和重组相互作用，以改变人口的稳定性和功能。研究员将学习，应用和推进基因组技术，以测量物种内各种形式的遗传差异。该研究员还将为保护从业人员制定遗传管理指南，为来自生物学代表性不足的社区的两名技术人员提供培训和研究机会，并继续与K-12教育工作者进行外联。该奖项反映了NSF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。