NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Investigating the Genetic Basis of Local Adaptation in Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis)

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：研究黄星蓟（Centaurea solstitialis）局部适应的遗传基础

• 批准号: 2109625
• 负责人: Bryan Reatini
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Reatini, Bryan
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109625&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Plant Genome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Dr. Bryan Reatini is "Investigating the genetic basis of local adaptation in yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis)". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Arizona and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Katrina Dlugosch.Yellow starthistle is a major agricultural pest and is among the most ecologically and economically damaging invasive plant species in the western United States. Consequently, there is considerable interest in understanding what allows yellow starthistle – and other agricultural pests like it – to spread so aggressively. Previous research has shown that yellow starthistle has evolved to become better suited to the local environmental conditions of California, which likely contributed to its rapid spread. Yet the specific genes that have played a role in this process, and the source of the genetic variation involved, remain unknown. This project will determine the source and type of genetic variation that has contributed to the evolution of yellow starthistle to become better suited to the local environmental conditions of California. In doing so, this research will inform how evolution can contribute to the aggressive spread of agricultural pests such as yellow starthistle, and provide information that may be used to mitigate the future spread of agricultural pests. Another objective of this project is to train university students with the tools and skillset required to generate maps that can be used to predict areas at risk of invasion by species like yellow starthistle. Throughout this training process, a collection of maps will be created and provided to the United States Department of Agriculture to help inform management decisions regarding the spread of invasive species.Understanding how local adaptation is maintained despite gene flow remains an ongoing area of research in evolutionary biology. Range expansions offer exceptional opportunities to study local adaptation with gene flow in real time, but theoretical predictions have quickly outpaced empirical tests of those predictions. Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) offers unique opportunities to close that knowledge gap, because adaptive trait evolution to local environmental conditions has occurred rapidly despite gene flow between nearby populations in its invaded range. To determine how connections between genotype, phenotype and environment have been achieved under gene flow in this system, this project will determine: 1) the genetic basis of an important adaptive trait in this invasion – increased plant size – using associations between genetic variation and phenotypic variation; 2) associations between genetic variation and environmental variation for environmental conditions that appear to be driving the evolution of this adaptive trait; and 3) the source of genetic variation contributing to adaptive evolution, using computational methods in order to evaluate the potential contribution of admixture to adaptation. All data generated by this research will be made publicly available via the searchable public databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information and Dryad. Ultimately, this project will contribute to fundamental understanding of how the genetic architecture of local adaptation has contributed to range expansion, for one of the most problematic invasive species in the United States.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.

本行动资助2021财年美国国家科学基金会植物基因组生物学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。Bryan Reatini博士的研究和培训计划的标题是“调查黄星蓟（半人马座）局部适应的遗传基础”。该奖学金的主办机构是亚利桑那大学，赞助科学家是Katrina dulgosch博士。黄星蓟是一种主要的农业害虫，是美国西部最具生态和经济破坏性的入侵植物物种之一。因此，人们对了解是什么让黄星蓟和其他类似的农业害虫如此猖獗地传播非常感兴趣。之前的研究表明，黄星蓟已经进化到更适合加州当地的环境条件，这可能是它快速传播的原因。然而，在这一过程中发挥作用的特定基因，以及所涉及的遗传变异的来源，仍然未知。该项目将确定遗传变异的来源和类型，这些变异有助于黄星蓟的进化，使其更适合加州的当地环境条件。通过这样做，这项研究将揭示进化是如何促进农业害虫（如黄星蓟）的积极传播的，并提供可能用于减轻未来农业害虫传播的信息。该项目的另一个目标是训练大学生掌握绘制地图所需的工具和技能，这些地图可用于预测黄星蓟等物种可能入侵的地区。在整个培训过程中，将制作一套地图并提供给美国农业部，以帮助了解有关入侵物种扩散的管理决策。了解基因流动如何维持局部适应仍然是进化生物学中一个正在进行的研究领域。范围扩展为实时研究基因流动的局部适应提供了难得的机会，但理论预测很快就超过了对这些预测的实证检验。黄星蓟（Centaurea solstitialis）提供了独特的机会来缩小这一知识差距，因为尽管在其入侵范围内的附近种群之间存在基因流动，但对当地环境条件的适应性性状进化却迅速发生。为了确定基因型、表型和环境之间的联系是如何在该系统的基因流下实现的，本项目将确定：1)利用遗传变异和表型变异之间的关联，确定这种入侵的一个重要适应性状——增加植株大小的遗传基础；2)遗传变异与环境变异之间的关联，环境条件似乎推动了这种适应性性状的进化；3)遗传变异对适应进化的贡献来源，利用计算方法评估混合对适应的潜在贡献。这项研究产生的所有数据将通过国家生物技术信息中心和Dryad的可搜索公共数据库公开提供。最终，这个项目将有助于从根本上了解当地适应的遗传结构如何促进了美国最具问题的入侵物种之一的范围扩大。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。