NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Color polymorphism: a model system for predicting phenotypic evolution in nature

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。气候变化预计会产生极端的环境条件，我们预测生物体将如何应对预期的环境变化的能力对未来至关重要。在自然界中，数以千计的物种进化出了颜色多态。这就是同一物种中多种不同的颜色变体共存的地方，这些颜色变体在遗传和行为上也是不同的。颜色多态物种是发展生物学预测能力的理想系统，因为同一物种的颜色变体通常与环境的不同方面有关。这个项目的目的是确定蜥蜴颜色形态特征、遗传和特定环境变量之间的可重复关联，这些变量预计会随着气候变化而变化(温度、空气湿度、降水等)。以预测动物将如何进化和适应不断变化的环境。这位研究员将使用爱琴海壁蜥，它有三种颜色形态：橙色、黄色和白色，这三种颜色形态因环境而异，以研究颜色形态遗传和环境变化变量如何相互作用，在不同的环境中产生不同的颜色形态。这位研究员将聘请在科学领域有代表性的本科生担任实验室和现场助理进行研究。该项目还将包括一个国际推广部分，将通过基于艺术的活动向美国旧金山湾区和希腊雅典的小学生传达进化的基本原理。这项研究将使用爱琴海壁蜥的遗传决定颜色变体来识别基因-表型-环境相互作用，这些基因-表型-环境相互作用在相似的环境中自然地产生相同形态表型的重复进化。这项研究将使用颜色多态作为模型系统来测试：种内形态多样性和环境变异之间的可预测关联，孤立种群中重复形态表型-环境关联的进化，以及许多颜色多态物种之间形态表型和环境变异的相关宏观进化。这位研究员将接受综合方法的培训，这些方法结合了适应性景观理论、基因组学、计算、田野工作和实验，以从生物尺度上的复杂相互作用中识别可预测的表型进化模式。这位研究员将邀请来自不具代表性群体的本科生参与当地和国际小学课堂的研究和科学推广活动。这一奖项反映了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。

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. Climate change is expected to generate extreme environmental conditions, and our ability to predict the way organisms will respond to projected environmental change is critically important for the future. In nature, thousands of species have evolved color polymorphism. That is where multiple distinct color morphs, that also differ genetically and behaviorally, coexist within the same species. Color polymorphic species are an ideal system to develop predictive power in biology because often color morphs of the same species are associated with different aspects of the environment. The aim of this project is to identify repeatable associations between lizard color morph traits, genetics, and specific environmental variables that are expected to change with climate change (temperature, air moisture, precipitation, etc.) to develop predictions about how animals will evolve and adapt to changing environments. The fellow will use the Aegean wall lizard, which has three color morphs: orange, yellow, and white, that differ by environment to study how color morph genetics and environmental change variables interact to produce different color morphs in different environments. The fellow will engage undergraduates underrepresented in the sciences in research as lab and field assistants. This project will also include an international outreach component that will communicate basic principles of evolution to elementary school children in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States and Athens, Greece with art-based activities.This research will use genetically determined color morphs of the Aegean wall lizard to identify gene-phenotype-environment interactions that have naturally produced repeated evolution of the same morph phenotypes in similar environments. This research will use color polymorphism as a model system to test for: predictable associations between intraspecific morph diversity and environmental variation, the evolution of repeated morph phenotype-environment associations in isolated populations, and correlated macroevolution of morph phenotypes and environmental variation across many color polymorphic species. The fellow will train in integrative approaches that combines adaptive landscape theory, genomics, computation, fieldwork, and experiments to identify predictable patterns of phenotypic evolution from complex interactions across biological scales. The fellow will engage undergraduates from underrepresented groups in research and science outreach activities with local and international elementary classrooms.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.