NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The genetic basis and fitness consequences of thermogenic flexibility in juncos

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。本研究旨在记录自然种群对环境变化的响应能力，以帮助理解和预测正在进行的全球变化的后果。这名研究员将研究普通的鸣禽是如何通过改变它们的生理机能来应对环境温度变化的，以及它们的DNA是如何编码这种能力的。这项研究将利用该研究员之前收集的样本，并为学生和社区成员提供机会，在附近的鸟类饲养者处进行额外的数据收集。确定个体可逆地修改其性状值（“表型灵活性”）的能力变异的原因和后果，必然需要将基因型、表型和适应性联系起来，尽管这种联系在脊椎动物中仍然很少见。通过实地研究和实验室驯化实验，该研究员先前提供了经验证据，表明温度变化驱动了Junco属鸣禽生理灵活性的空间变化模式。利用该研究员先前收集的junco组织样本，他们将量化：(1)与生理灵活性差异相关的变异基因组模式；(2)柔性生理变化背后的基因表达变异；(3)野生生理柔韧性相关位点的选择。这将通过关联方法来确定与灵活性相关的位点，用基因表达谱对这些结果进行验证，并评估这些基因型在野外的选择来实现。综上所述，这项工作将确定junco生理灵活性的遗传基础，并为自然种群应对环境变化的能力提供机制理解。这项工作的一个主要培训目标是扩大研究员对生成和分析基因组数据的熟练程度，以及发展他们在科学传播和指导方面的技能。在研究员的任期内，他们将与导师合作，帮助招募和支持来自代表性不足背景的本科生，并让周围社区参与科学过程，并通过公开演讲和课堂参观与他们交流。此外，本研究致力扩展目前无线电频率识别技术在鸟类研究中的应用。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。

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. This research aims to document the ability of natural populations to respond to environmental change in order to help understand and predict the consequences of ongoing global change. The fellow will investigate how common songbirds in particular, cope with changes in environmental temperature by modifying their physiology and how the ability to do so is encoded by their DNA. This research will make use of samples that the fellow previously collected, as well as provide opportunities for students and community members to engage in additional data collection at neighborhood bird feeders. Determining the causes and consequences of variation in an individual’s ability to reversibly modify its trait values (‘phenotypic flexibility’) necessarily requires linking genotype to phenotype to fitness, though such connections remain rare in vertebrates. Using field studies and laboratory acclimation experiments, the fellow has previously provided empirical evidence that temperature variability drives spatial patterns of variation in physiological flexibility within songbirds in the genus Junco. Utilizing junco tissue samples that the fellow previously collected, they will quantify: (1) genomic patterns of variation associated with differences in physiological flexibility; (2) variation in gene expression underlying flexible physiological changes; and (3) selection on loci associated with physiological flexibility in the wild. This will be achieved using association methods to identify loci related to flexibility, performing validation of these results with gene expression profiles, and assessing selection on these genotypes in the wild. Taken together, this work will identify the genetic basis of junco physiological flexibility and provide a mechanistic understanding of the ability of natural populations to respond to environmental change. A major training goal of this work is to expand the fellow’s proficiencies generating and analyzing genomic data, as well as to develop their skills in science communication and mentoring. Throughout the fellow’s tenure, they will work with their mentor to help recruit and provide support for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as engage the surrounding communities in the scientific process and communicate with them through public presentations and classroom visits. Additionally, the research endeavors to extend the current utility of radio frequency identification technology for avian research.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.