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

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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.