NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Hybridization on the adaptive landscape

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为《生活规则》领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。新物种是如何产生的？它们是孤立出现的吗？或者，杂交，即物种间遗传物质的交换，能促进适应，加速物种形成过程吗？最近，对后一种假设的支持越来越多，但迄今为止，很少有研究通过实验证明杂交影响脊椎动物物种的进化适应性方面，例如生存。该项目将通过结合饲养性能的实验室研究、野外适应性实验和三种巴哈马小鱼的基因测序来解决这一问题。这项研究将提供深入了解杂交能力，以促进适应气候变化相关的环境变化。该研究员将扩大参与，使巴哈马社区参与教育和合作机会，并使海湾地区的当地公立学校和社区学院参与外联活动。基因流动能促进适应性辐射吗？为了解决这个问题，研究员将进行全面的野外适应性实验，整合基因组、形态、环境和饲养性能数据。该研究员还将量化视觉环境调节表型-性能-适合度图的程度。研究人员将使用4000种实验杂交种和纯种鱼，测量它们在高浑浊度和低浑浊度湖泊中的适应性，并在实验前和实验后的类似环境中评估数百条鱼的摄食性能。这些数据将用于构建基因组-表型-性能适应度图，证明适应性渗入的功能后果，并验证环境调节表型-性能适应度图的假设。通过这个实验，研究员将量化形态学、性能和适合度对飓风引起的湖泊浑浊度环境扰动之间关系的敏感性。了解这一点对于预测未来几年圣萨尔瓦多岛微型地方性小鱼多样性对飓风活动增加的敏感性至关重要。这项研究将为研究员提供多样化的培训，从鱼类护理到性能分析、实地实验、选择和基因组分析。该研究员将与巴哈马大学建立合作关系，为其学生提供培训，并为圣萨尔瓦多岛高中的学生提供进化论课程。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. How do new species arise? Do they arise in isolation? Or can hybridization, the exchange of genetic material between species, instead facilitate adaptation, and speed up the speciation process? Recently, there has been growing support for the latter hypothesis but, to date, few studies have experimentally demonstrated that hybridization influences aspects of evolutionary fitness, such as survival, in vertebrate species. This project will address this by combining laboratory studies of feeding performance, fitness experiments in the field, and genetic sequencing of three species of Bahamian pupfish. This research will provide insight into the capacity of hybridization to facilitate adaptation to climate-change associated environmental shifts. The Fellow will expand participation by involving the Bahamian community both in educational and collaborative opportunities, as well as by conducting outreach involving local public schools and community colleges within the Bay Area. Can gene flow promote adaptive radiation? To address this question, the Fellow will conduct a comprehensive field fitness experiment, integrating genomic, morphological, environmental, and feeding performance data. The Fellow will also quantify the extent to which the visual environment modulates the phenotype-performance-fitness map. Using 4,000 experimental hybrids and purebred species, the Fellow will measure fitness in high- and low-turbidity lakes and feeding performance of hundreds of these fish will be assessed in similar environments pre- and post-experiment. These data will be used to construct a genome-phenotype-performance-fitness map, demonstrate the functional consequences of adaptive introgression, and test the hypothesis that environment modulates the phenotype-performance-fitness map. With this experiment, the Fellow will quantify the sensitivity of the relationship between morphology, performance, and fitness to a hurricane-induced environmental perturbation of lake turbidity. Gaining this understanding is critical to predicting the sensitivity of San Salvador Island’s micro-endemic pupfish diversity to increased hurricane activity in coming years. This research will provide the Fellow with a diversity of training, from fish care to performance assays, field experiments, selection and genomic analyses. The Fellow will establish a collaboration at the University of The Bahamas, providing training to their students, and offer lessons on evolution to students at the San Salvador Island High School.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.