RUI: The Ancestral Modulation Hypothesis: Predicting Hormonal Regulation Of Sex-Biased Traits

该奖项资助对男性或女性表达倾向的身体和行为特征的进化和生物学基础的研究。了解产生这些特征的多层次过程将有助于解释在个体和物种之间观察到的特征多样性。该项目将研究基因水平、分子水平和生理水平对性别偏见特征的影响。通过理解每个层次，本工作将提出一个理解这些过程如何演变的一般框架。在通常的论述中，为了阐明一般的生物学概念，对主要与女性或主要与男性相关的巨大多样性特征的描述常常受到损害。该奖项的一部分将用于制作教育推广材料，以强调个体和物种之间的自然特征变异的全谱。多种教育水平将通过扩展到K-12，本科入门课程和硕士水平课程的目标。研究人员将研究偏向于男性表达或女性表达的生理和行为特征的生物学控制。这项工作将在五个不同的生物组织水平上进行：全球激素水平、细胞水平上用于转换激素的代谢酶水平、细胞水平上的激素受体水平、受体基因组结合位点的分布以及转录反应。将使用两种鱼类，包括从雄性到雌性或反之亦然的表型进化转变。利用性状的进化史作为预测能力，该研究将测试生物控制机制是否基于表型的祖先条件使用不同的途径。预测是，新性状将使用现有的交配型偏向路径，而进化过渡性状将修改通常存在于相反交配型中的路径。通过连接近因机制和终因机制，所测试的模型为探索额外的偏倚机制和进一步细致的表型提供了一个框架，以更好地理解自然界中各种交配型偏倚特征。该奖项由综合有机体系统分部的生理机制和生物力学项目共同资助。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 award funds research on the evolutionary and biological basis of physical and behavioral traits that are biased toward male expression or female expression. Understanding the multi-level processes that produce such traits will help explain the diversity of traits that are observed across individuals and species. This project will investigate genetic levels, molecular levels, and physiological levels that contribute to sex-biased traits. By understanding each level, the work will address a general framework for understanding how these processes evolve. In common discourse, description of the vast diversity of traits associated primarily with females or primarily with males is often compromised in the effort to illustrate general biological concepts. Part of this award will produce educational outreach materials to emphasize the full spectrum of natural trait variation across individuals and species. Multiple educational levels will be targeted through outreach to K-12, undergraduate introductory courses, and a Master’s level course.The researchers will address the biological control of physical and behavioral traits that are biased toward male expression or female expression. The work will occur at five different levels of biological organization: global hormone levels, metabolic enzyme levels for converting hormones at the cellular level, hormone receptor levels at the cellular level, the distribution of genomic binding sites for receptors, and the transcriptional response. Two genera of fishes will be used that include evolutionary transitions of phenotype from males to females or vice-versa. Using the evolutionary history of the traits for predictive power, the research will test whether the biological control mechanisms use different pathways based on the ancestral condition of the phenotype. The prediction is that novel traits will use existing mating-type biased pathways while evolutionarily transitioned traits will modify pathways that are typically present in the opposite mating-type. By bridging proximate and ultimate mechanisms, the tested model provides a framework for exploring additional mechanisms for bias and further nuanced phenotypes to better understand the assorted mating-type biased traits in the natural world. This award was co-funded by the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.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.