NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: The Microbiome as a Facilitator of Adaptive Plasticity under Rapid Environmental Change

该行动资助 2022 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，旨在调查基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。考虑到全球气候变化的威胁，了解动物在面临环境快速变化时如何反应和进化非常重要。当个体根据环境条件调整其生理机能时，表型可塑性就会发生，可以帮助动物应对不断升高的温度。当动物面临高度或可变的环境变化时，它们可能会进化出增强的可塑性能力。此外，生活在动物胃肠道中的微生物群落（细菌、真菌等）可以影响动物的生理机能，并可能影响宿主对不断变化的环境做出反应的能力。在这个项目中，研究员将监测变色蜥蜴在环境温度最近快速升高后耐热可塑性的演变。此外，该研究员还将确定肠道中的微生物群落是否促进了这种适应的各个方面。这项研究将有助于阐明宿主和微生物之间的相互作用如何影响生物体对气候变化的反应，这可能有助于保护脆弱物种。该研究员还将致力于向公众传播科学发现，同时指导来自 STEM 学科背景的本科生进行独立研究项目。该项目将利用正在进行的野外进化实验，其中巴拿马细长变色蜥蜴已从凉爽的大陆环境移植到通常比大陆祖先种群温暖得多的岛屿环境。在这个系统中，研究员将确定与寒冷环境中的蜥蜴相比，在最温暖和热变化最大的岛屿环境中的蜥蜴是否进化出了更大的耐热可塑性能力。此外，该研究员还将确定肠道中的细菌分类群是否与宿主耐热可塑性的增加有关，以及这些细菌的益生菌接种是否会增加蜥蜴在温暖的岛屿环境中的可塑性和适应性。通过该项目，该研究员将获得实地进化和生态实验、生理学、微生物学和计算生物学方面的专业知识。该研究员还将指导美国和巴拿马的本科研究人员，同时协助他们在一个流行的真人科学节目中展示他们的工作，该节目受到大量不同的国际观众的观看。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 2022, 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. Given the threat of global climate change, it is important to understand how animals respond and evolve when faced with rapid changes in their environments. Phenotypic plasticity, which occurs when an individual adjusts its physiology in response to environmental conditions, can help animals deal with increasing temperatures. When animals face a high degree or variable amount of environmental change, they may evolve an increased capability for plasticity. Further, microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, etc.) that live in animal gastrointestinal tracts can influence animal physiology and could impact their host’s ability to respond to changing environments. In this project, the Fellow will monitor evolution in heat tolerance plasticity of anole lizards after recent and rapid increases to the temperature of their environment. Additionally, the Fellow will determine if microbial communities in the gut have facilitated aspects of this adaptation. This research will help elucidate how interactions between hosts and microbes shape organismal responses to changing climates, which may help protect vulnerable species. The Fellow will also work to disseminate scientific findings to the public while mentoring undergraduate students from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM disciplines on independent research projects.This project will leverage an ongoing field evolution experiment in which Panamanian slender anole lizards have been transplanted from cool, mainland environments, to island environments which are often significantly warmer than the mainland, ancestral population. In this system, the Fellow will determine whether lizards in the warmest and most thermally variable island environments have evolved a greater capacity for heat tolerance plasticity compared to lizards in cooler environments. Further, the Fellow will determine if bacterial taxa in the gut are associated with increased host heat tolerance plasticity and if probiotic inoculations of these bacteria increase lizard plasticity and fitness in warm island environments. As a result of this project, the Fellow will gain expertise in field-based evolutionary and ecological experiments, physiology, microbiology, and computational biology. The Fellow will also mentor undergraduate researchers in the United States and Panama while assisting them in presenting their work on a popular live-action science show which is viewed by a large and diverse international audience.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.