NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Evolutionary genomics of rapid adaptation in wild threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

这项行动资助了2022财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。了解野生种群适应不断变化的环境的速度和可能性至关重要，因为适应可以恢复种群增长并防止灭绝。理论和实验室研究假设，基因组变异的来源和人口因素（例如，人口规模）可以影响适应的概率和速度。然而，对于基因组和种群因素如何促进野生环境的快速适应，仍然相对未知。该研究员将使用野生threespine棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus）来测试基因组变异的来源如何影响快速适应性进化。这将增加我们对推动适应的根本力量的理解，并有助于预测脆弱群体是否能够适应或需要进一步干预以防止灭绝。该项目将使拉丁裔研究员获得基因组学和生物信息学方面的高级培训。该研究员还将在生物学中为历史上被排除在科学之外的博士后举办一系列研讨会，以展示他们的研究和网络。三刺鱼是研究快速适应性进化的一个很好的系统，因为淡水刺鱼反复而迅速地从它们的海洋祖先中分化出来（12,000年前在多个地点）。因此，海洋和淡水棘鱼在适应性和可能在生态位利用中发挥作用的特征方面有所不同（例如，板数，鳃耙数）。多种多样的变异来源促成了它们的差异。但很少有研究考虑到关键的基因组和种群因素如何影响野生动物的进化模式。该研究员将对多个独立衍生的种群进行采样，通过结合基因组学和表型分析，测试变异来源如何影响野外适应的速度和可能性。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, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Understanding the speed and likelihood of adaptation to a changing environment in wild populations is of paramount importance, because adaptation can restore population growth and forestall extinction. Theoretical and laboratory studies hypothesize that the source of genomic variation and population factors (for example, population size) can affect the probability and speed of adaptation. However, it is still relatively unknown as to how genomic and population factors contribute to rapid adaptation in the wild. The Fellow will use wild threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to test how sources of genomic variation impact rapid adaptive evolution. This will increase our understanding of the underlying forces propelling adaptation and help predict whether vulnerable populations will be able to adapt or require further interventions to prevent extinction. The project will enable the Fellow, a Latina, to acquire advanced training in genomics and bioinformatics. The Fellow will also host a seminar series in Biology for post-docs historically excluded in the sciences to present their research and network. Threespine sticklebacks are an excellent system to study rapid adaptive evolution because freshwater stickleback repeatedly and rapidly diverged ( 12,000 years ago across multiple locations) from their marine ancestors. Thus, marine and freshwater stickleback vary in traits that are adaptive and likely play a role in niche use (for example, plate count, gill raker number). Multiple sources of variation have contributed to their divergence. But few studies have considered how crucial genomic and population factors impact the pattern of evolution in the wild. The Fellow will sample multiple independently derived populations to test how the source of variation affects the speed and likelihood of adaptation in the wild, by combining genomics and phenotyping.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.