NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2022: Examining molecular mechanisms of migratory behavior

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2022财年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对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。许多动物长途迁徙，跨越陆地、海洋或天空。这些迁徙通常是季节性的，与寻找食物或配偶有关。尽管我们对驯鹿、鲸鱼和鸟类等迁徙物种很熟悉，但我们对这些动物如何知道何时何地迁徙知之甚少。这种知识差距限制了我们预测气候变化和栖息地变化将如何影响迁徙物种的能力。本研究的目的是调查动物的遗传密码模式是否与其迁徙行为有关，并以海龟为研究系统。该研究员将与当地的初中和高中学生联系，通过合作制定符合科学标准的课程计划，以及令人兴奋和吸引人的活动，扩大对科学的参与。对迁徙机制的更清晰理解将有助于了解迁徙物种适应快速环境变化的能力。本研究整合基因组学、觅食生态学、稳定同位素分析和卫星遥测等学科来研究迁徙行为的分子机制。该研究员将收集和编目北大西洋已知迁徙模式的红海龟的现有组织样本，这些样本由合作者通过先前的卫星遥测和稳定同位素研究确定。从这些样本中，该研究员将准备全基因组重测序文库和生物信息学管道，以检查与迁移表型相关的基因组变异。通过比对高质量的参考基因组，本研究将确定与检测到的异常值相关的候选基因。这项研究将评估基因组的变异是否与迁徙的时间和目的地以及迁徙地点的环境变量有关。最后，该研究员将使用比较基因组学框架来研究与海洋、淡水和陆地海龟物种的迁徙表型相关的基因，以检查长途迁徙的进化史。该研究员将获得尖端基因组方法和生物信息学方面的培训，这些方法和生物信息学为回答与跨分类群迁移行为相关的长期问题提供了巨大的潜力。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 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. Many animals migrate long distances across the land, sea, or sky. These migrations are usually seasonal and relate to finding food or mates. Despite our familiarity with migratory species like caribou, whales, and birds, we know very little about how these animals know when and where to migrate. This knowledge gap limits our ability to predict how climate change and changing habitats will impact migratory species. The objective of this research is to investigate whether patterns in an animal’s genetic code relate to its migratory behavior and uses sea turtles as a study system. The fellow will connect with local middle school and high school students to broaden participation in science by collaboratively developing lesson plans that meet science standards with activities that are exciting and engaging. A clearer understanding of the mechanisms of migration will shed light on the ability of migratory species to adapt to rapid environmental change. This research integrates the disciplines of genomics, foraging ecology, stable isotope analysis, and satellite telemetry to examine the molecular mechanisms of migratory behavior. The fellow will gather and catalogue existing tissue samples from loggerhead sea turtles with known migratory patterns in the North Atlantic as identified by collaborators via previous satellite telemetry and stable isotope studies. From these samples, the fellow will prepare whole genome resequencing libraries and bioinformatics pipelines to examine genomic variation associated with migratory phenotypes. By aligning reads to a high-quality reference genome, this research will identify candidate genes correlated with any outliers detected. This research will evaluate whether variation in the genome is associated with the timing and destination of migration along with environmental variables at migratory sites. Finally, the fellow will use a comparative genomics framework to study the genes associated with migratory phenotype across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial turtle species to examine the evolutionary history of long-distance migration. The fellow will gain training in cutting-edge genomic methods and bioinformatics that offer great potential for answering long-standing questions related to migratory behavior across taxa.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.