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

该行动资助了2022财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即调查基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究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。许多动物在陆地、海洋或天空中长途迁徙。这些迁徙通常是季节性的，与寻找食物或配偶有关。尽管我们熟悉驯鹿、鲸鱼和鸟类等迁徙物种，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。这项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，并将海龟作为研究系统。该研究员将与当地的初中和高中学生建立联系，通过合作制定符合科学标准的课程计划，并开展令人兴奋和引人入胜的活动，以扩大对科学的参与。更清楚地了解迁徙机制将有助于了解迁徙物种适应环境迅速变化的能力。这项研究整合了基因组学、觅食生态学、稳定同位素分析和卫星遥测等学科，以研究迁徙行为的分子机制。该研究员将收集合作者通过以前的卫星遥测和稳定同位素研究确定的北大西洋已知迁徙模式的红海龟的现有组织样本，并将其编目。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。通过将读段与高质量的参考基因组进行比对，这项研究将识别与检测到的任何离群值相关的候选基因。这项研究将评估基因组中的变异是否与迁移的时间和目的地沿着迁移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移表型相关的基因，以研究长距离迁移的进化历史。该研究员将获得尖端基因组学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类群迁移行为相关的长期存在的问题提供了巨大的潜力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.