Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology: Development, Evolution, and Genetic Mechanisms of Regionalization within the Axial Column: Aves (Birds) as a Model System

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。这项研究解决了生物学中的基本问题；也就是说，新的解剖特征是如何进化的，生物是如何多样化的。尽管脊椎动物中轴柱（脊柱、肩膀和臀部）的结构和区域分布的发育差异决定了脊椎动物的多样性，但这些差异的功能、结构、进化和发展在很大程度上仍是未知的。因此，对鸟类融合椎体区域如何发育和进化的比较研究对于更好地理解这些过程背后的遗传学、骨骼如何发育以及脊椎动物如何进化至关重要。新的藏品将为史密森国家自然历史博物馆（NMNH）制作，这将支持未来脊椎动物进化的研究，并将为研究员提供必要的培训，以从事古生物学和生物学的前沿跨学科研究。本研究将为本科生实习生提供指导和培训。该研究员将以这项研究为跳板，为NMNH的公共和教育项目做出贡献，并完成对少数民族初中和高中的36次课堂访问。该研究员将使用遗传、发育、形态学和进化方法，在系统发育和功能背景下研究鸟类轴向骨骼的进化，描述和跟踪五种鸟类脊柱融合的发展，并研究与这些物种融合相关的基因表达。鸟类提供了一个很好的研究系统来研究脊柱的特征进化，因为它们的脊柱呈现出一个自然的实验系统，有三个骨融合区域，每个区域都有单独的进化史。关于轴向柱的研究很少集中在鸟类身上，而那些研究大多只研究一种物种。该研究员将进行实地考察，并与育种者一起收集鸟类胚胎和雏鸡，并将使用系统发育分析和化石校准，标本成像和解剖，创建个体发生系列，转录组提取和分析来研究轴柱的进化和生态，发育和基因表达规则。该研究员将接受这些方法的培训，更广泛的影响将集中在扩大公众、本科生和少数族裔学生对STEM的参与上。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. This research addresses fundamental questions in biology; namely, how new anatomical traits evolve and how living things diversify. Although developmental differences in the structure and regionalization of the axial column (the spine, shoulders and hips) determine much of diversity in vertebrates, the function, structure, evolution and development of these differences remains largely unknown. This comparative study of how regions of fused vertebrae develop and evolve in birds is thus critical to better understand the genetics behind these processes, how the skeleton develops, and how vertebrates evolve. New collections will be produced for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), which will support future research in vertebrate evolution, and will provide the fellow with training necessary to pursue cutting-edge interdisciplinary research across paleontology and biology. This research will provide mentorship and training to undergraduate interns. The fellow will use this research as a springboard to contribute to NMNH public and educational programs as well as complete 36 classroom visits to minoritized middle and high schools.The fellow will use genetic, developmental, morphological, and evolutionary approaches to study the evolution of the axial skeleton of birds in a phylogenetic and functional context, describe and track the development of vertebral column fusion across five bird species, and study gene expression associated with these fusions across these species. Birds provide an excellent study system in which to study trait evolution in the vertebral column, as their spine presents a natural experimental system with three regions of bone fusion, each with a separate evolutionary history. Few studies regarding the axial column have focused on birds, and those that have largely examine only one study species. The fellow will conduct fieldwork and work with breeders to collect avian embryos and chicks and will use phylogenetic analysis and fossil calibration, specimen imaging and dissection, creation of ontogenetic series, and transcriptome extraction and analysis to investigate evolutionary and ecological, developmental, and gene expression rules regarding the axial column. The fellow will receive training in these methods, and broader impacts will focus on broadening participation of the public, undergraduates and minoritized students in STEM.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.