NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: The Roles of Gene Flow and Local Adaptation in Driving Fitness in a Genetically Depauperate Fish

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。这项研究解决了如何孤立的种群遗传多样性低坚持重点是一个亚种的割喉鳟鱼：绿背割喉。美背杀手，尽管是科罗拉多的州鱼，几乎灭绝，并已减少到一个单一的生存人口和少数重新引入人口建立从一个人口。该项目旨在比较绿背割喉者和近亲在景观和种群水平上的遗传多样性，然后将这些数据与新栖息地恢复种群的能力联系起来。该项目利用了过去的一项实验，在该实验中，两个亚种被杂交，以确定有助于适应性的基因组特征，并提高绿背割喉者的遗传多样性，而不会淹没亚种特有的遗传特征。该项目还将把这些方法带到当地一所少数民族服务大学的课堂上，以帮助培训学生掌握这些尖端技术。该项目的目标是将表型性状的遗传基础与遗传分离和孤立鱼类的环境相互作用联系起来。这项研究将提供一个预测框架，其中在三个生态和人口尺度上通过全基因组测序确定的基因组特征与个人健身有关。首先，它将评估两个亚种的遗传变异，美钞和密切相关的科罗拉多河割喉鳟鱼，并确定基因座与关键环境特征使用遗传环境分析。然后，它将集中在最近重新引入的人口，以衡量遗传多样性在引进预测人口的持久性通过表型可塑性或快速适应。最后，从两个亚种和它们的杂交后代的基因组数据将被用来确定与近交负荷和负健身在绿背割喉相关的位点。这些数据将告知遗传变异和环境属性如何表现为个体适应性以及每个亚种适应遗传多样性变化条件的相对能力。最后，该研究员将在当地的少数民族服务机构领导实地和板凳模块，目标是引入有利于职业发展的技能，并追求STEM的高级学位。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. This research addresses how isolated populations with low genetic diversity persist with focus on a subspecies of cutthroat trout: the greenback cutthroat. The greenback cutthroat, despite being Colorado’s state fish, was nearly extirpated and has been reduced to a single surviving population and a handful of reintroduced populations founded from that one population. This project seeks to compare genetic diversity between greenback cutthroat and a close relative at the landscape and population levels and then link those data with the ability for recovery populations in new habitats. The project leverages a past experiment in which the two subspecies were crossed to identify genomic features that contribute to fitness and boost the genetic diversity of greenback cutthroat without swamping the genetic features that are specific to the subspecies. The project will also bring these methods into the classroom at a local minority serving college to help train students in these cutting-edge technologies.The goal of this project is to link the genetic basis of phenotypic traits to their interaction with the environment for a genetically depauperate and isolated fish. This research will provide a predictive framework in which genomic features identified with whole-genome sequencing at three ecological and demographic scales are linked to individual fitness. First, it will assess standing genetic variation in two subspecies, the greenback and the closely related Colorado River cutthroat trout, and identify loci correlated with key environmental features using genetic-environmental analyses. It will then focus on recently reintroduced populations to measure how genetic diversity at introduction predicts the populations persistence via phenotypic plasticity or rapid adaptation. Lastly, genomic data from the two subspecies and their hybrids will be used to identify loci associated with inbreeding load and negative fitness in greenback cutthroat. These data will inform how genetic variation and environmental attributes manifest as individual fitness and the relative ability of each subspecies to adapt to changing conditions as a function of genetic diversity. Finally, the Fellow will lead both field and bench modules at a local, minority serving institution with the goal of introducing skills beneficial to career development and in pursuit of advanced degrees 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.