NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Desert Adaptations of Asiloid Flies: Genomics, Heat Shock Proteins, and Climate Change

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。随着全球气候变化导致气温上升，研究那些处于危险之中并且在很大程度上被忽视的群体是很重要的，比如适应沙漠的昆虫。通过研究沙漠蝇的多样性和生理适应性，研究员将研究这些不同的物种如何适应极端温度。关于气候变化对这些群体影响的研究也可能为其他适应沙漠的昆虫如何应对全球气候变化提供信息。该研究员将为来自代表性不足群体的学生提供以收藏为基础的研究方面的指导和培训。该研究员还将在赞助机构与公众接触，传播研究结果并教育公众了解收藏的重要性。由于沙漠中物种丰富，asiloid苍蝇是一个理想的模型系统，以研究生命如何适应沙漠和什么样的生理机制可能导致其多样化。在这个项目中，该研究员将对asiloid苍蝇群体的广泛样本的基因组进行测序，这将作为基础数据集，用于该研究员和其他对基因组学感兴趣的研究人员的进一步研究。此外，该研究员将确定和表征asiloid苍蝇的热休克蛋白，并了解它们如何影响对沙漠生物群落的适应。利用历史地理学，分布模型和以前的研究结果相结合，研究员将研究全球气候变化如何影响asiloid苍蝇和其他沙漠适应群体。该研究员将接受基因组测序、生物信息学、热休克蛋白鉴定和定性方面的培训。此外，该研究员将学习各种基于收藏的研究技能，包括博物馆组学，形态学和网络分类学。该研究员将在赞助机构与来自不同背景的本科实习生合作，提供各种基因组和基于收集的研究方法的指导，学术指导和培训。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. As temperatures rise due to global climate change, it is important to study groups that are at risk and have largely been neglected, like desert adapted insects. By studying the diversification and physiological adaptations of desert flies, the fellow will investigate how these different species have adapted to extreme temperatures. The studies on the effects of climate change on these groups may also inform how other desert adapted insects will respond to global climate change. The fellow will provide mentorship and training in collections-based studies for students from underrepresented groups. The fellow will also engage the public at the sponsoring institution, disseminating findings and educating the public about the importance of collections. Given high species richness in deserts, asiloid flies are an ideal model system to investigate how life has adapted to deserts and what physiological mechanisms may have led to their diversification. In this project the fellow will sequence the genomes of a broad sample of asiloid fly groups, that will serve as a foundational dataset to be used for further studies for the fellow and other researchers interested in genomics. In addition, the fellow will identify and characterize the heat shock proteins of asiloid flies and develop an understanding of how they have influenced adaptation to desert biomes. Using a combination of historical biogeography, distribution modeling, and results from previous studies, the fellow will investigate how global climate change may affect asiloid flies and other desert adapted groups. The fellow will be trained in genome sequencing, bioinformatics, heat shock protein identification and characterization. In addition, the fellow will learn various collections-based research skills including museomics, morphology and cybertaxonomy. The fellow will engage with undergraduate interns from diverse backgrounds at the sponsoring institution, providing mentorship, academic guidance, and training in various genomic and collection-based research methods.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.