CAREER: The role of local adaptation to reproductive conflict in the distribution of facultatively parthenogenetic reproduction

职业：局部适应生殖冲突在兼性孤雌生殖分布中的作用

• 批准号: 2237684
• 负责人: Mercedes Burns
• 金额: $ 98.71万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Baltimore County
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2028-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2237684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; role; local; adaptation; reproductive

The most common reproductive mechanism in animals involves males and females but often comes at a cost to females and reduces their rate of reproduction overall. Alternatively, some species can reproduce either with or without male involvement facultatively. This combinatory reproductive mode presents a compelling opportunity for researchers to understand why reproduction that produces males is so widespread. The project will quantify the relationships between density, reproductive behavior, and reproductive mode among populations of a species with just such facultative reproduction in the group Opiliones (harvestman or “daddy-longlegs”). In particular, the work will assess when reproductive mode changes occur, and whether they are in response to male harassment behavior. A novel genetic approach will be employed to identify whether offspring have been produced with or without the involvement of a male. In addition, the project will examine whether female resistance to mating affects the reproductive mode they ultimately use. Students involved in the project will be trained in observational and molecular research approaches as part of a new laboratory course on biodiversity and global applications. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programming for a new committee for the American Arachnological Society will also be developed and deployed. This research is being jointly supported by IOS Behavioral Systems and DEB Evolutionary Processes programs.Although facultative parthenogenesis has long interested evolutionary biologists due to the opportunities presented by these systems to examine the evolutionary fitness benefits of alternative reproductive modes, locally adaptive mechanisms for the maintenance of reproductive alternatives, and detailed geographic patterns of reproductive mode have not been explored in natural systems. Additionally, models predicting the maintenance and pattern of multiple reproductive modes that are expressed facultatively commonly assume irreversibility of reproductive mode; an assumption that has not been established empirically. The local adaptation to sexual conflict (LASC) hypothesis was developed to predict when and where females would switch among reproductive modes. LASC predicts that females in habitats with high male density are adapted to frequent male coercion and will resist coercion by males and adopt parthenogenetic reproductive modes, particularly in the early breeding season. Alternatively, females from low-density, female-biased populations will be less likely to exhibit antagonistic behaviors towards males, and/or will be more easily overcome by coercive males. Thus, this study will characterize the geographic landscape of male density, reproductive behavior, and reproductive mode to evaluate this hypothesis. This study and the robust evaluation of the LASC hypothesis will make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the maintenance of reproductive mode diversity, particularly in the understudied arachnid order, Opiliones.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.

动物中最常见的生殖机制涉及雄性和雌性，但通常以雌性为代价，并降低了它们的整体生殖率。或者，有些物种可以繁殖，无论有或没有男性参与的院系。这种组合生殖模式为研究人员提供了一个令人信服的机会，以了解为什么产生雄性的生殖如此普遍。该项目将量化密度，生殖行为和生殖模式之间的关系，一个物种的种群，只是这样的兼性生殖组Opiliones（收获者或“长腿叔叔”）。特别是，这项工作将评估生殖模式的变化何时发生，以及它们是否是对男性骚扰行为的反应。将采用一种新的遗传方法来确定后代是否在有或没有雄性参与的情况下产生。此外，该项目还将研究女性对交配的抵抗是否会影响她们最终使用的生殖模式。参与该项目的学生将接受观察和分子研究方法的培训，作为关于生物多样性和全球应用的新实验室课程的一部分。多样性，公平和包容性的美国蜘蛛学会新委员会的方案也将开发和部署。这项研究得到了IOS行为系统和DEB进化过程项目的联合支持。尽管兼性单性生殖长期以来一直引起进化生物学家的兴趣，因为这些系统提供了研究替代生殖模式的进化适应性益处的机会，但维持生殖选择的局部适应机制，在自然系统中还没有探索过生殖模式的详细地理模式。此外，预测多个生殖模式的维持和模式的模型通常假设生殖模式的不可逆性，这一假设尚未建立经验。性冲突的局部适应假说（LASC）被用来预测雌性在何时何地转换生殖模式。LASC预测，在高密度的男性栖息地的女性适应频繁的男性胁迫，将抵制胁迫男性，并采取孤雌生殖模式，特别是在繁殖季节的早期。或者，女性从低密度，女性偏见的人口将不太可能表现出对男性的敌对行为，和/或将更容易克服胁迫男性。因此，本研究将描述地理景观的男性密度，生殖行为和生殖模式，以评估这一假设。这项研究和强大的评估LASC假说将作出宝贵的贡献，我们的理解的生殖方式的多样性，特别是在研究不足的蜘蛛目，Opiliones.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是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的支持。