CAREER: The interaction of deficits in cellular regulation and divergent parental environments to postzygotic isolation in hybridizing milkweeds (Asclepias)

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This project will study how cellular regulation affects the reproductive barriers between two milkweed species in different environments. Understanding this is important because it sheds light on the ways in which species adapt to their environments and how they interact with each other. The project will use field experiments, genomics, and metabolomics analyses to explore the effects of hybridization and genetic and environmental perturbation on gene networks and cellular metabolism. This project will contribute to our understanding of cellular mechanisms, genetic incompatibilities, and the ways in which species interact with each other in different environments. This knowledge will be valuable in predicting how climate change and human activities might affect the relationships between different species. The broader impacts include engaging K12 students in South Dakota in research experiences and providing educational opportunities for underrepresented students. Finally, the project will develop an undergraduate Bioinformatics curriculum that focuses on quantitative reasoning and programming skills. This project will investigate how intrinsic and extrinsic reproductive barriers contribute to species isolation by examining the cellular regulatory dysfunction in hybrids of two milkweeds, Asclepias syriaca and A. speciosa. The study will focus on identifying the cellular regulatory networks and stress-response metabolism of each species in parental environments and characterizing the diversity of hybrid cellular expression and its impact on fitness. The research will be conducted through RNA-sequencing and quantification of stress metabolites in root and leaf tissue. The broader impacts are integrated into the research with experiments in common gardens at K12 schools across South Dakota to quantify the relative contributions of pre- and postzygotic barriers to reproductive isolation. Further integration of the scientific and educational aims will include the development of an undergraduate Bioinformatics curriculum that focuses on quantitative reasoning, modeling, and simulation, and applying the process of science via programming in R. This research will contribute to understanding gene interactions and the types of incompatibilities that arise during species isolation, which will become increasingly important as climate change and human disturbances shift species ranges and bring previously isolated species into contact.This project is jointly funded by the Integrative Ecological Physiology program (IEP) in Integrative Organismal Systems, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Evolutionary Processes (EP) program in the Division of Environmental Biology.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.