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

该项目将研究细胞调节如何影响不同环境中两种马利筋物种之间的生殖障碍。理解这一点很重要，因为它揭示了物种适应环境的方式以及它们如何相互作用。该项目将使用田间实验，基因组学和代谢组学分析来探索杂交和遗传和环境干扰对基因网络和细胞代谢的影响。这个项目将有助于我们理解细胞机制，遗传不相容性，以及物种在不同环境中相互作用的方式。这些知识将有助于预测气候变化和人类活动如何影响不同物种之间的关系。更广泛的影响包括让南达科他州的K12学生参与研究经验，并为代表性不足的学生提供教育机会。最后，该项目将开发一个本科生物信息学课程，重点是定量推理和编程技能。本计画将借由研究马利筋与马利筋杂交后的细胞调节功能障碍，来探讨内在与外在的生殖障碍如何造成物种隔离。speciosa。该研究将侧重于确定每个物种在亲本环境中的细胞调控网络和应激反应代谢，并表征杂交细胞表达的多样性及其对适应性的影响。这项研究将通过RNA测序和定量根和叶组织中的胁迫代谢物进行。更广泛的影响被整合到研究中，在南达科他州的K12学校的公共花园中进行实验，以量化前合子和后合子障碍对生殖隔离的相对贡献。科学和教育目标的进一步整合将包括开发本科生物信息学课程，重点是定量推理，建模和模拟，以及通过R编程应用科学过程。这项研究将有助于了解基因相互作用和物种隔离过程中出现的不相容性类型，随着气候变化和人类干扰改变物种范围并使以前隔离的物种接触，这将变得越来越重要。该项目由综合有机体系统综合生态生理学计划（IEP），刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR），该奖项反映了NSF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 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.