CAREER: Empirical Tests of the Fundamental Theorems of Evolution and Natural Selection

该项目将首次对长期存在的理论进行实验测试，该理论认为，由于自然选择的影响，种群内个体的平均健康状况会发生变化，这决定了生物体特征进化的速度和种群对环境的适应。达尔文的适合度，或个体的生存和繁殖，是生物学中的一个基本概念。科学家们假设，一个群体适应的速度是由个体适应能力的遗传预测的。这样的假设可以预测进化和种群动态，使科学家能够预测自然种群对未来环境变化的反应，以及种群是否会持续或灭绝。这个项目的目标是建立一个研究计划，以(1)改进进化预测和(2)整合教育计划，培训学生和教师进行假设驱动的研究。教育部分将通过自然选择向高中教师和学生传授进化论，同时培训他们通过独立的项目进行自己的科学研究，这将促进该项目的整体研究目标。这些计划针对的是高中和本科阶段代表性不足的少数族裔学生，并寻求培训来自阿拉巴马州农村的高中教师。通过来自阿拉巴马州农村的数千名学生的参与，该项目的活动涉及基本科学素养、参与STEM以及STEM教育者和教育资源的开发。费舍尔的自然选择基本定理将由于自然选择而导致的种群平均健康变化率表示为健康的加性遗传方差的函数。进化的基本定理是关于适应度变化的更广泛的陈述，包括由于自然选择和作用于种群平均适应度的附加力的反应。尽管理论发展有很长的历史，但对进化论基本定理或自然选择的实证检验很少。本研究是首次利用加性遗传方差对斑纹夜蛾(Callosobruchus Maculatus)复制种群的适合度进行实验操作，以检验该遗传方差是预测种群平均适合度变化率的关键数量的理论。然后，该项目将把适合度的遗传方差估计与遗传协方差联系起来，量化因同种相互作用而产生的适合度环境恶化。同种竞争和性冲突对健康进化的影响解决了一个长期但尚未解决的争论，即性选择是否为人口提供了净成本或净收益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 be the first to experimentally test the long-standing theory that change in average individual fitness within a population due to the effects of natural selection sets the rate by which traits of organisms evolve and populations adapt to their environments. Darwinian fitness, or individual survival and reproduction, is a foundational concept in biology. Scientists have hypothesized that the rate at which a population adapts is predicted by the genetic inheritance of individual fitness. Such a hypothesis could enable the forecasting of evolution and population dynamics, allowing scientists the ability to predict how natural populations respond to future environmental changes and if populations will persist or go extinct. The goals of this project are to establish a research program to (1) improve evolutionary predictions and (2) integrate education programs that train students and teachers to conduct hypothesis-driven research. The education component will teach high school teachers and students about evolution by natural selection while training them to conduct their own scientific research through independent projects that will further the project’s overall research goals. These plans target underrepresented minority students at the high school and undergraduate levels and seek to train high school teachers from rural Alabama. Through involvement of several thousand students from rural Alabama, this project’s activities address basic science literacy, engagement in STEM, and development of STEM educators and educational resources.Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection expresses the rate of population mean fitness change due to natural selection as a function of the additive genetic variance for fitness. The fundamental theorem of evolution is a broader statement about fitness change that includes the response due to natural selection and additional forces acting on population mean fitness. Despite a long history of theoretical development, there has been little empirical testing of either the fundamental theorems of evolution or natural selection. This project is a first-of-its-kind study to experimentally manipulate additive genetic variance for fitness among replicate populations of seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus) to test the theory that this genetic variance is the key quantity predicting the rate of change in population mean fitness. The project will then connect estimates of genetic variance in fitness with genetic covariance quantifying environmental deterioration for fitness arising from conspecific interactions. The impacts of conspecific competition and sexual conflict on fitness evolution address a long-standing, but unresolved debate whether sexual selection provides net costs or benefits to populations.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.