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

这个项目将是第一个实验测试长期存在的理论，即由于自然选择的影响，种群内平均个体适应度的变化决定了生物体特征进化和种群适应环境的速度。达尔文的适应性，或个体生存和繁殖，是生物学中的一个基本概念。科学家们假设，种群适应的速度是由个体适应性的遗传来预测的。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如何应对未来的环境变化，以及种群是否会持续存在或灭绝。该项目的目标是建立一个研究计划，以（1）改善进化预测和（2）整合教育计划，培训学生和教师进行假设驱动的研究。教育部分将向高中教师和学生讲授自然选择的进化，同时培训他们通过独立项目进行自己的科学研究，这将促进项目的总体研究目标。这些计划针对高中和本科阶段代表性不足的少数民族学生，并寻求培训来自亚拉巴马农村的高中教师。通过参与数千名来自农村亚拉巴马的学生，该项目的活动解决了基本的科学素养，参与STEM，以及STEM教育者和教育资源的发展。费舍尔的自然选择基本定理表达了由于自然选择的人口平均适应度变化率作为适应度的加性遗传方差的函数。进化的基本定理是一个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额外力量的反应。尽管理论发展历史悠久，但对进化或自然选择的基本定理几乎没有经验检验。该项目是第一个同类的研究，实验操纵种子甲虫（Callosobruchus maculatus）的重复种群之间的健身加性遗传方差，以测试理论，这种遗传方差是预测人口平均健身率变化的关键量。然后，该项目将连接估计的遗传方差的健身与遗传协方差量化环境恶化的健身所产生的同种相互作用。同种竞争和性冲突对健身进化的影响解决了一个长期存在但尚未解决的争论，即性选择是否为种群提供净成本或收益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。

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.