NSF PRFB FY23: How do endocrine-molecular mechanisms evolve when parental strategies diverge? Insights from stickleback fish ecotypes

这一行动为NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。父母的照顾对于后代的生存至关重要，因此，父母的生殖成功也是如此。然而，随着动物形成新的种群，环境压力可能会发生变化，这也会改变父母的策略。例如，新的种群可能不再需要广泛地保护幼崽免受捕食者的伤害，或者可能获得新的资源，如保护或滋养幼崽的筑巢材料。大多数关于父母行为进化的研究都比较了数百万年前分离出来的物种。然而，当种群刚刚开始分化时，我们对自然选择如何塑造父母的行为知之甚少。这项研究将研究在一个新的三刺刺鱼种群中，父母的照顾行为是如何进化地丧失的，这是一个父亲通常照顾幼鱼的物种。此外，这个项目将提供对环境变化的洞察，包括气候变化等人类造成的环境变化，可能会导致父母行为和动物繁殖策略的变化。这项研究将通过(1)比较大脑中神经激素敏感性的差异和(2)性腺中激素产生机制(即酶途径)的不同，以及(3)使用尖端的转基因工具从功能上测试两个种群中基因和行为表型之间的联系，来研究自然选择如何塑造最近分化的刺鱼种群的内分泌和行为表型。通过这种综合和比较的方法，这项研究将揭示在微进化时间尺度上，新的行为策略如何在个体内部和群体之间出现。这位研究员将接受使用转基因技术进行当前生物信息学分析和功能神经基因组学方面的培训。该研究员还将通过培养对母亲/父母在科学方面的支持，包括在科学会议上的支持，为扩大代表不足群体的参与作出贡献。这位研究员还将通过建立的NSF本科研究经历计划，指导社区大学生，这是一个经常被排除在本科研究之外的群体。最后，该研究员将通过领导社区在开放科学、可重复性和数据管理方面的培训，为科学研究的基础设施做出贡献。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 action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. Parental care is critical for offspring survival, and thus, the parents’ reproductive success. However, as animals form new populations, environmental pressures might change in ways that also change parental strategies. For example, new populations may no longer need to protect young as extensively from predators, or may have access to new resources, such as nesting material that protects or nourishes young. Most research on the evolution of parental behavior compares species that split from each other millions of years ago. However, we know little about how natural selection shapes parental behaviors when populations are just starting to differentiate. This research will examine how parental care behaviors have been evolutionarily lost in a new population of three-spined stickleback fish (Gastereous aculeatus), a species in which fathers typically care for young. Alogether, this project will provide insight into how environmental changes, including those caused by humans such as climate change, may lead to changes in parental behavior and animal reproductive strategies. This research will examine how natural selection has shaped endocrine and behavioral phenotypes in recently-diverged populations of stickleback by (1) comparing differences in neural hormone sensitivity in the brain and (2) hormone production machinery in the gonads (i.e., enzymatic pathways) across breeding stages, and (3) using cutting-edge transgenic tools to functionally test links between genotype and behavioral phenotype in both populations. With this integrative and comparative approach, this research will uncover how novel behavioral strategies emerge both within individuals and between populations at microevolutionary timescales. The fellow will receive training in current bioinformatic analysis and functional neurogenomics using transgenics. The fellow will also contribute to broadening participation of underrepresented groups by cultivating support for mothers/parents in science, including at scientific conferences. The fellow will also mentor community college students, a population often excluded from undergraduate research, through an established NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate program. Finally, the fellow will contribute to infrastructure for scientific research by leading community trainings in open science, reproducibility and data management.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.