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

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。亲代的关爱对后代的生存至关重要，因此对父母的繁殖成功也至关重要。然而，随着动物形成新的种群，环境压力可能会以改变亲代策略的方式发生变化。例如，新的种群可能不再需要广泛地保护幼鸟免受捕食者的侵害，或者可能有机会获得新的资源，例如保护或滋养幼鸟的筑巢材料。大多数关于亲代行为进化的研究比较了数百万年前彼此分离的物种。然而，当种群刚刚开始分化时，我们对自然选择如何影响亲代行为知之甚少。这项研究将研究在一个新的三刺鱼种群（Gastereous aculeatus）中，亲代照顾行为是如何在进化中消失的，在这个物种中，父亲通常照顾孩子。总之，该项目将深入了解环境变化，包括气候变化等人类引起的环境变化，如何导致亲代行为和动物生殖策略的变化。本研究将通过(1)比较大脑中神经激素敏感性的差异，(2)生殖腺激素生产机制（即酶途径）在整个繁殖阶段的差异，以及(3)使用尖端的转基因工具对两个种群的基因型和行为表型之间的联系进行功能测试，来研究自然选择如何在最近分化的棘鱼种群中塑造内分泌和行为表型。通过这种综合和比较的方法，本研究将揭示在微观进化时间尺度上，个体内部和群体之间如何出现新的行为策略。该研究员将接受当前生物信息学分析和使用转基因的功能神经基因组学的培训。该研究员还将通过培养对母亲/父母的科学支持，包括在科学会议上的支持，为扩大代表性不足的群体的参与作出贡献。该研究员还将指导社区大学生，这一群体通常被排除在本科研究之外，通过一个已建立的NSF本科研究经验项目。最后，该研究员将通过领导开放科学、可重复性和数据管理方面的社区培训，为科学研究的基础设施做出贡献。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 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.