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

这项行动资助了2023财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，综合研究调查了基因组，环境和表型之间的生命管理相互作用的规则。父母的照顾对后代的生存至关重要，因此，父母的繁殖成功。然而，随着动物形成新的种群，环境压力可能会以同样改变父母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仔免受捕食者的侵害，或者可以获得新的资源，例如保护或保护幼仔的筑巢材料。大多数关于父母行为进化的研究都是比较数百万年前彼此分离的物种。然而，我们对自然选择如何在种群刚刚开始分化时塑造父母的行为知之甚少。这项研究将研究如何在一个新的三刺棘鱼（Gastereous aculeatus）种群中进化失去父母的照顾行为，这是一个父亲通常照顾孩子的物种。此外，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，可能导致父母行为和动物生殖策略的变化。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）性腺中的激素产生机制（即，酶途径）跨越育种阶段，和（3）使用尖端的转基因工具，功能测试基因型和行为表型在两个群体之间的联系。通过这种综合和比较的方法，本研究将揭示在微进化时间尺度上，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/父母在科学方面的支持，包括在科学会议上的支持，促进扩大代表性不足群体的参与。该研究员还将指导社区大学的学生，这一人群往往被排除在本科研究之外，通过一个既定的NSF本科生研究经验计划。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 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.