NSF PRFB FY 2023: Investigating enhancer and protein divergence at follistatin paralogs underlying genetic assimilation of wing plasticity

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。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。今天在自然界中可观察到的植物和动物形态的多样性源于积累的形态创新。尽管科学界对这个话题很感兴趣，但产生新形态的进化过程仍然充满了神秘和争论。一个有希望的模型是遗传同化，在这种模型中，从环境诱导的变异（表型可塑性）中出现的新形式后来可以由遗传决定。然而，目前尚不清楚这种从环境控制到基因控制的转变是如何发生的。本项目旨在描述促进遗传同化的分子机制，以进一步了解形态新颖性，多样性和进化。作为一种研究系统，研究员将利用豌豆蚜虫，其中雌性形式的变异通过DNA的变化被雄性遗传吸收。豌豆蚜虫产生两种类型的无翅形态：由母体环境诱导的无性无翅雌性（翅膀多表型，一种表型可塑性）和遗传决定的无翅雄性（遗传同化）。重要的是，这里使用的简写术语“无翼”不仅描述了翅膀的丧失，还描述了代谢、行为和多种形态特征状态的系统性变化。因此，“无翅”豌豆蚜虫变种构成了表型新颖性的真正例子。卵泡抑素基因（fs）的两个重复，一种tgf - β配体抑制剂，分别参与雄性和雌性无翅形态的决定。fs2的副本在无翅雌性中被上调，而fs3副本的存在决定了无翅雄性的形态。这两个重复显示改变其蛋白质编码和假定的调控区域。该研究员将使用尖端的实验技术来表征顺式调节（目标1）、选择特征（目标2）和蛋白质功能（目标3）的变化，以确定复制和分化如何促进遗传同化。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. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Today's diversity of plant and animal forms observable in nature arises from accumulated morphological innovations. Despite the scientific interest in this topic, the evolutionary processes that give rise to new forms are still surrounded by mystery and debate. One promising model is genetic assimilation, in which new forms that have emerged from environmentally induced variation (phenotypic plasticity), can later become genetically determined. However, it remains unclear how such a switch from environmental to genetic control might occur. This project aims to characterize the molecular mechanisms facilitating genetic assimilation, to further our understanding of morphological novelty, diversity, and evolution. As a study system, the fellow will utilize the pea aphid, in which a female form variation has been genetically assimilated in males by changes in their DNA. Pea aphids produce two types of wingless morphs: asexual wingless females induced by maternal environment (wing polyphenism, a type of phenotypic plasticity), and genetically determined wingless males (genetic assimilation). Importantly, the shorthand term "wingless" used here describes not only a loss of wings, but a systemic change in metabolic, behavioral, and multiple morphological character states. Thus, "wingless" pea aphid morphs comprise a bona fide example of phenotypic novelty. Two duplicates of the gene follistatin (fs), a TGF-beta ligand inhibitor, are separately involved in male and female wingless morph determination. The duplicate fs2 is upregulated in wingless females, while the presence of the fs3 duplicate determines wingless male morphs. Both duplicates exhibit changes to their protein coding and putative regulatory regions. The fellow will use cutting edge experimental techniques to characterize changes in cis-regulation (Aim 1), signatures of selection (Aim 2), and protein function (Aim 3) at fs paralogs, to determine how duplication and divergence facilitated genetic assimilation.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.