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

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。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。今天在自然界中可观察到的植物和动物形式的多样性来自于积累的形态创新。尽管科学界对这一主题很感兴趣，但产生新形式的进化过程仍然充满了神秘和争论。一个有希望的模式是遗传同化，在这种模式中，由环境诱导的变异（表型可塑性）产生的新形式后来可以由遗传决定。然而，目前还不清楚这种从环境控制到遗传控制的转变是如何发生的。该项目旨在描述促进遗传同化的分子机制，以进一步了解形态学的新奇，多样性和进化。作为一个研究系统，该研究员将利用豌豆蚜虫，其中雌性形式的变异已经通过DNA的变化在雄性中遗传同化。豌豆蚜虫产生两种类型的无翅变种：由母体环境诱导的无性无翅雌性（翅多型，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“无翅”不仅描述了翅膀的损失，而且描述了代谢，行为和多种形态特征状态的系统性变化。因此，“无翅”豌豆蚜虫变体包括表型新奇的真正实例。两个重复的基因卵泡抑素（fs），TGF-β配体抑制剂，分别参与男性和女性无翅形态的决定。重复fs 2在无翅雌性中上调，而fs 3重复的存在决定了无翅雄性的形态。这两个重复显示其蛋白质编码和推定的调控区的变化。该研究员将使用尖端的实验技术来表征fs旁系同源物的顺式调节（Aim 1）、选择特征（Aim 2）和蛋白质功能（Aim 3）的变化，以确定复制和分歧如何促进遗传同化。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 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.