NSF PRFB FY 2023: Behavioral and Physiological Innovations Facilitating the Evolution of Brood Parasitism

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。本计画将透过肌肉生理学与基因组学来探讨鸟类自私乞讨行为的演化。对于许多动物来说，在孵化/出生后立即生存是最具挑战性的，自然选择强烈支持在这个阶段进化极端（有时是奇怪的）行为特征，以提高后代的生存率。这方面的一个例子是雏鸟乞求得到照顾。该研究员将研究乞讨如何演变，并通过将行为，基因组和生理技术应用于雏鸟与他们相关或不相关的小鸡一起抚养，来描述自私的特征如何促进后代之间的竞争。作为一名教师，研究员还将在当地学校开展肌肉生理学与行为之间关系的外展活动，并指导所在机构和少数民族服务机构的本科生。随着时间的推移，特征不断进化并支持行为表型多样化的过程对于产生对行为的机械理解至关重要。这在早期生命特征的情况下特别有趣，理论上，这些特征比第一次繁殖后表现出来的特征受到更强的选择力。雏鸟的乞讨行为是解决迭代进化问题的模型系统，因为它从行为的角度进行了充分的研究。然而，很少有人知道的分子和生理机制，促进/约束乞讨作为一种行为，或如何迭代性状进化引导过渡从专门的乞讨针对父母的广义寄生乞讨表型，可能是成功的胁迫照顾在各种宿主物种的巢。这项研究的目标结合了分层进化的新兴模型，其中行为特征的创新可以通过观察个体基因表达的分子变化以及它如何建立在祖先进化支架上来建模，与生理学方法如原位肌肉记录来探索乞讨进化的机械约束的基础。该项目更广泛的影响旨在通过中学外展以及通过在主办机构的NSF REU计划中对本科生的培训和直接指导来留住和发展来自代表性不足背景的科学家。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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而被认为值得支持。

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. This project will investigate the evolution of selfish begging behavior in birds through muscle physiology and genomics. For many animals, survival is most challenging immediately after hatching/birth and natural selection strongly favors the evolution of extreme (and sometimes bizarre) behavioral traits at this stage to enhance offspring survival. One example of this is begging to receive care in nestling birds. The Fellow will study how begging evolved and characterize how selfish traits promote competition among offspring by applying behavioral, genomic, and physiological techniques to nestling birds raised with chicks they are related to or unrelated to. The Fellow, as a former teacher, will also conduct outreach on the relationship between muscle physiology and behavior at local schools and mentor undergraduate students both at the host institution and from minority-serving institutions.The process by which traits evolve iteratively over time and support the diversification of behavioral phenotypes is of critical importance to generating a mechanistic understanding of behavior. This is particularly interesting in the case of early life traits, which are theorized to be under a stronger selective force than those traits that manifest after first reproduction. Begging in nestling birds is a model system for addressing questions of iterative evolution because it is well-studied from a behavioral perspective. However, little is known about the molecular and physiological mechanisms that facilitate/constrain begging as a behavior or how iterative trait evolution guides the transition from specialized begging directed at parents to a generalized parasitic begging phenotype that may be successful at coercing care in a variety of host species nests. The goal of this research combines an emerging model of layered evolution, where the innovation of behavioral traits can be modeled by looking at molecular shifts in the expression of individual genes and how it builds on ancestral evolutionary scaffold, with physiological methods like in situ muscle recording to explore the basis of mechanistic constraints on begging evolution. The project’s broader impacts target the retention and development of scientists from under-represented backgrounds through middle school outreach and through the training and direct mentorship of undergraduates in the host institution’s NSF REU program.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.