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

这一行动为NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这个项目将通过肌肉生理学和基因组学来研究鸟类自私乞讨行为的进化。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，以提高后代的存活率。这方面的一个例子是在雏鸟身上乞求照顾。这位研究员将研究乞讨是如何进化的，并通过将行为、基因组和生理技术应用于与它们相关或无关的雏鸟饲养的雏鸟，来描述自私特征如何促进后代之间的竞争。作为一名前教师，这位研究员还将在当地学校开展肌肉生理学和行为之间的关系推广，并在主办机构和少数群体服务机构指导本科生。特征随着时间的迭代演变并支持行为表型多样化的过程对于产生对行为的机械性理解至关重要。这在早期生命特征的情况下尤其有趣，理论上，这些特征比那些在第一次繁殖后表现出来的特征具有更强的选择性。雏鸟的乞讨是解决迭代进化问题的一个模型系统，因为从行为的角度对它进行了很好的研究。然而，关于促进/限制乞讨作为一种行为的分子和生理机制，以及迭代性状进化如何引导从针对双亲的专门乞讨向可能成功地在各种寄主物种巢中强迫照顾的普遍寄生乞讨表型的转变，人们知之甚少。这项研究的目标是将一种新兴的分层进化模型结合起来，在该模型中，行为特征的创新可以通过观察单个基因表达的分子变化以及它如何建立在祖先进化的支架上来建模，以及原位肌肉记录等生理方法，以探索乞讨进化的机械约束基础。该项目更广泛的影响旨在通过中学推广以及通过培训和直接指导主办机构的NSF REU项目的本科生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优势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. 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.