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

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。本项目将通过肌肉生理学和基因组学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，生存是最具挑战性的，自然选择强烈倾向于在这一阶段进化出极端（有时是奇怪的）行为特征，以提高后代的存活率。其中一个例子是在雏鸟中乞求得到照顾。该研究员将研究乞讨是如何进化的，并通过应用行为、基因组和生理技术来研究与雏鸟有亲和或无亲和关系的雏鸟一起饲养的雏鸟，来描述自私的特征是如何促进后代之间的竞争的。作为一名前教师，该研究员还将在当地学校开展有关肌肉生理学和行为之间关系的外展活动，并指导东道国机构和少数民族服务机构的本科生。性状随时间迭代进化并支持行为表型多样化的过程对于产生对行为的机制理解至关重要。这在早期生命特征的情况下尤其有趣，理论上，这些特征比第一次繁殖后出现的特征受到更强的选择力的影响。雏鸟乞讨是解决迭代进化问题的一个模型系统，因为它从行为的角度得到了很好的研究。然而，对于促进/约束乞讨行为的分子和生理机制知之甚少，或者迭代特征进化如何引导从针对父母的专门乞讨转变为可能成功地在各种寄主物种巢穴中强制照顾的普遍寄生乞讨表型。本研究的目标是结合一种新兴的分层进化模型，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的进化支架上来建模，以及原位肌肉记录等生理学方法来探索乞讨进化的机制约束基础。该项目更广泛的影响目标是通过中学外展以及在东道国的NSF REU项目中对本科生的培训和直接指导，留住和发展来自代表性不足背景的科学家。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. 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.