NSF PRFB FY23: Investigating the genomic consequences of hybridization in the Mimulus guttatus complex

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。物种形成是新物种进化的过程，是进化的基本过程，必须通过探索不同生物群体之间的关系来研究。这通常是通过关注使群体分离的因素来完成的，这些因素被称为隔离障碍。隔离障碍的研究通常通过实验室实验或自然变异调查来进行。这个项目将结合这些方法来研究一组猴花的物种形成过程，这些猴花被认为已经迅速进化出了这样的障碍，特别是当杂交时不能产生健康的种子。从两个物种相遇并产生后代的地区对猴花植物的基因组研究将与温室杂交相结合，以研究自然发生的变异及其后果。这项工作还将使他们能够在屏障表型和两个年轻物种之间的遗传信息流动之间建立直接联系。研究员将使用来自5个复制杂交区的材料，对最近分化的Mimiulus guttatus和M.举止得体祖先的模式将被用来确定基因流动的速率、时间和方向。接下来，通过评估基因组中位点之间的祖先相关性（即祖先不平衡模式），研究员将识别推定的不亲和等位基因。最后，研究员将恢复来自最初测序的植物的近交系，以评估与推定的不亲和性相关的表型。该研究员还将指导本科研究人员，并为研究生提供基本计算研究技能的研讨会。该研究员还将通过开发旨在通过游戏解释物种形成研究的教育模块，为公众理解物种形成做出贡献。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，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 the research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Speciation, the process by which new species evolve, is a fundamental process of evolution that must be studied by exploring the relationships between different groups of organisms. This is often done with a focus on factors that keep groups separated, known as isolating barriers. Research on isolating barriers is often approached through laboratory experiments or surveys of natural variation. This project will unite these approaches to investigate the progression of speciation in a group of monkeyflowers that are known to have rapidly evolved such barriers—in particular, the inability to create healthy seeds when crossed. Genomic investigations of monkeyflower plants from regions where two species meet and produce progeny will be combined with greenhouse crosses to study naturally occurring variation and its consequences. This work will also allow them to make direct connections between barrier phenotypes and the flow of genetic information between two young species. The fellow will use accessions from 5 replicated hybrid zones to genomically dissect the dynamics of introgression between recently diverged Mimiulus guttatus and M. decorus. Patterns of ancestry will be used to identify the rate, timing, and directionality of gene flow. Next, by assessing ancestry correlation among sites in the genome (i.e. patterns of ancestry disequilibrium), the fellow will identify putative incompatibility alleles. Lastly, the fellow will resurrect inbred lines derived from the originally sequenced plants to assess the phenotypes associated with putative incompatibility. The fellow will also mentor undergraduate researchers and provide workshops for graduate students on essential computational research skills. The fellow will also contribute to the public understanding of speciation by developing educational modules that aim to explain speciation research through gameplay.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.