NSF PRFB FY 2023: The impact of changes in genome structure on diversification in adaptive radiation.

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。该项目的目的是研究遗传组织的变化如何干扰繁殖和快速适应环境，推动动物多样性的进化。该研究员将使用基因组测序、染色体测绘和北美蜥蜴DNA变化模式的比较来研究染色体变化是如何引发种群之间的分歧的，即使这些种群是在同一个地方发现的。这样，这项工作将阐明生物多样性是如何产生和维持的，在这个生物多样性丧失和全球变化的时代，这些发现尤为迫切。通过与研究员所在机构的学生接触并进行实地考察，这项工作还将有助于扩大各种背景的人参与科学的途径。在我们对物种形成的理解中，一个主要的空白涉及到在适应性分化谱系中最初破坏基因流动的机制。该项目将通过研究基因组组织的变化可能在适应性辐射期间作为物种形成的早期驱动因素发挥的作用，为这个问题提供新的线索。在这个项目的过程中，研究员将生成高质量的参考基因组，应用合成图谱和细胞遗传学技术来检测结构变化的特征，并测试选择和进化速度变化的证据。这项工作将集中在蜥蜥的一个分支，作为一个案例研究，以揭示控制主要多样化爆发的一般原则，因为存在的遗传变异通过染色体裂变和融合暴露在不同的选择机制中。在开展该项目的同时，研究员将接受与研究目标相关的方法培训，并通过研究指导和机构项目扩大学生获得科学培训的机会。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. The aim of this project is to examine how changes in genetic organization can interfere with reproduction and fast-track adaptation to the environment, driving the evolution of animal diversity. The Fellow will use genome sequencing, chromosome mapping, and comparison of patterns of DNA change among North American lizards to study how chromosome changes may initiate divergence between groups even when those groups are found in the same place. In doing so, this work will illuminate how biodiversity arises and is maintained, findings that are particularly urgent in this age of biodiversity loss and global change. Through engagement with students at the Fellow’s host institution and while conducting fieldwork, this work will also help to expand avenues for participation in science for people of all backgrounds.A major gap in our understanding of speciation concerns the mechanisms that initially disrupt gene flow among adaptively-diverging lineages. This project will shed new light on this question by investigating the role that changes in genome organization may play as early drivers of speciation during adaptive radiation. Over the course of this project, the Fellow will generate high-quality reference genomes, apply synteny mapping and cytogenetic techniques to detect signatures of structural changes, and test for evidence of selection and shifts in evolutionary rates. This work will focus on a clade within Anolis lizards as a case study to uncover general principles governing major bursts of diversification as standing genetic variation becomes exposed to different selection regimes through chromosomal fission and fusion. While carrying out this project, the Fellow will receive training in the methods involved with the aims of the study and expand access to scientific training for students through both research mentorship and institution-based programs.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.