Postdoctoral Fellowship: OCE-PRF: The genetic basis of disease resistance in the critically endangered black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii)

黑鲍鱼是一种大型有壳软体动物，生活在加利福尼亚海岸的岩石潮汐区。这些动物长期以来一直是人类珍贵的食物来源，这些贝壳在加利福尼亚的早期和现代人类中都扮演着许多文化角色。由于过度捕捞和最近一种毁灭性疾病“枯萎综合症”的蔓延，该物种现在濒临灭绝，这种疾病使其种群数量减少了99%。最近的研究表明，幸存的种群对这种疾病表现出一定的抵抗力，但人们对这种抵抗力的机制以及它与当地环境的关系知之甚少。本项目旨在利用古鲍鱼壳和现代鲍鱼来鉴定抗枯萎综合征的遗传基础。本研究结果对该珍贵物种的生存和恢复具有指导意义。与州和联邦渔业管理人员的定期沟通将为保护工作提供信息。该项目将通过加州大学圣克鲁斯分校（UCSC）西摩海洋探索中心和参与鲍鱼壳考古的土著社区支持公众参与。这项研究还将为加州大学圣迭戈分校的学生提供多种类型的培训机会，加州大学圣迭戈分校是一所西班牙裔服务机构。本项目旨在通过黑鲍鱼生物学、种群历史和当地环境变化的视角，了解黑鲍鱼适应枯干综合征的遗传基础。极端的自然选择事件可以导致在可观察的时间尺度上发生的快速进化。在像黑鲍鱼这样的历史大种群中，以及许多其他海洋生物，这种适应过程将如何进行尚不清楚，特别是在渔业介导的衰退和空间可变选择的背景下。这项研究将大大有助于我们对这一过程的理解，通过检查如何，在种群基因组水平上，黑鲍鱼已经改变，以应对枯萎综合征的快速传播。该项目有三个主要目标：1)利用从鲍鱼壳中获得的古代DNA来识别在选择下的基因位点，以应对枯萎综合征；2)利用转录组学分析方法对不同物种的种群进行分析，找到与基因表达变化和当地环境相关的特定位点；3)在普通花园环境中测定活鲍鱼的表现，测试在选择位点上的不同基因型是否有助于当今种群的本地适应。总之，这个项目产生的资源和结果将解决有关海洋生物适应遗传学的关键问题。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。

The black abalone is a large shelled mollusk found in rocky tidal areas along the California coast. These animals have long been a prized food source for humans, and the shells have served many cultural roles for both early and modern humans in California. The species is now near extinction due to a combination of overfishing and the recent spread of a devastating disease – ‘withering syndrome’ – that has reduced populations by as much as 99%. Recent work has shown that surviving populations exhibit some resistance to the disease, but the mechanism of this resistance and how it relates to the local environment is poorly understood. This project aims to use ancient shells and modern abalone to identify the genetic basis of resistance to withering syndrome. The results of this research can guide the survival and recovery of this valued species. Regular communication with state and federal fisheries managers will inform conservation efforts. The project will support public engagement through the University of California Santa Cruz's (UCSC) Seymour Marine Discovery Center and the Indigenous Communities involved with abalone shell archaeology. The research will also provide multiple types of training opportunities for students at UCSC, which is a Hispanic-Serving Institution.This project aims to understand the genetic basis of adaptation to withering syndrome through the lens of black abalone biology, population history, and local environmental variation. Extreme natural selection events can result in rapid evolution occurring on observable time scales. In historically large panmictic populations like the black abalone – and many other marine organisms – it is unclear how this adaptive process will proceed, especially against a backdrop of fisheries- mediated decline and spatially variable selection. This research will contribute substantially to our understanding of this process by examining how, at the population genomic level, black abalone have changed in response to the rapid spread of withering syndrome. The project has three primary objectives: 1) Use ancient DNA obtained from abalone shells to identify genetic loci under selection in response to withering syndrome; 2) Apply transcriptomic analyses to populations across the species’ range to home in on selected loci associated with changes in gene expression and local environment; and 3) Assay the performance of live abalone in a common garden setting testing whether different genotypes at loci under selection are contributing to local adaptation in today’s populations. Altogether, the resources and results generated by this project will address key questions about the genetics of adaptation in marine organisms.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.