Postdoctoral Fellowship: OPP-PRF: Epigenetic Potential as a Driver of Local Adaptation in Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis Papua) along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

巴布亚企鹅（Pygoscelis papua）生活在地球上变暖最快的地区之一——南极半岛西部（WAP），那里的环境变化是以年而不是几十年来衡量的。尽管如此，该物种仍在蓬勃发展，数量不断增长，并占领了新的栖息地，而其姐妹物种，如adsamlie企鹅（P. adelae），在该地区正在减少。该项目将调查表观遗传学对巴布亚企鹅成功的影响程度。表观遗传变异是由影响基因表达的DNA或染色质结构的修饰控制的，而不是改变潜在的DNA序列。该项目将提高对巴布亚企鹅适应气候变化的认识，以及这是否是由更大的表观遗传变化能力（即表观遗传潜力）驱动的行为和生理灵活性增加的结果。研究最多的表观遗传变异形式是DNA甲基化模式的谱图。环境影响可以触发针对特定组织的DNA甲基化变化，允许局部基因表达变化，从而导致生物体表型的改变，而不会改变潜在的基因型。鉴于种群间的表观遗传变异通常超过遗传变异，在巴布亚企鹅群体中观察到的精细遗传分化表明，通过更多不同的表观遗传变化，巴布亚企鹅群体可能存在局部适应，并为沿着多个生态轴研究巴布亚企鹅繁殖范围内的表观遗传变异提供了一个框架。研究人员将使用尖端的高分辨率基因组学技术，通过对野生巴布亚企鹅和阿萨伊企鹅的DNA甲基化模式，全面表征表观基因组图谱，以此来验证这一点。具体来说，他们将研究巴布亚企鹅在dna甲基化方面是否表现出比潜在遗传差异更大的差异，这表明这种表观遗传变异是由外部环境变量驱动的，可能导致当地适应能力的提高。该项目将通过比较较老的、已建立的群体和范围边缘的新群体，探索是否表观遗传潜力可能在分散到新群体位置的个体中被选择。通过对野生巴布亚企鹅种群实施先进的表观遗传学方法，该项目将有助于解决环境可塑性方面的生态问题，这些问题将影响南极半岛海洋保护区（MPAs）的保护工作和决策。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。

Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) inhabit one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), where environmental shifts are measured in years, not decades. Despite this, the species is flourishing, growing in numbers and colonizing new habitats while sister species, such as Adélie penguins (P. adeliae), are declining in the region. This project will investigate to what extent epigenetics contributes to the success of gentoo penguins. Epigenetic variation is controlled by modifications to DNA or chromatin structure that affect the expression of genes, rather than changes to the underlying DNA sequence. This project will improve the understanding of gentoo penguin adaptation to climate change, and whether it is a result of increased flexibility in behavior and physiology driven by a greater capacity for epigenetic changes (i.e., epigenetic potential). The most studied form of epigenetic variation is the profiling of DNA methylation patterns. Environmental effects can trigger changes in DNA methylation that target specific tissues, allowing for localized gene expression shifts that result in modifications to the phenotype of an organism without any alteration to the underlying genotype. Given that epigenetic variation between populations often exceeds genetic variation, fine-scale genetic differentiation observed amongst gentoo penguin colonies suggests the possibility for local adaptation via even more divergent epigenetic changes and provides a framework for examining epigenetic variation across the gentoo penguin breeding range along multiple ecological axes. The researchers will test this by comprehensively characterizing the epigenomic profiles via patterns of DNA methylation in wild gentoo and Adélie penguins using cutting-edge high-resolution genomics techniques. Specifically, they will investigate whether gentoo penguins exhibit a greater degree of differences in DNA-methylation than underlying genetic differences, suggesting such epigenetic variation is driven by external environmental variables, potentially leading to improved capacity for local adaptation. This project will explore whether epigenetic potential may be selected for in individuals who disperse to new colony locations by comparing older, established colonies to new colonies at the range-edge. By implementing cutting-edge epigenetic methods in wild populations of gentoo penguins, this project will help address ecological questions on environmental plasticity that will impact conservation efforts and decisions on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on the Antarctic Peninsula.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.