Collaborative Research: RAPID: Genomic and phenotypic responses to hurricane-mediated selection in an invasive lizard: does epistasis constrain evolution?

这个项目将研究对极端天气事件的进化反应，并增加我们对基因如何影响种群对选择的反应的理解。我们知道，飓风等极端天气事件会对野生种群产生长期的、进化的影响。然而，没有关于基因组因素如何促进或阻碍这种进化的信息。该项目将重点关注棕蜥（Anolis sagrei），这是一种在佛罗里达州广泛存在的入侵蜥蜴，原产于古巴。它将比较2018年采样的人口与飓风伊恩之后的人口。关于对日益强烈和频繁的灾难性天气的进化反应（或缺乏这种反应）的信息将是我们理解野生种群对全球变化的反应的关键组成部分。该项目还将对研究生和本科生进行实地方法培训，以及形态学、基因组学和数据分析。先前的工作包括高质量的基因组、栖息地利用和形态学数据。抽样覆盖了沿佛罗里达州纬度范围和乔治亚州南部分布的30个种群。在先前研究的指导下，假设选择的强度与风速相关，例如强风倾向于较长的肢体。此外，对肢长选择的进化反应将受到一个大效应肢长位点和基因组背景之间的相互作用的强烈影响。具体来说，在具有广泛杂交血统的种群中，对飓风介导的肢体长度选择的进化反应将较弱。先前的研究发现，在杂交种群中，另一个对肢体长度影响很大的基因座与基因组背景之间存在上位性相互作用。因为这些基因组背景在佛罗里达州各不相同，这些影响应该在地理上有所不同。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 project will study evolutionary responses to extreme weather events and increase our understanding of how genetics influences a population’s response to selection. We know that extreme weather events such as hurricanes can have long-lasting, evolutionary effects on wild populations. However, no information exists about how genomic factors that might facilitate or impede that evolution.The project will focus on brown anoles (Anolis sagrei), a widespread invasive lizard in Florida that is native to Cuba. It will compare populations sampled in 2018 to those same populations following Hurricane Ian. Information on evolutionary responses (or lack thereof) to increasingly intense and frequent catastrophic weather will be a key component of our understanding of the response of wild populations to global change. The project will also train graduate and undergraduate students in field methods, as well as morphological and genomic and data analyses.Prior work consisted of high-quality genomic, habitat use, and morphological data from brown anoles. Sampling covered 30 populations distributed along the latitudinal extent of Florida and into southern Georgia. Guided by previous research, it is hypothesized that the strength of selection will be correlated with wind speeds, such that stronger winds will favor longer limbs. In addition, the evolutionary response to limb-length selection will be strongly affected by an interaction between a large-effect limb-length locus and the genomic background of brown anole populations. Specifically, there will be a weaker evolutionary response to hurricane-mediated selection on limb length in populations with extensive hybrid ancestry. Previous research found epistatic interactions between an otherwise large-effect locus for limb length and the genomic background for hybrid populations. Because these genomic backgrounds vary across Florida, these effects should vary geographically.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.