Within-individual variation: plasticity, consistency, genotype-by-environment interaction and hidden genetic variance

个体内变异：可塑性、一致性、基因型与环境的相互作用和隐藏的遗传变异

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05000
• 负责人: Martin, Julien
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715316
• 关键词: Within; individual; variation; plasticity; consistency

The long-term objective of my research program is to understand how natural population adapt and evolve in a changing environment. The theory of evolution by natural selection is surprisingly simple. It considers that individuals best adapted to their environment reproduce and survive better. Thus, as long as there is some variation among individuals and that part of this variation has a genetic basis, individuals with the most advantageous traits are selected leading to an evolution of the traits in the population. To understand evolution, we thus need to estimate the variation among-individual and decompose it into its genetic and non-genetic components. To date, part of the genetic variance, the micro-environmental variance has been poorly considered. However recent studies in domestic populations have highlighted its evolutionary importance indicating that when not considering it we can misidentify the shape and strength of selection leading to erroneous prediction of evolution. We now need to develop a better understanding of the micro-environmental variance on evolution. The short-term goals of this research program are to identify the importance of the genetic micro-environmental variance in natural populations, and to develop new evolutionary theory to understand its evolution and impact. With the help of collaborators, I will leverage the existence of large datasets from at least 4 of the best long-term studies in the wild, including yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado, bighorn sheep in the Canadian Rockies, red squirrels in the Yukon, and alpine swifts in Switzerland. Combining more than 165 years of field work with state-of-the-art analysis, we will be able to estimate the genetic micro-environmental variance across multiple traits and species in wild populations. Using such a wide variety of species will provide much stronger inferences as to the existence and importance of micro-environmental variance across species and traits, and provide insight into the effects of differing ecologies. In addition, using a simulation based approach, we will develop new theory to determine the importance of the micro-environmental variance for evolution. Further this research program will provide training opportunities for 18 HQP at the undergraduate, MSc and PhD levels over the next 5 years. Overall this project will provide key insights into evolutionary processes that have been mainly ignored to date. In the Anthropocene where human pressure on wildlife is ever increasing, conservation and wildlife management often depend on predictions of population size variation and evolutionary dynamics. Selective breeding and crop development for agriculture are also highly dependent on our understanding of evolutionary dynamics. In these contexts, by improving our understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in natural populations, this research program will have important societal impacts both on conservation and food security.

我的研究计划的长期目标是了解自然种群如何在不断变化的环境中适应和进化。自然选择的进化论出奇地简单。它认为最适应环境的个体繁殖和生存得更好。因此，只要个体之间存在某种变异，并且这种变异的一部分具有遗传基础，具有最有利性状的个体就会被选择，从而导致群体中性状的进化。因此，为了理解进化，我们需要估计个体之间的差异，并将其分解为遗传和非遗传成分。迄今为止，遗传变异的一部分，微环境变异一直没有得到很好的考虑。然而，最近对国内种群的研究强调了它在进化中的重要性，表明如果不考虑它，我们可能会错误地识别选择的形状和强度，从而导致对进化的错误预测。我们现在需要更好地理解微环境对进化的影响。