The role of phenotypic plasticity in responses to environmental challenges.

表型可塑性允许生物体改变性状的表达以响应其环境，并对种群的分布，人口统计和进化产生重要影响。尽管可塑性具有广泛的重要性，但我们仍在学习可塑性如何由环境因素诱导，影响适应性，并由自然选择塑造。我的长期目标是在资助期间使用两个互补系统来促进我们对可塑性在介导对环境挑战的反应中的作用的理解：鸟类寄生虫的挑战和昆虫温度变化的挑战。 寄生虫寄生虫几乎影响地球上的每一个物种。我们研究了疟疾感染发病率高的红翅黑鸟种群对寄生虫的塑料反应。我们将在自由放养的鸟类中操纵寄生虫感染，并在个体内和跨代测量从分子到生物体水平的反应。这项工作将提供第一个实地测试的假设，即女性准备其年轻人科普疟疾感染的挑战。或者，感染的代价可能会代代相传，放大其影响。 温度为了进一步了解可塑性的进化，我们最近扩大了我们的研究计划，包括研究埋葬甲虫Nicrophorus orbicollis的塑性反应。我们将进行受控圈养研究，以确定多种性状的可塑性如何结合起来，以确定在一系列温度下的个人表现。在确定了可塑性特征是适应性的重要决定因素后，我们将在人工选择实验中针对这些特征，以评估可塑性在选择中进化的潜力。 意义这项研究计划将使我们能够在解决表型可塑性研究中的基本问题方面取得重大进展。个体之间的可塑性反应差异是否决定了他们科普挑战的能力？母亲们是否为后代做好了科普挑战的准备？多个性状的可塑性反应如何联合收割机影响适应性？可塑性能随着选择而进化吗？我们的互补方法将在我们对生物体如何科普动态环境的理解方面取得重大进展。对挑战的可塑性反应会影响个体的适应性，并扩大到决定种群和物种在不断变化的环境中持续生存的能力。因此，了解可塑性是至关重要的人为挑战，如气候变化和入侵和扩大寄生虫，越来越威胁加拿大的生物多样性。这项研究将利用多种实验室和现场技术来回答我们的问题，为HQP提供强有力的跨学科培训，并为他们从事一系列生物学职业做好准备。

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to alter expression of traits in response to their environment, and has important consequences for the distributions, demography, and evolution of populations. Despite its broad importance, we are still learning how plasticity is induced by environmental factors, impacts fitness, and is shaped by natural selection. My long-term objective is to advance our understanding of the role of plasticity in mediating responses to environmental challenges using two complementary systems during the grant period: the challenge of parasites in a bird, and the challenge of changing temperatures in an insect. Parasites. Parasites affect almost every species on earth. We study plastic responses to parasites in a population of red-winged blackbirds with a high incidence of malarial infection. We will manipulate parasite infection in free-ranging birds and measure responses from the molecular to organismal level, within individuals and across generations. This work will provide one of the first field-based tests of the hypothesis that females prepare their young to cope with the challenge of malarial infection. Alternatively, the costs of infection might be transmitted across generations, amplifying its effects. Temperature. To make advances in our understanding of the evolution of plasticity, we recently expanded our research program to include studies of plastic responses in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis. We will conduct controlled captive studies to determine how plasticity in multiple traits combines to determine individual performance across a range of temperatures. After identifying plastic traits that are important determinants of fitness, we will target those traits in an artificial selection experiment to evaluate the potential for plasticity to evolve in response to selection. Significance. This research program will allow us to make significant advances in addressing fundamental questions in the study of phenotypic plasticity. Do differences in plastic responses among individuals determine how well they cope with challenges? Do mothers prepare their offspring to cope with the challenges they have faced? How do plastic responses in multiple traits combine to impact fitness? Can plasticity evolve in response to selection? Our complementary approaches will generate significant advances in our understanding of how organisms cope with dynamic environments. Plastic responses to challenges impact individual fitness and scale up to determine the ability of populations and species to persist in the face of changing environments. As such, understanding plasticity is essential as anthropogenic challenges, like climate change and invasive and expanding parasites, increasingly threaten Canada's biodiversity. This research will draw from diverse lab and field techniques to answer our questions, providing strong, interdisciplinary training to HQP, and preparing them for a range of careers in biology.