Genes, environment, and plasticity in C. elegans behaviour

环境是变化的，为了生存，生物体必须有适应这些变化的机制。由于环境条件在不同的时间尺度上是可变的，适应性可塑性机制也必须在它们运作的时间尺度上变化。例如，生理变化可以帮助适应24小时昼夜循环中发生的温度波动，而温度的季节性波动可能与生长或失去皮毛或冬眠等剧烈的代谢变化有关。随着物种扩大或改变其范围或整体气候的变化，进化推动了种群的适应性变化。 这项研究计划的重点是觅食行为的线虫秀丽隐杆线虫。我们研究C. elegans是因为它作为一个模型系统的优势，特别是用于分析行为的遗传和神经基础的广泛工具集。觅食行为在动物行为学和行为神经科学中特别有吸引力，因为有成熟的概念模型可以帮助预测在特定环境或一系列经验下，最佳觅食行为应该如何表现。 该计划的目标是了解觅食策略的变化和可塑性如何在不同的时间尺度上运作。基于摄食状态和食物可获得性的觅食短期调节在C.优雅我们的兴趣是在长期形式的可塑性：整个生命的时间尺度（天，为线虫）介导的适应性发育可塑性，在数周的过程中，通过跨代表观遗传，和野生种群之间的变化，已适应不同的当地条件。 目标1。觅食可塑性的遗传基础。我们最近的工作确定了与驯化相关的觅食行为变化的遗传基础，这与野生菌株之间的常设变化不同。我们将使用一组测序菌株来确定在野生菌株中产生不同觅食策略的遗传和行为变异。 目标二。季节性适应和跨代可塑性。多个研究小组已经确定了由小RNA遗传介导的对行为和生理的跨代影响，所有这些影响都持续5-7代。我们将测试的假设，这是一个机制调整到与温带气候的季节性进展的环境变化。 目标3。自然环境中的探索、扩散和适应。在最长的时间尺度上，进化驱动着种群中适应性的遗传变化。在这里，我们将使用大型的，设计的环境来测试预测的扩散和觅食方面的健身在长期的实验进化实验。

Environments change, and in order to survive organisms must have mechanisms to adapt to these changes. Because environmental conditions are variable on different time scales, adaptive plasticity mechanisms must also vary in the time scales on which they operate. For example, physiological changes can help adjust to temperature fluctuations that occur over the 24-hour day/night cycle, while seasonal fluctuations in temperature might be associated with growing or losing fur, or dramatic metabolic changes like hibernation. As species expand or change their range or the overal climate shifts, evolution drives adaptive changes in populations. This research program focuses on foraging behaviour in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We study C. elegans because of its advantages as a model system, particularly the expansive set of tools for analyzing the genetic and neural basis of behaviour. Foraging behaviours are especially attractive in ethology and behavioural neuroscience because there are well-developed conceptual models that help make predictions about how an optimal forager should behave given a particular environment or set of experiences. The goal of this program is to understand how variation and plasticity in foraging strategies operates across various time scales. Short-term regulation of foraging based on feeding state and food availability has eben extensively studied in C. elegans. Our interests are in longer-term forms of plasticity: the time scales of an entire life (days, for a nematode) mediated by adaptive developmental plasticity, over the course of weeks via transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, and variation between wild populations that have adapted to different local conditions. Aim 1. The genetic basis of foraging plasticity. Our recent work identified the genetic basis of domestication-associated changes in foraging behaviour, which differs from the standing variation among wild isolates. We will using a panel of sequenced strains to identify genetic and behavioural variation that produces different foraging strategies in wild isolates. Aim 2. Seasonal adaptation and transgenerational plasticity. Multiple groups have identified transgenerational effects on behaviour and physiology that are mediated by small RNA inheritance, all of which last on the order of 5-7 generations. We will test the hypothesis that this is a mechanism tuned to environmental changes associated with seasonal progression in temperate climates. Aim 3. Exploration, dispersal, and fitness in naturalistic environments. On the longest time scale, evolution drives adapative genetic changes in populations. Here, we will use large, designed environments to test predictions about dispersal and foraging with respect to fitness in long-term experimental evolution experiments.