The role of phenotypic plasticity in responses to environmental challenges.

表型可塑性允许生物体根据环境改变性状的表达，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，但我们仍在研究它是如何受到环境因素的影响，如何影响适应性，以及如何由自然选择形成的。我的长期目标是在资助期间使用两个互补的系统来促进我们对可塑性在调节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所有物种。我们研究了疟疾感染高发的红翼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控制寄生虫感染，并测量从分子到有机体水平、个体内和跨代的反应。这项工作将为雌性准备其幼仔以应对疟疾感染挑战的假设提供首批实地测试之一。另一种情况是，感染的成本可能会代代相传，从而放大其影响。温度。为了使我们对可塑性进化的理解取得进展，我们最近扩大了我们的研究计划，包括对埋甲虫（Nicrophorus orbicollis）的塑性反应的研究。我们将进行受控圈养研究，以确定多种特征的可塑性如何结合起来决定个体在一定温度范围内的表现。在确定可塑性性状是适应性的重要决定因素之后，我们将在人工选择实验中针对这些性状来评估可塑性在响应选择时进化的潜力。的意义。这项研究计划将使我们在解决表型可塑性研究中的基本问题方面取得重大进展。个体之间可塑性反应的差异决定了他们应对挑战的能力吗？母亲们是否让她们的后代准备好应对她们所面临的挑战？多种特征的可塑性反应是如何结合起来影响健康的？可塑性是否会随着选择而进化？我们的互补方法将使我们对生物体如何应对动态环境的理解取得重大进展。对挑战的可塑性反应会影响个体的适应性，并扩大规模，决定种群和物种在面对不断变化的环境时的生存能力。因此，了解可塑性是必不可少的，因为人为的挑战，如气候变化和入侵和扩张的寄生虫，日益威胁加拿大的生物多样性。这项研究将利用不同的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，并为他们在生物学领域的一系列职业做好准备。

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.