飞蝗型变可塑性的父性遗传及其表观遗传机制研究

目前一个非常活跃的研究领域是环境信息的跨代遗传；许多物种能够将亲代经历的环境信息传递给子代，子代表现出相应的表型改变，来适应与亲代类似的环境。环境信息的跨代传递对物种的生存和进化具有深远的意义。但过去关于动物的跨代遗传现象都是母性效应介导的；极少有父亲经历影响后代的报道。由于这种非常规的信息传递模式不涉及基因组编码的改变，因此被认为是通过表观遗传机制实现的。但目前对这种跨代遗传现象的调控机制、特别是表观机制知之甚少。飞蝗的型变可塑性遗传是很好的研究动物跨代遗传的模型。本项目在通过严谨实验设计消除遗传背景和遗传变异影响的基础上，拟研究（1）父本的种群密度改变对子代群散两型特征的影响；（2）父性效应对子代的重要功能基因和非编码RNA表达的作用；（3）DNA甲基化对型变相关的关键通路分子表达变异的调控。该研究对理解动物的跨代遗传分子机理有重要的科学意义，并将极大促进对蝗灾形成机制的理解。

One of the current hot topics for worldwide researchers has been the transgenerational inheritance of environmental information. As such environmental cues experienced by either parent could be transmitted to their offspring, resulting into phenotypic changes in offspring to match the ancestral environments. The transgenerational effect has for-reaching implications on species survival and evolution. However, the majority of examples of transgenerational effects described have been with maternal effect, and only a handful of examples of paternal effect were documented in animals. This unconventional mode of information transfer involves epigenetic mechanisms by which transgenerational modification of the genome occurs without a corresponding change in DNA sequence. However, it is less known about the regulatory mechanism, particularly the epigenetic mechanism underlying the transgenerational inheritance. Inheritance of phase plasticity in the migratory locust provides a good model for the study of transgenerational effect in animal. After strictly controlled for the effects of genetic background and genetic variation, we'll study in this project: (1) the phase characteristics that are inherited by paternal effect induced by population density; (2) the inheritance of expression of functionally important genes and noncoding RNAs; (3) the regulatory role of DNA methylation in the control of key gene expression. Our study will have important implications for the molecular mechanism underpinning transgenerational inheritance and will facilitate our understanding of the development of locust outbreak in nature.