CRUI: Phenotypic Plasticity in Reproduction: Molecular Mechanisms, Physiological Control, and Adaptive Significance

本项目为本科院校合作研究项目，涉及分子生物学、生理学和生态学，以了解环境压力如何影响生殖。从生态学和进化研究中我们都知道，生物在如何应对多变和不可预测的环境方面具有相当大的灵活性，生理和细胞机制如内分泌功能已经得到了很好的研究。然而，环境刺激通过生理和分子机制介导其作用的手段尚不清楚。该项目以大型昆虫为模型系统，采用实验室和实地实验，以确定温度和食物供应的变化如何影响伴随产卵、产卵以及后代发育和生存的细胞、分子和生理事件。对这些变量的操纵将表明这种生殖可塑性是一种适应性反应还是一种环境约束。研究结果将对发育生物学、生态学、进化生物学、昆虫生物学和害虫防治产生影响，并承诺为本科生提供一种新颖的综合体验，让他们在不同寻常的生物组织水平上进行令人兴奋的研究。

This project is for Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions, involving molecular biology, physiology and ecology to understand how reproduction is affected by environmental stresses. It is well known from ecological and evolutionary research that organisms have considerable flexibility in how they respond to variable and unpredictable environments, and physiological and cellular mechanisms such as endocrine function have been well studied. However, the means by which the environmental stimuli mediate their effects through physiological and molecular mechanisms are not well understood. This project uses laboratory and field experiments on a large insect as a model system to determine how variations in temperature and food availability affect the cellular, molecular and physiological events that accompany egg production, egg laying, and the development and survival of offspring. Manipulations of these variables will indicate whether this reproductive plasticity represents an adaptive response or an environmental constraint. Results will have an impact on developmental biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, insect biology and pest control, and promises a novel integrative experience involving undergraduates in exciting research over an unusual range of levels of biological organization.