Functional Genomics of a Metapopulation: An Individual Based Understanding of Population Dynamics, Life History Traits, and Genetic Mechanisms in Time and Space

詹姆斯马尔登博士和伊尔卡汉斯基博士获得了一笔赠款，用于研究一种昆虫的生理特征变化，这种昆虫是种群动态的模式生物。 与大多数物种一样，方格斑蝶的种群分散在适合栖息地的独特、孤立的斑块中。 个别种群经常灭绝，但在以前未被占用的合适栖息地中建立新种群的情况大致相同。 本项目将检验这样一个假设，即老的稳定种群由飞行能力差、繁殖力高的蝴蝶组成，而新建立的种群由飞行能力强、繁殖力低的蝴蝶组成。 对飞行能力的测量以及飞行和繁殖力之间的权衡将被纳入数学模型，以预测这些特征的演变和时空动态。 功能基因组学方法（DNA微阵列和蛋白质组学）将被用来检查负责飞行能力和繁殖力的变化的遗传机制。 结果将提供一个综合的理解基因功能如何影响生物体特征，决定空间种群动态和景观生态学。 美国国家科学基金会的生物复杂性计划的动机是理解，“对环境系统的各个组成部分的研究只能提供有关系统本身行为的有限信息”。 该项目将通过整合从基因到景观的多层次生物复杂性的数据来克服这一问题，以了解大型复杂生态系统的行为。这项工作的结果将提高对保持分散种群遗传变异的过程的理解;这是管理和保护生物多样性的一个非常感兴趣的话题。 研究结果还将提供适用于农业景观中田间和区域间迁移的害虫管理的信息和方法。该项目将加强研究和教育的基础设施，在功能基因组学和综合生物学方面的美国科学家专家与芬兰的一个研究小组之间建立新的伙伴关系，该研究小组处于人口研究和理论的前沿。 长期的好处将包括学生交流和开发材料资源的机会，包括一个特征化的cDNA文库和一个微阵列，这将为生态学上最知名的物种之一带来基因组工具。 对学生的培训将加强能够在生态学方面使用功能基因组学的青年科学家队伍。 妇女和少数民族的参与将部分通过与NSF EPSCoR机构（密西西比州立大学）的外联伙伴关系来实现，该机构每年将使代表性不足的少数民族本科生参加该项目。

A grant has been awarded to Drs. James Marden and Ilkka Hanski to examine variation in physiological traits of an insect that is a model organism for population dynamics. As with most species, populations of checkerspot butterflies are scattered across a landscape of distinct, isolated patches of suitable habitat. Individual populations frequently go extinct, but this is balanced by an approximately equal number of instances of the founding of new populations in previously unoccupied patches of suitable habitat. This project will test the hypothesis that old stable populations consist of butterflies of poor flight ability and high fecundity, whereas newly founded populations consist of butterflies of strong flight ability and reduced fecundity. Measurements of flight ability and the tradeoff between flight and fecundity will be incorporated into mathematical models to predict the evolution and spatio-temporal dynamics of these traits. Functional genomic approaches (DNA microarrays and proteomics) will be used to examine the genetic mechanisms responsible for variation in flight ability and fecundity. Results will provide an integrative understanding of how gene function affects organismal traits that determine spatial population dynamics and landscape ecology. The NSF Biocomplexity program was motivated by the understanding that "research on the individual components of environmental systems provides only limited information about the behavior of the systems themselves". This project will overcome that problem by integrating data from multiple levels of biological complexity, from genes to landscapes, in order to understand the behavior of a large and complex ecological system. Results of this work will enhance understanding of processes that maintain genetic variation in fragmented populations; this is a topic of keen interest for management and conservation of biodiversity. The results will also provide information and methods that will be applicable to management of insect pests that migrate among fields and regions in agricultural landscapes. The project will enhance the infrastructure for research and education by forging a new partnership between U.S. scientists expert in functional genomics and integrative organismal biology with a research group in Finland that is at the forefront of population research and theory. Long-term benefits will include opportunities for student exchange and development of material resources including a characterized cDNA library and a microarray that will bring genomic tools to one of the ecologically best known species. Training of students will enhance the pool of young scientists capable of using functional genomics in an ecological context. Participation of women and minorities will be accomplished in part by an outreach partnership with an NSF EPSCoR institution (Mississippi State University) that will bring underrepresented minority undergraduates to the project each year.