Dissertation Research: Unraveling the genetic basis for complex life-history traits in natural populations of garter snakes

个体对环境压力（温度变化、毒素、疾病、社会互动）的反应会影响个体的行为、繁殖能力和寿命。因此，了解一个人的基因构成如何决定其对压力的反应是很重要的；以及种群是如何根据环境条件进化的。该项目利用由慢活（低繁殖，寿命延长）或快活（高繁殖，寿命缩短）个体组成的天然蛇种群来解决这些问题，这些个体以不同的方式对环境压力做出反应，但基因组成略有不同。对这些种群进行应激实验，以表征它们在应激反应中的生理差异。然后使用新的DNA测序技术来识别使它们以不同方式应对压力的潜在基因。一旦确定了这些基因，就会进一步探索它们，以了解它们在生活在不同环境条件下的不同种群中是如何变化的。这项研究将帮助我们了解哪些基因对自然种群的应激反应很重要，以及它们如何在不同的环境应激条件下进化。这里研究的许多基因都与新陈代谢、糖尿病和衰老有关。因为动物有许多相同的基因，只有微小的差异，所以用在繁殖、寿命和应激反应上自然不同的蛇种群进行实验，可以帮助我们了解许多动物物种（包括牲畜和人类）中负责这些特征的基因。

How an individual responds to environmental stress (temperature changes, toxins, disease, social interactions) affects how that individual acts, its ability to reproduce, and its lifespan. Therefore, it is important to understand how the genetic make-up of an individual determines how it responds to stress; and how populations evolve in response to their environmental conditions. This project addresses these questions using natural snake populations that consist of either slow-living (low reproduction, extended lifespan) or fast-living (high reproduction, shortened lifespan) individuals who respond to environmental stresses in different ways, but only slightly differ in genetic make-up. Stress experiments on these populations are used to characterize their physiological differences in stress response. New DNA sequencing technologies are then used to identify the underlying genes that allow them to respond to stress in different ways. Once these genes have been identified, they are explored further to understand how they have changed in the different populations that have been living under different environmental conditions.This research will help us to understand what genes are important for stress response in natural populations, and how they evolve in response to different environmental stress conditions. Many of the genes investigated here are involved in metabolism, diabetes and aging. Because animals share many of the same genes with only slight differences, experiments using snakes populations that naturally differ in reproduction, lifespan and stress response can help us to understand the genes responsible for these traits in many animal species, including livestock and humans.