Collaborative Research: Testing mechanistic connections between sex, foraging and parasitism along an ecological gradient

同一物种的个体往往在重要性状上存在差异，这些差异是遗传和环境影响的已知功能。然而，对于大多数物种来说，仍然缺乏对个体变异的起源和维持的机械理解。该项目提出了三个看似无关的性状之间的机械联系：有性生殖与无性生殖的投资，丰富与贫乏资源的喂养性能，以及对寄生虫的易感性。研究人员假设，摄食率的差异创造了一个因果关系链，最终通过基本的生态机制促进了多样性的维持。为了验证这些想法，该研究将自然种群中生物多样性和疾病的监测与旨在解开遗传与环境因素对个体特征的影响的实验室实验相结合。通过确定看似不相关的性状如何整合到不同的策略中，并研究不同策略的频率如何沿自然生态梯度沿着变化，该研究将为维持自然种群表型和遗传变异的生态压力提供新的见解。这项研究的结果将大大促进对疾病如何传播和生物多样性如何维持的理解。将为本科生、研究生、博士后科学家和研究技术人员提供多样化的教育机会。研究人员将开发一个公开讲座系列，一个夏季科学夏令营和一个新的生物数学课程，并支持活动，重点是从STEM代表性不足的群体中招募，保留和指导学生。

Individuals of the same species often differ in important traits, and these differences are known functions of genetic and environmental influences. For most species, however, a mechanistic understanding of the origin and maintenance of individual variation is still missing. This project proposes mechanistic connections among three seemingly unrelated traits: investment in sexual versus asexual reproduction, feeding performance on rich versus poor resources, and susceptibility to parasites. The investigators hypothesize that differences in feeding rates create a causal chain of relationships that ultimately promotes the maintenance of diversity through basic ecological mechanisms. To test these ideas, the research combines monitoring of biodiversity and diseases in natural populations with laboratory experiments designed to disentangle genetic versus environmental factors shaping the traits of individuals. By determining how seemingly unrelated traits are integrated into distinct strategies, and examining how the frequency of different strategies varies along a natural ecological gradient, the research will provide novel insights into the ecological pressures maintaining phenotypic and genetic variation in natural populations. Results from this study will significantly advance understanding of how diseases spread and how biodiversity is maintained. Diverse educational opportunities will be provided for undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, and research technicians. The investigators will develop a public lecture series, a summer science camp, and a new biology-mathematics course, and support activities focused on recruitment, retention and mentoring of students from under-represented groups in STEM.