Physiological Mechanism of Reproductive Timing in Females

气候变化是我们这个时代对生物多样性的最大威胁之一。因此，确定人口能够应对的气候变化速度是迫切需要的信息。世界上10,000种鸟类中约有一半是雀形目的成员。不断变化的环境可以影响雀形目鸟类的生理和繁殖成功，但关于雀形目鸟类产卵开始的分子机制尚不清楚。当人们考虑到一只雌性鸟是否开始下蛋的“决定”是定义该个体和她的配偶(S)整个繁殖季节的时刻时，这种认识是相当值得注意的，这将对当前和未来的健康产生深远的影响。该项目将揭示控制雌性鸣禽开始繁殖的具体机制。在生态学和繁殖时机方面研究最深入的物种之一，欧洲大山雀(Parus Major)将被使用。这是一项国际合作，将结合PI、George Bentley(其实验室研究生殖生理学的潜在机制)、Marcel Visser(荷兰生态学研究所)和Michaela Hau(德国Max-Planck鸟类学研究所)的专业知识，后者是开发整合内分泌和进化理论的理论框架的专家。更广泛的影响包括在不同国家的实验室培训少数族裔研究生，鼓励本科生参与研究和科学会议，以及本科生参与出版过程。该项目促进了欧洲一流的气候变化生态学和进化生物学实验室与美国生殖生理学之间的合作。此外，所获得的结果的学术价值包括促进我们对野生雌性鸟类如何决定产卵时间的潜在机制的理解，这一点我们几乎一无所知，尽管对雄性鸟类类似的机制已经研究了近一个世纪。

Climate change is one of the largest threats to biodiversity of our times. Determining the rate of climate change that populations can cope with is, therefore, information that is urgently needed. About half of the 10,000 bird species in the world are members of the order Passeriformes. A changing environment can influence the physiology and reproductive success of passerine bird species, yet nothing is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying the onset of egg-laying in any passerine species. This realization is quite remarkable when one considers that the "decision" of whether or not a female bird begins to lay eggs is the moment that defines the whole breeding season for that individual and her mate(s), with profound current and future fitness consequences. This project will uncover specific mechanisms regulating the initiation of breeding in female songbirds. One of the most intensely studied species with respect to ecology and reproductive timing, the European great tit (Parus major) will be used. This is an international collaboration that will combine the expertise of the PI, George Bentley (UC Berkeley, USA), whose lab studies mechanisms underlying physiology of reproduction, Marcel Visser (The Netherlands Institute of Ecology) who is at the forefront of ecological research and the effects of climate change, and Michaela Hau (Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany) who is an expert in development of theoretical frameworks that integrate endocrine and evolutionary theory. The broader impacts include training of minority graduate students in laboratories in different countries, encouragement of undergraduate participation in research and scientific meetings, and involvement of undergraduates in the publication process. This project fosters collaboration between premier ecology of climate-change and evolutionary biology laboratories in Europe and physiology of reproduction in the USA. Furthermore, the intellectual merit of the results obtained includes advancement our understanding of the mechanisms underlying how wild female birds time their "decision to lay eggs" something which we know almost nothing about, despite almost a century of research on similar mechanisms in male birds.