Beyond maternal effects: Transgenerational plasticity in thermal performance.

许多海洋物种目前正在经历显著的范围转移和极快的表型变化，这可能是由变暖、海洋酸化和人类诱导的进化驱动的。世界各地的许多海洋鱼类都观察到了身体大小和成熟度的戏剧性变化。关于这些变化是快速进化的结果还是对环境变量变化的生理反应，有相当大的争论。解决这些问题的尝试通常假设热生理学是固定的或发展缓慢的。当父母所经历的环境在没有DNA序列任何改变的情况下直接转化为后代的显著变化时，就会发生跨代可塑性(TGP)。TGP在热性能方面提供了一种快速响应气候变化的机制，到目前为止，这种机制只在陆地植物中得到证实。该项目将首次在海洋系统中进行热力TGP试验，并将探索其对预测对人类诱导的进化和气候变化的反应的影响。首先，PIS将在四种不同分类的鱼类中测试温度TGP。然后，他们将以羊头小鱼为模型，研究跨代反应对热环境可预测性的依赖，并测试不同的热环境是否选择不同水平的TGP。利用这些数据，他们将开发包括三峡工程在内的第一个随机人口模型，并用它来理解生活史演变和预测对气候变化的反应。知识价值：热TGP的存在对热生理变化进化缓慢、在模拟种群对气候变化或收成选择的反应时可以安全地忽略的观点提出了严重挑战。推而广之，几乎所有关于遗传力和生理测量的现场估计都需要根据热TGP重新考虑，关于在变化的环境中快速进化的结论也是如此。该研究小组在许多不同物种和环境中生长的进化、行为和生理生态的理论和实证工作方面做出了重大贡献。总而言之，该团队在拟议研究的所有方面都有丰富的先前经验，并成功地合作了多年。更广泛的影响：研究团队坚定地致力于推广和指导来自不同、代表性不足背景的学生。自2000年以来，他们共指导了18名研究生(45%为女性或少数族裔)，并指导了37名本科生(54%为女性或少数族裔)。他们在特邀讲座、科学会议和公开系列讲座中展示了他们的发现。这位博士后将活跃在石溪传播科学中心，并将定期参加旨在加强高中海洋教育的国家海洋科学碗。PIS将与UCSC的科学家和工程教育者研究所(ISEE)合作，为研究生成为未来的教育工作者做好准备，并与UCSC的罗伯特·诺伊斯教师学者计划合作，该计划为寻求数学和科学教学生涯的学生提供奖学金。研究成果还将通过西摩发现中心向公众公布，这是一个广受欢迎的公共水族馆，展示了在邻近的加州大学洛杉矶分校和国家海洋管理局海洋实验室进行的研究。这些成果将在养护、资源管理和政策考虑方面具有重要意义，因为它们应提供对快速适应环境变化(在这种情况下是温度)的能力的洞察。最后，这项工作的结果可能会有商业应用。一个例子是价值数十亿美元的水产养殖业，目前该行业生产的鱼类占人类消费总量的50%以上，并可能受益于有关如何通过控制父母温度来促进生长的信息。

Many marine species are currently undergoing significant range shifts and exceedingly rapid changes in phenotype driven, potentially, by warming, ocean acidification, and human-induced evolution. Dramatic shifts in body size and maturation have been observed in many marine fishes worldwide. There is considerable debate over whether these changes are the result of rapid evolution or physiological responses to changes in environmental variables. Attempts to address these issues typically assume that thermal physiology is fixed or slow to evolve. Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) occurs when the environment experienced by the parents directly translates, without any changes in DNA sequences, into significant changes in offspring. TGP in thermal performance provides a mechanism for a rapid response to climate change that has, to date, been demonstrated only in terrestrial plants. This project will provide the first test of thermal TGP in marine systems and will explore its implications for forecasting responses to human-induced evolution and climate change. First, the PIs will test for thermal TGP in four taxonomically distinct fishes. Then, using sheepshead minnows as a model, they will study the dependence of transgenerational responses on the predictability of the thermal environment and test whether disparate thermal environments select for different levels of TGP. With these data they will develop the first stochastic population model including TGP and use it to understand life history evolution and predict responses to climate change. Intellectual Merit: The existence of thermal TGP poses a serious challenge to the idea that changes in thermal physiology are slow to evolve and can safely be ignored in modeling population responses to climate change or harvest selection. By extension, virtually all field estimates of heritability and physiological measurements will need to be reconsidered in light of thermal TGP, as will conclusions regarding rapid evolution in shifting environments. The research team has made significant contributions to theoretical and empirical work on the evolutionary, behavioral, and physiological ecology of growth in many different species and environments. Together, the team has substantial prior experience in all aspects of the proposed research and has worked together successfully for many years. Broader impacts: The research team is strongly committed to outreach and mentoring students from diverse, under-represented backgrounds. Since 2000, they have advised a total of 18 graduate students (45% women or minorities), and mentored 37 undergraduates (54% women or minorities). They have presented their findings in invited lectures, scientific meetings, and public lecture series. The post-doctoral fellow will be active in Stony Brook's Center for Communicating Science and will be a regular participant in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, aimed at enhancing high school marine education. The PIs will work with UCSC's Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE) to prepare graduate students for their role as future educators, and with UCSC's NSF-supported Robert Noyce Teacher Scholars Program which funds scholarships for students pursuing teaching careers in math and science. Research results will also be brought to the public through the Seymour Discovery Center, a popular public aquarium showcasing research conducted at the adjacent UCSC and NOAA marine labs. The results will be important in conservation, resource management and policy considerations, since they should provide insight into the capacity for rapid adaptation to environmental change (in this case, temperature). Finally, the results of this work could have commercial applications. One example is the multi-billion dollar aquaculture industry, which currently produces more than 50% of fish for human consumption and could benefit from information on how to increase growth by manipulating parental temperature.