Dissertation Research: The Role of Plasticity of Gene Expression in the Divergence byDepth of Candelabrum Corals

生物体通过改变基因表达来可塑性地改变其形态或生理的程度，有助于确定其能够适应的环境范围。作为适应的替代，生物体可以通过适应性改变世代间的等位基因频率来处理环境差异。然而，相同的基因组变化，促进生态尺度上的适应可能提供基板的变化随着进化的时间。该项目将研究加勒比海珊瑚中与适应和适应深度有关的基因。在烛台珊瑚（属Eunicea），深度的变化产生适应性的表型差异，可能导致新的物种在不同的深度形成。本研究将使用移植片段从珊瑚殖民地收集和适应不同的深度，以测量可塑性的基因表达和测试，如果两个深度隔离的物种已经分歧，在他们的适应反应的深度。该研究是一种创新性尝试，旨在评估可塑性在不同生态环境下密切相关物种适应性分化过程中提供初始变异的作用，了解生物如何科普环境变化，为如何在不断变化的海洋中实施恢复计划提供基础知识。这对加勒比海的珊瑚礁来说至关重要，自80年代以来，那里的珊瑚覆盖面积减少了80%，珊瑚白化现象越来越频繁，仅在佛罗里达通过娱乐产生的数十亿美元收入就处于危险之中。该提案中的PI还将继续让高中和本科女性参与科学。

The degree to which an organism can plastically modify its morphology or physiology by changing gene expression helps set the range of environments to which it can acclimate. As an alternative to acclimation, organisms may deal with environmental differences by adaptive alteration of allele frequencies across generations. However, the same genomic changes that facilitate acclimation over ecological scales may provide substrate for change over evolutionary time. This project will study genes involved with acclimation and adaptation to depth in Caribbean corals. In candelabrum corals (genus Eunicea), variation in depth generates adaptive phenotypic differences that may lead to the formation of new species at different depths. This study will use transplanted fragments from coral colonies collected at and acclimated to different depths to measure plasticity in gene expression and test if two depth-segregated species have diverged in their acclimation response to depth. The proposed research represents an innovative attempt to evaluate the role of plasticity in providing initial variation during adaptive divergence of closely related species with different ecologies.Understanding how organisms cope with environmental variation provides basic knowledge on how to implement restoration plans in changing ocean. This is of paramount importance for Caribbean reefs, where coral cover has decreased by 80% since the eighties, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent, and the billion-dollar income it generates in Florida alone through recreation is in peril. PIs in this proposal will also continue engaging high school and undergraduate women with science.