The evolution of phenotypic plasticity during a biological invasion

该项目试图揭开物种应对污染、入侵物种和气候变化等挑战的机制。生物体可以通过改变它们的表型来应对挑战，以响应环境提示(可塑性)和/或通过种群内基因频率的长期变化(适应)。可塑性本身是可以适应的；那么它是如何演变的呢？入侵物种为回答这个问题提供了一个独特的机会，因为创始种群(具有适度的基因变异)必须在它的新家园应对无数的挑战。该项目以澳大利亚的甘蔗蟾蜍入侵为模型系统，旨在梳理表观遗传和基因修改的作用，以及它们之间的相互作用，这些作用是推动蟾蜍在澳大利亚取得成功和快速进化的动力。

The project seeks to unravel the mechanisms by which a species responds to challenges such as pollution, invasive species and climate change. Organisms can deal with challenges by changing their phenotypes in response to environmental cues (plasticity) and/or by longer-term changes in gene frequencies within a population (adaptation). Plasticity itself can be adaptive; so how does it evolve? Invasive species offer a unique opportunity to answer that question, because a founding population (with modest genetic variation) must deal with myriad challenges in its new home. Using Australia’s cane toad invasion as the model system, the project aims to tease apart the roles of epigenetic and genetic modifications, and the interplay between them, as drivers for the toads’ success and rapid evolution in Australia.