NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

博士后：克里斯·A·汉密尔顿博士建议编号：1612862这一行动资助了2016财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，与教育和人力资源局的部落学院和大学计划合作，扩大了生物学领域代表不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持一项研究和培训计划，让该研究员从事研究和培训，这将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。克里斯·A·汉密尔顿博士的这项研究计划的标题是“将美洲原住民的参与扩大到基于收藏的研究：检验关于鹰蛾-蝙蝠进化军备竞赛的假设”。该奖学金的主办机构是佛罗里达大学和佛罗里达自然历史博物馆(FLMNH)，赞助科学家是川原昭人博士和查尔斯·科布博士。这位研究员的研究重点是鹰蛾的形态多样性的进化，鹰蛾是一种物种丰富的昆虫群体。这项研究加深了我们对进化模式和过程如何产生地球多样性的理解，这是生物学中的一个关键问题。鹰蛾是一种体型大、有魅力的飞蛾，体格健壮、飞行速度快，前翼形状和身体大小多种多样，但很少有研究调查这种壮观的形态多样性的驱动因素。在5000万至6000万年前，回声定位蝙蝠的主要进化谱系出现了，同时出现了大型异角类蝙蝠的大量辐射，这是包括鹰蛾在内的一群蛾类物种。这位研究员正在测试一个有趣但尚未探索的假说，即鹰蛾翅膀形状和身体大小的差异与它们主要的夜间捕食者蝙蝠的多样性有关。这一想法挑战了传统的假设，即飞蛾的多样化是由植物进化推动的(因为植物是它们的食物来源)。在大约1500种天蛾中，可以发现反蝙蝠的特征，包括耳朵对蝙蝠的超声波回声定位很敏感，以及产生超声波的器官会“干扰”蝙蝠的生物声纳。鹰蛾的快速飞行也被认为是一种反蝙蝠的特征，它可能提供了躲避捕食者的能力，并在成年鹰蛾为自己寻找食物或为幼虫寻找寄主植物时覆盖很长的距离。这些延长的飞行周期将使鹰蛾容易受到蝙蝠的捕食，推测提供了一种强大的选择性力量，导致了躲避的反蝙蝠特征、不同的身体尺寸和能够支持杂技躲避飞行的翅膀形状；然而，还没有人在系统发生学背景下检验这一假说。拟议的项目通过使用令人兴奋的研究问题和互动学习方法来描述鹰蛾的翅膀形状，调查反蝙蝠特征的历史进化序列，并测试这些特征与现有多样性之间的相关性，从而促进美洲原住民学生对生物学的参与。这位研究员正在吸引来自俄克拉荷马州奇卡索民族的初中生和高中生，利用外国语大学的博物馆收藏品回答有关多样性模式的基本假设-有效地将NSF的两个任务联系在一起：增加少数族裔的参与和增加生物收藏品的效用。这项合作研究向学生介绍了自然历史收藏的用处(学生收集关于鹰蛾翅膀形状和身体大小的形态测量数据)，演示了研究人员如何利用这些资源来回答基本的生物学问题，并激发了学生？对进化的兴趣。此外，Chickasaw Nation的学生在暑假前往外国语博物馆旅游时，将接触到他们自己的文化历史；在此期间，他们在收藏方面工作，协助提取DNA和为鹰蛾物种测序做准备，更重要的是，通过与考古文物的互动，发现他们的Chickasaw祖先的历史。

Postdoctoral Fellow: Dr. Chris A. HamiltonProposal number: 1612862This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology in partnership with the Tribal Colleges and Universities program in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to engage in research and training that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Dr. Chris A. Hamilton is "Broadening Participation of Native Americans into Collections-Based Research: Testing Hypotheses on the Hawkmoth-Bat Evolutionary Arms Race." The host institution for this fellowship is The University of Florida and The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. Akito Kawahara and Dr. Charles Cobb. The Fellow's research focuses on the evolution of morphological diversity in hawkmoths, a species-rich group of insects. This research enhances our understanding of how evolutionary pattern and process produced Earth's diversity, a key question in biology. Hawkmoths are large, charismatic moths that are strong, fast fliers, with a diverse array of forewing shape variation and body size, yet few studies have investigated the drivers of this spectacular morphological diversity. Between 50-60 million years ago, major evolutionary lineages of echolocating bats emerged, along with a large radiations of the Macroheterocera, a group of moth species that includes the hawkmoths. The Fellow is testing the intriguing but unexplored hypothesis that differences in hawkmoth wing shape and body size are associated with the diversity of their primary nocturnal predators - bats. This idea challenges the conventional hypothesis that moth diversification was driven by plant evolution (because plants are their food source). Across the approximately 1,500 species of hawkmoths, anti-bat traits can be found which include ears keen to a bat's ultrasonic echolocation and ultrasound-producing organs that "jam" bat biosonar. The fast flight of hawkmoths, also thought to be an anti-bat trait, likely provides the ability to escape predators and cover large distances as adult hawkmoths seek out food for themselves or host plants for their larvae. These extended periods of flight would render hawkmoths vulnerable to predation by bats, putatively providing a strong selective force that led to evasive anti-bat traits, diverse body sizes, and wing shapes able to support acrobatic evasive flight; however, no one has tested this hypothesis in a phylogenetic context.The proposed project promotes the participation of Native American students in biology by using exciting research questions and an interactive learning approach to characterize hawkmoth wing shape, investigate the historical evolutionary sequence of anti-bat traits, and test for correlations between these traits and extant diversity. The Fellow is engaging middle and high school students from The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, by utilizing museum collections at the FLMNH to answer fundamental hypotheses regarding patterns of diversity - effectively linking two of NSF's missions: increasing minority participation and increasing the utility of biological collections. This collaborative research introduces the students to the usefulness of natural history collections (students gather morphometric data on hawkmoth wing shape and body size), demonstrates how researchers can use these resources to answer fundamental biological questions, and sparks students? interest in evolution. In addition, Chickasaw Nation students are being exposed to their own cultural history during summer trips to the FLMNH; during this time they work in the collections, assist in DNA extraction and preparation for sequencing of hawkmoth species, and importantly, discover the history of their Chickasaw ancestors through interactions with archeological artifacts.