NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Morphological Variation and Molecular Origination of Chiropteran Wing Membranes

这是NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，项目是使用生物收藏进行研究。丹尼尔·厄本正在进行以创新方式利用生物收藏品的研究和培训，并由两家主办机构的两名赞助科学家提供指导：南希·西蒙斯(美国自然历史博物馆)和凯伦·西尔斯(伊利诺伊大学香槟分校)。该项目旨在了解新特征的起源和多样化，特别是蝙蝠翅膀。蝙蝠的翼膜是一种新的结构，与任何其他哺乳动物的特征没有已知的联系。此外，翼膜的重要性怎么强调都不为过，因为它们使蝙蝠以一种非同寻常的方式多样化--蝙蝠占所有哺乳动物物种的20%以上。在进行这项研究的同时，这位研究员正在培训和指导几名来自传统上在科学界代表性较低的群体的本科生，同时以创新的方式利用博物馆藏品中的丰富知识。此外，该研究员正在通过在美国自然历史博物馆开展实践学习活动来扩大公众参与，这些活动每年有可能接触到500多万儿童和成年人。这位研究员的研究有三个主要目的。目的1描述不同蝙蝠种类间不同的翅膀形状。这一目标是通过对美国自然历史博物馆(AMNH)收藏的成年蝙蝠标本进行翅膀形状分析来实现的，该博物馆收藏了超过6万只蝙蝠。在目标2中，这位研究员正在确定翼膜在发育过程中何时开始形成，以及它们来自什么组织来源。这位研究员还在确定，在什么时候，不同物种的翅膀形状开始出现差异。AIM 2标本是从AMNH流体采集和新捕获的蝙蝠(然后将被添加到AMNH采集)中获取的。最后，目标3试图建立负责翼膜发育的细胞和分子机制，以及这些机制在不同物种之间的差异。这个目的是利用发育中的胚胎来可视化细胞过程、基因表达和蛋白质定位。识别蝙蝠翼膜起源和多样化的机制将促进我们对蝙蝠发育和进化的理解，更广泛地说，将有助于我们理解进化创新和适应性辐射的发展驱动因素。在此过程中，这位研究员还开展了外联活动，帮助教育公众了解蝙蝠及其令人惊叹的新奇翅膀结构的重要性。

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Research Using Biological Collections. The fellow, Daniel Urban, is conducting research and receiving training that utilizes biological collections in innovative ways, and is being mentored by two sponsoring scientists at two host institutions: Nancy Simmons (American Museum of Natural History) and Karen Sears (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). The project aims to understand the origination and diversification of novel traits, specifically bat wings. The wing membranes of bats are novel structures with no known associations to features in any other mammals. Additionally, the importance of the wing membranes cannot be overstated as they have allowed bats to diversify in an extraordinary manner - bats account for over 20% of all mammalian species. While conducting this research, the fellow is training and mentoring several undergraduates from groups traditionally underrepresented in science, while utilizing the wealth of knowledge in museum collections in innovative ways. Furthermore, the fellow is broadening public engagement by generating hands-on learning activities at the American Museum of Natural History, which have the potential to reach over 5 million children and adults annually. The fellow's research consists of three primary aims. Aim 1 characterizes varying wing forms among diverse bat species. This aim is being achieved by conducting wing shape analysis on adult specimens housed at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), which contains over 60,000 bats in its collection. In Aim 2 the fellow is identifying when during development the wing membranes begin to form, and from what tissue sources they originate. The fellow is also determining at what point differences in the wing forms begin to emerge among species. Aim 2 specimens are being acquired from a combination of AMNH fluid collections and newly captured bats (which will then be added to the AMNH collections). Finally, Aim 3 seeks to establish the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of the wing membranes, and how these mechanisms diverge among various species. This aim uses developing embryos to visualize cellular processes, gene expression, and protein localization. Identifying the mechanisms driving the origination and diversification of bat wing membranes will advance our understanding of bat development and evolution and, more generally, the developmental drivers of evolutionary innovations and adaptive radiations. In the process, the fellow is also generating outreach activities to assist in educating the public about the importance of bats and their amazing novel wing structures.