NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: A large-scale, experimental test of local adaption in the eastern oyster along a natural salinity gradient in the Gulf of Mexico

这是NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，在该计划下，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。这位名叫凯文·马奎兹·约翰逊的人正在进行研究和接受培训，这将增加生物学领域中代表性不足的群体的参与。这位研究员由路易斯安那州立大学的摩根·凯利博士指导。该项目的重点是了解墨西哥湾不同地区的牡蛎如何应对温度和盐度的变化。这项工作很重要，因为土地利用和降雨量的变化会极大地影响墨西哥湾的盐度和温度。通过调查现代人口对温度和盐度变化的反应，这项研究将为保护生物学家、州政府管理人员和小规模农民提供宝贵的资源，因为他们维护着超过200万英亩的公共和私人牡蛎场，这些牡蛎场在2015年生产了1450万磅牡蛎。这项研究探索了墨西哥湾沿自然盐度梯度的三个牡蛎礁对当地环境条件的适应情况。正在通过测量个体牡蛎健康的三个指标来评估适应盐度和温度的证据：(1)食物摄取率，(2)生长速度，和(3)环境诱导的表观遗传修饰的遗传力。利用多代牡蛎健康的经典指标(即摄食量和生长率)将提供必要的工具，以确定这三个珊瑚礁的牡蛎是否在当地适应了它们的本地环境。这项研究还使用表观基因组测序来跟踪从亲本群体(F0)到第二代(F2)的DNA甲基化模式。跟踪这些环境诱导的表观基因组变化跨越多个世代，可以提供对这些标记的遗传性的宝贵见解，并量化这些标记在自然种群中的变异。最后，这项工作正在扩大路易斯安那州立大学(路易斯安那州立大学)和当地高中生物专业代表不足群体的参与。这位研究员正在指导路易斯安那州立大学的本科生，并鼓励他们参加路易斯安那州少数民族参与联盟(LS-LAMP)计划。这位研究员还与当地八对高中教师和学生合作，建立了生物信息学暑期教育课程，从而交流这些工具在自然科学中的用途。

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Kevin Marquez Johnson, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Dr. Morgan Kelly at Louisiana State University. The project is focused on learning how oysters from different regions in the Gulf of Mexico respond to variations in temperature and salinity. This work is important because changes in land-use and rainfall can dramatically influence salinity and temperature in the Gulf. By investigating how present-day populations respond to changes in temperature and salinity, this research will provide a valuable resource to conservation biologists, state managers, and small-scale farmers as they maintain over 2 million acres of public and private oyster grounds that produced 14.5 million pounds of oysters in 2015. This research explores adaptations to local environmental conditions at three oyster reefs located along a natural salinity gradient in the Gulf of Mexico. Evidence for adaptation to salinity and temperature is being assessed by measuring three indicators of individual oyster health: (i) food ingestion rate, (ii) growth rate, and (iii) the heritability of environmentally-induced epigenetic modifications. Utilizing classic metrics for oyster health (i.e. ingestion and growth rates) across multiple generations will provide the necessary tools to determine if oysters from these three reefs are locally adapted to their native environment. This research also uses epigenomic sequencing to track DNA methylation patterns from the parent population (F0) to the second generation (F2). Tracking these environmentally inducible epigenomic changes across multiple generations is providing valuable insight into the heritability of these markers and quantifying the variation of these markers in natural populations. Finally, this work is broadeningparticipation of under-represented groups in biology at both Louisiana State University (LSU) and local high schools. The fellow is mentoring LSU undergraduate students and encouraging them to participate in the Louis Stokes Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-LAMP) program. The fellow also is working with eight local high school teacher and student pairs to establish a summer education course in bioinformatics, thereby communicating the utility of these tools in the natural sciences.