REPEATED EVOLUTION IN BLACK AND WHITE: DETERMINANTS OF CONVERGENCE IN WHITE SANDS LIZARDS

在这个环境迅速变化的时代，了解生物如何应对变化的环境比以往任何时候都更加重要。物种适应环境变化的速度有多快？不同的物种对新环境的反应是否相似？回答这些问题的有力方法是回顾最近的历史。这个项目使用了一个引人注目的快速适应的例子——几个物种已经适应了相同的环境变化——来研究进化的可预测性。该项目的背景是白沙，一个戏剧性的石膏沙丘在新墨西哥州。沙丘在地质上很年轻，鲜明的白色沙子与周围沙漠的棕色土壤形成鲜明对比。在过去的几千年里，许多动物物种进化出了白色的颜色来伪装白色的栖息地。这个项目的重点是比较三种沙漠蜥蜴的进化模式，它们都迅速适应了极端的白沙环境。通过研究白沙蜥蜴和它们邻近的黑土亲戚的基因组，研究人员可以了解在新环境中适应发生的速度和可预测性。白沙提供了一个“行动中的进化”的例子——一个在短时间内可观察到的进化变化的例子。它还为教育和推广提供了一个环境。研究人员为当地低收入的中学生举办一年一度的“蜥蜴夏令营”，为公立学校的幼儿园学生举办一年一度的“生物多样性日”，并与各种学校、公园和出版商合作，提供教育材料，灌输对生物多样性和科学过程的好奇心。该项目有助于理解遗传变化如何以及如何可预测地导致生物特征变化的规则，这些变化对物种在自然和管理环境中的生存至关重要。通常很难理清自然系统中不同因素对适应的贡献。然而，白沙提供了多个独立物种的复制适应，为理解进化的可预测性提供了机会。该项目采用综合基因生态学方法来研究决定白沙蜥蜴进化方向和程度的因素。该项目有三个调查领域，重点是影响物种是否会对变化的环境表现出共同的进化反应的因素：自然选择、基因组结构和人口统计学。标记再捕获研究将用于量化物种间自然选择的强度。全基因组测序将用于确定适应性性状的遗传结构是否在物种间是平行的。人口统计学模型将用于了解基因流动如何影响物种间的表型反应。该方法明确地将多个尺度和方法的研究集成在一个框架中。这项研究的最终目的是揭示有助于预测自然界进化变化的因素。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this time of rapid environmental change, it is more important than ever to understand how living things respond to shifting conditions. How quickly can species adapt to environmental change? Do different species respond to new conditions in similar ways? A powerful way to answer these questions is to look to the recent past. This project uses a striking example of rapid adaptation - where several species have adapted to the same environmental change - to study the predictability of evolution. The backdrop for the project is White Sands, a dramatic gypsum dune field in New Mexico. The dunes are geologically young, and the stark white sands contrast dramatically with the brown soil of the surrounding desert. Over the last few thousand years, a number of animal species have evolved blanched coloration to camouflage with the white habitat. This project focuses on comparing patterns of evolution in three desert lizard species, all of which have rapidly adapted to the extreme White Sands environment. By studying the genomes of the white sands lizards and their neighboring dark soil relatives - the researchers can understand how quickly - and how predictably - adaptation occurs in novel environments. White Sands provides an example of "evolution in action" - a case of evolutionary change over short, observable timescales. It also provides a setting for education and outreach. The researchers teach an annual "Lizard Camp" for local low-income middle school students and an annual "Biodiversity Day" for public school Kindergarteners, and work with a variety of schools, parks, and publishers to provide educational materials that instill a sense of wonder about biological diversity and the scientific process. This project contributes to understanding rules of how, and how predictably, genetic changes lead to changes in organismal traits that are important for the survival of species in natural and managed environments.It is often difficult to disentangle the contribution of different factors to adaptation in natural systems. However, White Sands offers replicated adaptation across multiple independent species, providing an opportunity to understand evolutionary predictability. The project applies an integrative genes-to-ecology approach to study the factors that determine the direction and magnitude of evolution in White Sands lizards. The project has three areas of investigation, focused on factors that influence whether species will exhibit a shared evolutionary response to changing conditions: natural selection, genomic architecture, and population demography. Mark-recapture studies will be used to quantify the strength of natural selection across species. Whole genome sequencing will be used to determine whether the genetic architecture of adaptive traits is parallel across species. Demographic modeling will be used to understand how gene flow affects phenotypic response across species. The approach explicitly integrates studies across multiple scales and methods in a single framework. Ultimately the research aims to reveal the factors that contribute to predictability of evolutionary change in the natural world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.