The Genetic Basis of Phenotypic Plasticity in Meiotic Recombination Rate

在动物和植物等真核生物中，在配子产生过程中染色体之间的物理交换(重组)可以产生一组新的遗传信息，从而产生新的和潜在有用的特征。这个项目的目标是了解某些环境条件如何影响重组的速度，并最终影响新特征的获得。这些研究可能会导致在农业环境中进行育种的新策略，因为这些策略的目标是培育出具有新的有益特征的动植物。该项目将为未来的科学家提供实践研究培训，包括一名研究生和一些高中生在夏季。此外，该项目将作为向当地K-12学校介绍的起点，以促进对遗传学和进化论的理解，并激发对科学研究的热情。表型可塑性是指单一基因在不同环境中产生不同表型的能力，在自然界中普遍存在。尽管它无处不在，但表型可塑性的遗传和分子基础仍不清楚。特别是，个体性状背后的基因在多大程度上是那些性状表型可塑性的相同基因仍然存在争议，部分原因是很少有例子表明该性状的潜在遗传结构以及该性状中任何相关的可塑性都得到了明确的解决。重组率是塑料表型的一个重要例子。使用减数分裂重组率作为典型的可塑性性状，该项目将检验这样的假设，即一个性状的表型可塑性是由该性状的群体水平变异所依据的相同基因介导的。使用黑腹果蝇作为遗传模型，实验将包括对整个基因组进行测序，表征哪些基因表达以及表达的数量，以及关联映射以发现基因类型与表型的关系。这些实验将提供两组数据，一组识别与有机体内重组率变异有关的遗传基因座，另一组识别与种群间重组率变异相关的遗传基因座。如果在两个数据集中发现相同的基因座，这一结果将为表型可塑性的遗传基础提供重要的新见解。

In eukaryotes such as animals and plants, physical exchange (recombination) between chromosomes during production of gametes can produce novel sets of genetic information, thus yielding new and potentially useful traits. The goal of this project is to understand how certain environmental conditions affect the rate of recombination and, ultimately, the acquisition of new traits. These studies may lead to novel strategies for breeding in agricultural settings, since the goal of such strategies is to produce plants and animals with new and beneficial traits. The project will provide hands-on research training of future scientists, including a graduate student and number of high school students during the summers. In addition, this project will serve as a launching point for presentations to local K-12 schools to promote understanding of genetics and evolution and to spark enthusiasm for scientific inquiry. Phenotypic plasticity, the capacity of a single genotype to produce different phenotypes in different environments, is pervasive in nature. In spite of its ubiquity the genetic and molecular bases of phenotypic plasticity remain unknown. In particular, the extent to which genes underlying individual traits are the same genes underlying phenotypic plasticity in those traits remains controversial, in part because there are precious few examples for which the underlying genetic architecture of both the trait and any associated plasticity in that trait have been clearly worked out. Recombination rate is an important example of a plastic phenotype. Using meiotic recombination rate as a prototypical plastic trait, this project will test the hypothesis that phenotypic plasticity for a trait is mediated by the same genes underlying population-level variation in that trait. Using Drosophila melanogaster as the genetic model, experiments will include sequencing whole genomes, characterizing which genes are expressed and in what amounts, and association mapping to discover relationships of genotypes to phenotypes. The experiments will provide two sets of data, one identifying genetic loci associated with within-organism variation in recombination rate and the other identifying genetic loci associated with between-population variation in recombination rate. If the same loci are identified in the two data sets, this result would provide important new insights into the genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity.