CAREER: Maternal age effects in an ecologically-important aquatic invertebrate: Genetic and epigenetic controls and fitness outcomes in variable environments

母亲的环境或身体状况会影响其后代的健康和寿命，这种现象被称为“母性效应”。母体年龄效应在包括人类在内的不同物种中很常见，即母体年龄增大会导致后代寿命和繁殖力下降。因此，从确定个人的疾病风险和老龄化速度到确定人口增长率和社区结构，产妇年龄效应对一切都有重要影响。这项研究旨在确定有关母亲年龄的信息传递给发育中的后代的分子机制，以及这如何导致后代健康的变化。此外，该项目还将探讨产妇年龄效应如何改变不同环境中的人口增长率和结构。这一结果可能会揭示孕妇年龄在确定人群在稳定和变化的环境中的健康状况方面的重要性，并可能为寻找治疗方法以改善老龄化期间的健康和延长生殖寿命提供信息。这一项目将使社会受益，因为它扩大了许多教育级别的代表性不足群体对研究的参与。该项目教育计划的目标是增加参与生物学研究的人的多样性，并通过将研究计划与为本科生、未得到充分服务的高中和社区大学生提供的实践教育和研究机会相结合，促进公众对研究过程的了解。研究人员假设，母亲的年龄效应是由组蛋白翻译后修饰的表观遗传变化介导的，组蛋白翻译后修饰改变染色质结构，导致基因表达变化，影响后代的细胞功能。以轮虫Brachionus Manjavacas为研究系统，该项目将(1)使用比较RNA-Seq、ATAC-Seq、MS和RNAi来表征驱动母亲年龄效应的遗传和表观遗传机制；(2)使用生命表和种群增长分析来量化母亲年龄效应对后代在不同环境中的适应和适应的影响。这些结果将促进对跨代遗传在人口结构中的作用的理解，并为母亲的年龄如何影响健康变化提供洞察力，取决于环境背景。研究目标将与项目的教育目标相结合，以(1)为社区大学生创建研究实习计划，为非传统学生提供研究机会，并增加STEM的多样性；(2)在海洋生物实验室的中学教育计划中为高中生开发教育模块，让学生接触研究过程、水生生态学和进化生物学；以及(3)为本科生创建课程，提供跨学科的生态学和分子生物学研究培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A mother’s environment or physical condition can affect her offspring’s health and lifespan, a phenomenon known as a “maternal effect.” Maternal age effects, in which advanced maternal age causes decreased offspring lifespan and reproduction, are common among diverse species, including humans. Thus, maternal age effects have important implications for everything from determining an individual’s disease risk and aging rate to determining population growth rates and community structure. This research aims to identify the molecular mechanisms by which information about a mother’s age is transmitted to her developing offspring, and how that leads to changes in offspring health. Additionally, this project will explore how maternal age effects change population growth rates and structure in different environments. The results may reveal the importance of maternal age in determining a population’s fitness in stable versus changing environments and could inform the search for therapies to improve health during aging and to extend reproductive longevity. This project will benefit society by broadening participation in research by under-represented groups at many educational levels. The goal of the project’s education plan is to increase diversity of those involved in biology research and to promote public understanding of the research process by integrating the research program with hands-on educational and research opportunities for undergraduates and underserved high school and community college students. The researchers hypothesize that maternal age effects are mediated by epigenetic changes in histone post-translational modifications that alter chromatin structure, causing gene expression changes that impact cellular function in offspring. Using the rotifer Brachionus manjavacas as a study system, this project will (1) characterize the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms driving maternal age effects using comparative RNA-Seq, ATAC-Seq, mass spectrometry, and RNAi; and (2) quantify the impact of maternal age effects on offspring adaptation and fitness in variable environments using life table and population growth assays. Results will advance the understanding of the role of transgenerational inheritance in structuring populations and provide insights to how maternal age effects on fitness change depending on environmental context. Research aims will be integrated with the project’s education objectives, to (1) create a research internship program for community college students, to provide research opportunities for non-traditional students and increase diversity in STEM; (2) develop education modules for high school students in the Marine Biological Laboratory’s secondary education initiative, to expose students to the research process, aquatic ecology, and evolutionary biology; and (3) create courses for undergraduates, to provide interdisciplinary ecological and molecular biology research training.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.