Collaborative Research: Understanding the rules of honest signaling

家雀和其他鸣禽的红色羽毛是个体状况的真实信号。这一发现是有据可查的，也是相当了不起的。为什么羽毛的颜色揭示了个体的质量，或者是什么阻止了低质量的鸟类欺骗这个系统，这一点还远不明显。最近的一系列突破性研究使我们了解了通过红色羽毛颜色发出的诚实信号。我们现在知道了负责生产和积累红色羽毛色素的关键酶和转运蛋白。在拟议的研究中，一组具有动物生理学，细胞生物学和基因组学专业知识的科学家将使用整个动物和细胞培养来研究着色的分子和生化机制。研究人员将检查和比较这些过程中的家雀在良好或不良的条件下，以推断促进或抑制生产和积累的红色素的具体机制，从而控制羽毛着色。了解控制鸣禽类胡萝卜素着色的生化和细胞规则不仅对更好地理解自然界中的这一中心过程很重要，而且因为类胡萝卜素色素在人类细胞内稳态中起着关键作用。 更好地了解鸟类的类胡萝卜素系统将不可避免地导致更好地了解我们自己。研究人员将分享这些见解，并通过鸟类学夏令营计划，课程开发和公立学校教师培训研讨会，以及初中和高中学生访问研究实验室来支持STEM教育。 生物化学、遗传学和进化过程在择偶的背景下，禁止或允许诚实的信息交流，这些过程仍然知之甚少。 拟议的研究将集中在通过整合亚细胞，细胞和整个生物体的方法来揭示诚实信号的基本规则。 在包括家雀在内的鸟类中，高质量的雄性羽毛比低质量的雄性羽毛具有更明亮和更红的类胡萝卜素颜色。 了解个体的状况如何影响这些基因的功能，从而影响颜色表达是拟议工作的重点。资源权衡假说提出，压力导致红色的损失，因为类胡萝卜素必须从抑制中转移出来，这样它们就可以作为抗氧化剂或免疫系统增强剂。 或者，共享途径假说提出，黄色膳食色素氧化为红色装饰色素取决于核心细胞过程，特别是线粒体中的细胞呼吸，这对生物体功能和环境条件敏感。这些假设对细胞和环境条件进行了对比预测，这些条件将影响酮化，从而产生红色，我们将采用整个动物和细胞培养实验来测试这些预测。 这项拟议的研究有可能显着促进对压力、个人状况和类胡萝卜素着色之间普遍存在的联系的了解。我们提出的实验将提供重要的新的见解，如何在一个机械的水平，类胡萝卜素的颜色作为一个信号的条件，因此关键的见解到一个基本的生活规则，如何保持信号诚实。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Red feather coloration in the House Finch and other songbirds serves as an honest signal of individual condition. This finding is both well documented and quite remarkable. It is far from obvious why the hue of feathers reveals the individual quality or what prevents low-quality birds from cheating this system. A series of recent breakthrough studies brings us to the doorstep of understanding honest signaling via red feather coloration. We now know key enzymes and transporters responsible for the production and accumulation of red plumage pigments. In the proposed research, a team of scientists with expertise spanning animal physiology, cell biology, and genomics will use both whole animals and cell culture to study the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of coloration. The investigators will examine and compare these processes in House Finches in good or poor condition to deduce the specific mechanisms that promote or inhibit the production and accumulation of red pigments and hence, control plumage coloration. Understanding the biochemical and cellular rules that govern carotenoid coloration in songbirds is important not just for a better understanding of this central process in nature but because carotenoid pigments play a key role in cellular homeostasis in humans. A better understanding of carotenoid systems in birds will inevitably lead to a better understanding of ourselves. The investigators will share these insights and support STEM education through an ornithology summer camp program, curricula development and training workshops for public school teachers, and middle and high school student visits to investigator laboratories. The biochemical, genetic, and evolutionary processed that either prohibit or enable honest communication of information in the context of mate choice remain poorly understood. The proposed research will focus on uncovering fundamental rules of honest signaling by integrating subcellular, cellular, and whole-organism approaches. In birds including the House Finch, high-quality males produce feathers with brighter and redder carotenoid coloration than do low-quality males. Understanding how the condition of individuals affects the function of these genes and hence color expression is the focus of proposed work. The Resource Tradeoff Hypothesis proposes that stress causes loss of red coloration because carotenoids must be diverted away from ornamentation so they can function as antioxidants or immune system enhancers. Alternatively, the Shared Pathway Hypothesis proposes that oxidation of yellow dietary pigments to red ornamental pigments depends on core cellular processes, and particularly cellular respiration in mitochondria, that are sensitive to organism function and environmental conditions. These hypotheses make contrasting predictions regarding the cellular and environmental conditions that will affect ketolation and hence production of red coloration, and we will employ both whole animal and cell culture experiments to test these predictions. The proposed research holds the potential to significantly advance understanding of the ubiquitous links between stress, individual condition, and carotenoid coloration. The experiments that we propose will provide important new insights for how, at a mechanistic level, carotenoid color serves as a signal of condition and hence key insights into a fundamental rule of life—how to keep signaling honest.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.