NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Color polymorphism: a model system for predicting phenotypic evolution in nature

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。气候变化预计会产生极端的环境条件，我们预测生物对预计的环境变化的反应方式的能力对未来至关重要。在自然界中，成千上万的物种进化出了颜色多态性。这就是在同一物种中，多种不同的颜色形态，也有不同的基因和行为，共存的地方。颜色多态物种是生物学中发展预测能力的理想系统，因为同一物种的颜色变形通常与环境的不同方面有关。该项目的目的是确定蜥蜴颜色形态特征、遗传和特定环境变量之间的可重复关联，这些变量预计会随着气候变化而变化（温度、空气湿度、降水等），以预测动物将如何进化和适应不断变化的环境。该研究员将使用爱琴海壁虎，它有三种颜色变化：橙色，黄色和白色，随着环境的不同而不同，研究颜色变化遗传学和环境变化变量如何相互作用，在不同的环境中产生不同的颜色变化。该研究员将聘请在科学研究中代表性不足的本科生担任实验室和现场助理。该项目还将包括一个国际推广部分，通过艺术活动向美国旧金山湾区和希腊雅典的小学生传播进化论的基本原则。这项研究将利用基因决定的爱琴海壁虎的颜色形态来确定基因-表型-环境相互作用，这种相互作用在相似的环境中自然地产生了相同形态表型的重复进化。本研究将使用颜色多态性作为模型系统来测试：种内形态多样性与环境变化之间的可预测关联，孤立种群中重复形态表型与环境关联的进化，以及许多颜色多态性物种中形态表型与环境变化的相关宏观进化。该研究员将学习综合方法，将适应性景观理论、基因组学、计算、实地考察和实验结合起来，从生物尺度上的复杂相互作用中确定可预测的表型进化模式。该研究员将与来自代表性不足群体的本科生一起在当地和国际小学教室开展研究和科学推广活动。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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Climate change is expected to generate extreme environmental conditions, and our ability to predict the way organisms will respond to projected environmental change is critically important for the future. In nature, thousands of species have evolved color polymorphism. That is where multiple distinct color morphs, that also differ genetically and behaviorally, coexist within the same species. Color polymorphic species are an ideal system to develop predictive power in biology because often color morphs of the same species are associated with different aspects of the environment. The aim of this project is to identify repeatable associations between lizard color morph traits, genetics, and specific environmental variables that are expected to change with climate change (temperature, air moisture, precipitation, etc.) to develop predictions about how animals will evolve and adapt to changing environments. The fellow will use the Aegean wall lizard, which has three color morphs: orange, yellow, and white, that differ by environment to study how color morph genetics and environmental change variables interact to produce different color morphs in different environments. The fellow will engage undergraduates underrepresented in the sciences in research as lab and field assistants. This project will also include an international outreach component that will communicate basic principles of evolution to elementary school children in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States and Athens, Greece with art-based activities.This research will use genetically determined color morphs of the Aegean wall lizard to identify gene-phenotype-environment interactions that have naturally produced repeated evolution of the same morph phenotypes in similar environments. This research will use color polymorphism as a model system to test for: predictable associations between intraspecific morph diversity and environmental variation, the evolution of repeated morph phenotype-environment associations in isolated populations, and correlated macroevolution of morph phenotypes and environmental variation across many color polymorphic species. The fellow will train in integrative approaches that combines adaptive landscape theory, genomics, computation, fieldwork, and experiments to identify predictable patterns of phenotypic evolution from complex interactions across biological scales. The fellow will engage undergraduates from underrepresented groups in research and science outreach activities with local and international elementary classrooms.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.