NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The genetic basis and fitness consequences of thermogenic flexibility in juncos

该行动资助了2021财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即调查基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这项研究旨在记录自然种群对环境变化的反应能力，以帮助理解和预测正在进行的全球变化的后果。该研究员将研究如何特别是常见的鸣禽，通过改变它们的生理机能来科普环境温度的变化，以及这样做的能力是如何由它们的DNA编码的。这项研究将利用研究员以前收集的样本，并为学生和社区成员提供机会，在附近的喂鸟者那里收集更多的数据。确定个体可逆地改变其性状值（“表型灵活性”）的能力的变化的原因和后果，必然需要将基因型与表型与适应性联系起来，尽管这种联系在脊椎动物中仍然很少见。利用实地研究和实验室驯化实验，该研究员以前提供的经验证据表明，温度变化驱动的空间格局的变化在属Junco鸣禽的生理灵活性。利用之前收集的junco组织样本，他们将量化：（1）与生理灵活性差异相关的基因组变异模式;（2）灵活生理变化背后的基因表达变异;（3）与野生生理灵活性相关的基因座选择。这将通过使用关联方法来鉴定与柔性相关的基因座，使用基因表达谱对这些结果进行验证，并评估野生环境中对这些基因型的选择来实现。两者合计，这项工作将确定junco生理灵活性的遗传基础，并提供一个自然种群的能力，以应对环境变化的机械理解。这项工作的一个主要培训目标是扩大研究员生成和分析基因组数据的专业知识，以及发展他们在科学交流和指导方面的技能。在研究员的任期内，他们将与他们的导师合作，帮助招聘和提供来自代表性不足的背景本科生的支持，以及从事周围社区的科学过程，并通过公开演讲和课堂参观与他们沟通。此外，该研究致力于扩大目前的鸟类研究射频识别技术的效用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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. This research aims to document the ability of natural populations to respond to environmental change in order to help understand and predict the consequences of ongoing global change. The fellow will investigate how common songbirds in particular, cope with changes in environmental temperature by modifying their physiology and how the ability to do so is encoded by their DNA. This research will make use of samples that the fellow previously collected, as well as provide opportunities for students and community members to engage in additional data collection at neighborhood bird feeders. Determining the causes and consequences of variation in an individual’s ability to reversibly modify its trait values (‘phenotypic flexibility’) necessarily requires linking genotype to phenotype to fitness, though such connections remain rare in vertebrates. Using field studies and laboratory acclimation experiments, the fellow has previously provided empirical evidence that temperature variability drives spatial patterns of variation in physiological flexibility within songbirds in the genus Junco. Utilizing junco tissue samples that the fellow previously collected, they will quantify: (1) genomic patterns of variation associated with differences in physiological flexibility; (2) variation in gene expression underlying flexible physiological changes; and (3) selection on loci associated with physiological flexibility in the wild. This will be achieved using association methods to identify loci related to flexibility, performing validation of these results with gene expression profiles, and assessing selection on these genotypes in the wild. Taken together, this work will identify the genetic basis of junco physiological flexibility and provide a mechanistic understanding of the ability of natural populations to respond to environmental change. A major training goal of this work is to expand the fellow’s proficiencies generating and analyzing genomic data, as well as to develop their skills in science communication and mentoring. Throughout the fellow’s tenure, they will work with their mentor to help recruit and provide support for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as engage the surrounding communities in the scientific process and communicate with them through public presentations and classroom visits. Additionally, the research endeavors to extend the current utility of radio frequency identification technology for avian research.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.