NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Invaders from the sea: unearthing the genomic basis of marine-to-terrestrial life-history transitions

这项行动资助了2021财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。由于地球上的所有生命都起源于海洋，但大多数大型物种目前都生活在陆地上，研究员计划研究海洋向陆地过渡的遗传基础，以更好地了解这些深刻塑造了地球现代生物多样性模式的过渡可能在很久以前发生。研究员会以部分生活在水生环境而另一部分生活在陆地上的陆蟹为研究对象，探讨它们在幼年水生和成年陆地生活阶段之间的基因表达模式，以确定哪些基因可能与它们的陆地变态有关。通过比较多个物种的这些模式，研究员希望确定更大的进化模式，这可能揭示生命如何适应数百万年前的陆地。该研究员还将创建一个导师计划，将来自不同群体的博士后学生与来自相似背景的教师配对，为他们在关键的职业阶段提供成功的榜样和指导。该计划还将提供专业发展机会，为学员申请和获得学术或行业工作做好准备，这将有助于增加这些代表性不足的群体在生物学中的参与。该研究员将描述具有不同发育模式的三种陆地蟹种的幼虫阶段，然后比较发育阶段之间的种内基因表达，以及跨发育策略的种间基因表达，以确定哪些遗传变化可能是重要的变化，这些变化允许具有更直接发育模式的谱系采用高度陆地化的生活方式。该项目的研究结果将深入了解进化可预测性的本质及其基因组基础，以及重大生物学创新和转变的遗传基础。它还将产生新的基因组，转录组和发育资源，并为未来使用转基因工具和基因组编辑协议的研究奠定基础，以进一步研究该系统中趋同进化的陆生性的基因组基础。通过开展该项目，研究员将发展胚胎学和比较发育转录组学方面的新技能。除了设计和实施她的多样化导师计划外，该研究员还将直接增加生物学的多样性，因为她也来自一个代表性不足的群体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Since all life on Earth began in the oceans, but most large species currently live on land, the Fellow plans to study the genetic basis of sea-to-land transitions to better understand how these transitions, which have profoundly shaped modern biodiversity patterns on Earth, may have happened long ago. Using land crabs that spend part of their lives in aquatic habitats and the other part on land, the Fellow will explore gene expression patterns between their juvenile aquatic and adult terrestrial life stages to identify which genes may be associated with their terrestrial metamorphosis. By comparing these patterns across multiple species, the Fellow hopes to identify larger evolutionary patterns that might shed light on how life may have adapted to land millions of years ago. The Fellow will also create a mentorship program that pairs postdoctoral students from diverse groups with faculty from similar backgrounds to provide them with successful role models and guidance during a critical career phase. The program will also provide professional development opportunities that will prepare the mentees for applying to and securing academic or industry jobs, which will help increase the participation of these underrepresented groups in biology. The Fellow will characterize the larval stages of three land crab species with different developmental modes, and then compare intraspecies gene expression between developmental stages, and interspecies gene expression across developmental strategies to determine which genetic shifts may have been important changes that allowed for lineages with more direct developmental modes to adopt highly terrestrialized lifestyles. The findings from this project will provide insight into the nature of evolutionary predictability and its genomic underpinnings, as well as the genetic basis of major biological innovations and transitions. It will also generate novel genomic, transcriptomic, and developmental resources, and lay the groundwork for future studies that use transgenic tools and genome editing protocols to further investigate the genomic basis of convergently evolved terrestriality in this system. By undertaking this project, the Fellow will develop new skills in embryology and comparative developmental transcriptomics. In addition to designing and implementing her diverse mentorship program, the Fellow will also directly increase diversity in biology since she is also from an underrepresented group.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.