IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Evolutionary and Functional Trade-offs in Extreme Sensory Capabilities of Nocturnal Predatory Spiders

如果有一件事是每个人都知道的，那就是蜘蛛是致命的昆虫猎人，它们用超级坚固的丝编织的网来捕捉昆虫。研究蜘蛛可以通过检查专门的感觉系统以及它们用于探测和捕获猎物的网和丝的巧妙用途来提供许多工程见解。这个项目的重点是撒网的deinopid蜘蛛，它们通过攻击移动的昆虫来捕食，这些昆虫被它们用腿固定在小的矩形网中。 这项研究将研究deinopid蜘蛛的大眼睛，眼睛在夜间用于狩猎。预计该项目将产生具有实际应用价值的成果。 例如，他们眼睛的生物化学和生理设计特征有望揭示可应用于夜间运动敏感设备的新见解。此外，蜘蛛丝的显着物理特性-即其拉伸强度，韧性和柔韧性-目前正被工业用于消费者，工业和军事应用。该项目还将通过为代表性不足的高中和本科生提供研究机会，并通过开发英语和西班牙语的互动双语游戏来帮助通过建模教儿童数学，从而产生教育影响。这些活动将扩大对科学的参与，并有助于培养下一代科学工作者。 该项目将解决需要综合方法的复杂问题：感觉系统如何变得专业化，这些专业化背后的机制是什么？撒网蜘蛛（Deinopidae）提供了一个令人兴奋的模型，因为它们高度专业化的感觉系统用于在近乎完全黑暗的情况下捕获猎物。撒网蜘蛛依靠地球上最对光敏感的眼睛。然而，一些特定的物种有着小眼睛，但在类似的条件下觅食。最近的一项发现表明，蜘蛛使用通过丝传递的声音信息来感知环境并捕获空中猎物。这表明感觉系统之间的权衡是适应性变化的驱动力。功能权衡是所有感觉系统所固有的，但对这些权衡如何表现和进化的理解是有限的，并且没有在多个生物水平上进行详细的比较研究。实现这种对权衡的深刻理解需要综合的方法和愿意弥合其子学科之间的相当大的差距的多样化的调查团队。这项研究将在不同生物学领域具有互补专业知识的研究人员之间建立联系。他们将共同确定遗传，生理，形态和行为机制，这些机制是deinopids非凡的视觉和听觉适应的基础，并阐明相对投资如何在不同的生态条件下演变。来自多学科实验的结果将被整合到一个生态和进化模型中，以产生适用于其他生物系统的感官进化预测。对早期职业研究人员的交叉培训也将加强几代人的综合生物学管道。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。

If there is one thing everyone “knows” about spiders, it’s that they are deadly hunters of insects, which they catch with webs spun of super-strong silk. Studying spiders can provide numerous engineering insights by examining the specialized sensory systems and ingenious uses of webs and silk they use for detecting and capturing prey. This project focuses on net-casting deinopid spiders that hunt by striking at moving insects that they ensnare in small rectangular webs held with their legs. This study will examine the large eyes of deinopid spiders, eyes that are used at night to hunt. The project is expected to produce results with practical applications. For example, the biochemical and physiological design features of their eyes are expected to reveal new insights that could be applied for night motion-sensitive devices. In addition, the remarkable physical properties of spider silk--namely, its tensile strength, toughness, and flexibility--are currently being exploited by industry for consumer, industrial, and military applications. This project will also have educational impacts by providing research opportunities for under-represented high school and undergraduate students and by developing an interactive bilingual game in English and Spanish to help teach children mathematics through modeling. These activities will broaden participation in science and help train the next generation of the scientific workforce. This project will address complex questions requiring an integrative approach: How do sensory systems become specialized and what are the mechanisms behind these specializations? Net-casting spiders (Deinopidae) present an exciting model given their highly specialized sensory systems used to capture prey in near-total darkness. Net-casting spiders rely on enlarged eyes that are among the most light-sensitive on Earth. Yet some select species have diminutive eyes but forage under similar conditions. A recent discovery revealed that spiders use acoustic information transmitted through silk to perceive their environment and capture aerial prey. This suggests that trade-offs between sensory systems are a driver of adaptive variation. Functional trade-offs are inherent to all sensory systems, but the understanding of how these trade-offs manifest and evolve is limited and has not been studied in detail in a comparative fashion across multiple biological levels. Achieving this deep understanding of trade-offs requires integrative approaches and a diverse team of investigators willing to bridge the considerable gaps between their subdisciplines. This research will forge connections among investigators with complementary expertise in disparate biological fields. Together, they will identify the genetic, physiological, morphological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying the extraordinary visual and acoustic sensory adaptations within deinopids and elucidate how relative investments evolve in different ecological conditions. Results from the multidisciplinary empirical experiments will be integrated into an ecological and evolutionary model to generate predictions about sensory evolution that will be applicable to other biological systems. Cross-training of early career investigators will also strengthen the pipeline for integrative biology for generations.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.