BRC-BIO: Detection of Nicrophorus orbicollis indirect genetic effects critical for fitness

有趣的是，大多数人都能指出父母、兄弟姐妹、亲戚或朋友是如何影响他们成为现在的人的。当然，在许多非人类物种中，亲属或其他社会伙伴对个体特征的影响也可能很重要，如果这些影响是遗传的，它们可以在决定这些物种的进化命运方面发挥重要作用。然而，人们对社会伙伴相互影响的具体遗传机制知之甚少。众所周知，社会影响至关重要的生物包括埋葬甲虫，它们通过反刍部分消化的腐肉，为后代提供高级的亲代照顾。该项目将使用全基因组测序技术来确定母亲体内的基因，这些基因会导致可能与适应性相关的一系列后代特征的变异。该项目将在现代分子、生物信息学和统计技术方面培训一名研究生和许多本科生，并将为奥斯汀皮伊州立大学以前无法获得的课堂提供计算资源。此外，将邀请外部演讲者来讨论该项目中使用的技术如何通过医学、农业和社会科学的进步来影响日常生活，让学生有机会将实验室中发生的事情与更广阔的世界联系起来。社会影响，被称为间接遗传效应（IGE），理论上在表型进化中起着特别重要的作用。然而，由于缺乏找到产生IGEs的特定等位基因的能力，对IGEs的实证研究一直受到阻碍。找到这些等位基因可以回答三个主要问题。首先，IGEs的结构是否主要是多基因的，或者是否有任何主要的影响等位基因发挥作用？第二，哪些基因被发现会产生IGEs ?通过识别这些基因及其作用途径，能否得出关于分子机制的一般性结论？第三，IGEs与基因型对表型的更标准的个体贡献（直接遗传效应；DGE）之间的遗传相关性的分子性质是什么？本项目将采用交叉培育的方式，培育1500个埋虫家庭，由埋虫母亲抚养无亲缘关系的后代。每个母亲将通过低覆盖率基因组测序进行基因分型，全基因组关联研究（GWAS）将用于使用母亲基因型预测后代表型。还将对每个家庭的三个后代进行测序，以便可以估计遗传变异和遗传变异，从而估计它们之间的遗传相关性。除了解决上述问题外，该项目还将使用CRISPR/Cas9进行功能基因组研究，并为等位基因频率随空间和时间变化的群体遗传研究产生新的假设。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。

Anecdotally, most people can point to how a parent, sibling, relative, or friend has influenced the person they have become. In many non-human species, of course, the influence of relatives or other social partners on an individual’s characteristics can also be important, and if those influences are genetic, they can play a major role in determining the evolutionary fates of those species. However, little is known about the specific genetic mechanisms by which social partners can affect each other. Among organisms where social influences are known to be critical are burying beetles, which provide advanced parental care to their offspring through the regurgitation of partially digested carrion. This project will use whole genome sequencing to identify the genes in mothers that cause variation in a set of offspring traits that may be linked to fitness. The project will train one graduate student and numerous undergraduates in modern molecular, bioinformatic, and statistical techniques, and will generate computational resources for the classroom previously unavailable to students at Austin Peay State University. In addition, outside speakers will be brought in to discuss how techniques like those used in this project have the potential to affect everyday life through advances in medicine, agriculture, and social science, giving students the chance to connect what goes on in the lab to the broader world.Social influences, known as indirect genetic effects (IGE), are theorized to play especially important roles in phenotypic evolution. However, the empirical study of IGEs has been hampered by a lack of ability to find the specific alleles that generate them. Finding these alleles can answer three major questions. First, is the architecture of IGEs largely polygenic, or do any major effect alleles play a role? Second, what genes are found to confer IGEs, and can any generalizable conclusions about molecular mechanisms come from identifying these genes and the pathways in which they operate? And third, what is the molecular nature of genetic correlations between IGEs and more standard individual contributions of genotype to phenotpe (direct genetic effects; DGE)? This project will generate 1500 families of the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis using cross-fostering, so that mothers rear unrelated offspring. Each mother will be genotyped via low-coverage genome sequencing, and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) will be used to predict offspring phenotypes using maternal genotypes. Three offspring from each family will also be sequenced so that DGEs can be estimated alongside IGEs, allowing for estimation of genetic correlations between them. In addition to addressing the questions raised above, the project will will enable functional genomic studies using CRISPR/Cas9 and will generate new hypotheses for population genetic studies of allele frequency change over space and time.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.