Understanding the resilience of wild birds to climate change: seasonal genomics of the annual migratory breeding cycle

气候变化的潜在破坏性影响最近得到了正式承认，并宣布进入全球紧急状态。为了了解环境变化如何影响生物系统，我们有一个独特的机会来研究候鸟和留鸟亚种中调节年度繁殖周期、行为和生存潜力的分子途径。我们掌握着一组非常独特的样本，这些样本来自北极和北美的各种鸟类，代表了繁殖周期不同阶段的不同组织，暴露在不同的环境条件下。北美白冠麻雀的两个密切相关的亚种，甘贝尔麻雀(GWCS)和纳托尔麻雀(NWCS)，代表了最近非常迅速的亚种分化。这为研究最近季节性行为的演变提供了一个极好的机会，方法是将长途移民GWCS与在加州居住一年的NWCS进行比较。白冠麻雀在更新世时期与红领麻雀(RCS)有共同的祖先。RCS位于南美洲非常独特的环境中，为理解这些野生鸟类的季节性行为对历史和最近的气候变化的进化适应提供了一个强大的模型。卡氏钉螺的一个种群已经变得非季节性，允许对涉及季节性和脆弱或健壮的基因网络进行进一步的“自然实验”比较，它们将面对气候变化。我们建议研究哪些基因在各种组织中表现出表达的变化，这些组织被认为是季节性激素的重要调节和靶标。我们知道在基因表达和激素水平上存在很大的性别差异，所以我们将使用每个亚种的雄性和雌性。我们将在一年中的不同阶段和行为(冬季、抵达北极、产卵和基础前蜕皮)将NWCS和GWCs进行比较。对于我们确定为关键的选定基因，将使用抗体染色来创建3D图像，以确定它们在下丘脑和脑垂体中的蛋白质定位。我们还将追踪祖先RCS中的重要基因、组织和阶段，以确定这些年行为调节器的进化历史。我们将为这三个物种开发高质量的注释基因组，以了解它们的遗传差异，以便进行准确的基因表达分析。这也将使其他研究人员能够在这些物种中进行类似的全基因组研究，并使国际上进一步研究气候对野生鸟类的影响。因此，我们将能够更好地了解季节性周期性和最近的进化历史，这些分子过程使我们的野生鸟类能够使它们的行为适应不断变化的气候。了解这些关键过程和进化历史将有助于我们更好地了解和预测当前气候紧急情况对我们野生鸟类的影响。这项研究的结果将不仅对科学产生影响，而且将有助于从根本上了解在我们快速变化的社会中需要做出的政策变化。了解野生鸟类适应物种基本生物学的能力(通过基因表达、行为、繁殖潜力、环境适应等方面的变化)。应对气候变化将使我们能够更好地了解全球环境变化的影响，并开始制定战略，以减轻这些将对地球上所有生命造成后果的潜在破坏性影响。

The potentially devastating effects of climate change have recently been officially recognized and a global emergency declared. To understand how environmental change is impacting on biological systems, we have a unique opportunity to study, in both migratory and resident sub-species of bird, the molecular pathways that regulate annual reproductive cycles, behaviour and potential to survive. We have at our disposal, a very unique set of samples collected from a variety of arctic and North American bird species, representing different tissues at different stages of the breeding cycle, under exposure to different environmental conditions.Two closely related subspecies of white-crowned sparrow in North America, the Gambel's (GWCS) and the Nuttall's (NWCS), represent very recent and rapid subspecies divergence. This presents an excellent opportunity to study the recent evolution of seasonal behaviour by comparing the long-distance migrant, GWCS, with the year-long resident of California, NWCS. The white-crowned sparrow had a common ancestor with the Rufous-collared sparrow (RCS) during the Pleistocene era. RCS resides in the very distinct environment of South America and provides a powerful model for understanding the evolutionary adaptation of the seasonal behaviour of these wild-birds to historic and recent climate change. One population of Z. capensis has become non-seasonal allowing further "natural experimental" comparisons of gene networks involved in seasonality and vulnerable, or robust, they will be in the face of climate change. We propose to examine which genes show expression changes in a variety of tissues that are known as important regulators and targets of seasonal hormones. We know there are strong sex differences in gene expression and hormone levels, so we will use both males and females from each sub-species. We will compare NWCS with GWCS during different stages and behaviours during the year (during winter, arrival in Arctic, egg-laying, and pre-basic moult). For the selected genes, that we identify as critical, will use antibody staining to create 3D images for their protein localisation in the hypothalamus and pituitary. We will also follow up the significant genes, tissues and stages in the ancestral RCS to determine the evolutionary history of these regulators of annual behaviour.High-quality annotated genomes will be developed for these three species to understand their genetic differences and in order for accurate analysis of gene expression to be undertaken. This will also allow other researchers to conduct similar genome-wide studies in these species and empower further international research into the impact of climate on our wild-birds.We will thus be able to better understand seasonal periodicity and the recent evolutionary history of the sex-specific molecular processes that enable our wild birds to adapt their behaviour to a changing climate. Understanding these key processes and evolutionary history will help us better understand and predict the impact of the current climate emergency on our wild birds. Results from this study will be of consequence not just to science but will help inform at the very heart of the policy changes that will need to be made in our rapidly changing society.Understanding the ability of wild birds to adapt the basic biology of species (via changes in gene expression, behaviour, reproductive potential, environmental adaptability etc.) to a changing climate will allow us to better understand the impact of global environmental change and begin to develop strategies to mitigate these potentially devastating effects that will have consequences for all life on earth.