Evolutionary genetics of genotype-by-environment interactions for complex traits

项目总结 我研究中的一个关键问题是：为什么数量性状的多样性持续存在，尽管 应该消除这种多样性的选择证据？环境变化可能会产生 种群之间和种群内的基因权衡，有助于保持这种遗传多样性。我 研究自然界中这些权衡的遗传机制和架构。我最近的研究 专注于两个中心目标：1)开发寻找局部遗传基础的方法 适应和2)关于局部适应和G×E的假设的实证检验。 使用模型系统研究适应环境的遗传机制的研究 为生态实验提供了便利，拟南芥。这项工作将考验 关于适应不断变化的环境的遗传结构的假说 空间和时间，关于基因流动如何影响遗传结构，以及关于基因的作用 在适应不同环境时的表达可塑性。在所有项目中，我们的执行能力 生态上现实但受控的普通花园实验将提供关于 环境反应的遗传变异(G×E)可用于解释观测数据 来自大自然的数据。我们将首先研究适应时间的遗传机制。 不断变化的环境。我们将研究不同的种群是如何适应数百种 通过对博物馆标本的基因组进行测序，了解几代人的环境变化。第二, 我们将研究不同水平的山地环境梯度的局部适应。 隔离，以测试基因流动如何影响局部适应的架构。这个项目将 从不同的地理环境中收集种群，并进行实验以确定 局部适应和表达可塑性的遗传基础。我提议的工作将使 在测试复杂环境梯度的权衡影响方面取得了重要进展 整个基因组的遗传多样性。

PROJECT SUMMARY A key question in my research is: why does diversity in quantitative traits persist, despite evidence of selection that should eliminate this diversity? Environmental variation can generate genetic tradeoffs both among and within populations, helping to maintain this genetic diversity. I study the genetic mechanisms and architecture of these tradeoffs in nature. My recent research has focused on two central goals: 1) developing approaches for finding the genetic basis of local adaptation and 2) empirical testing of hypotheses about local adaptation and G×E. I propose research to study genetic mechanisms of adaptation to environment using a model system that is convenient for ecological experimentation, Arabidopsis thaliana. This work will test hypotheses about the genetic architecture of adaptation to changing environments through space and time, about how gene flow influences genetic architecture, and about the role of gene expression plasticity in adaptation to variable environments. In all projects, our ability to conduct ecologically realistic but controlled common garden experiments will provide information on genetic variation in environmental responses (G×E) that can be used to interpret observational data from nature. We will first study the genetic mechanisms of adaptation to temporally changing environments. We will study how different populations of have adapted to hundreds of generations of environmental change by sequencing genomes of museum specimens. Second, we will study local adaptation along montane environmental gradients with different levels of isolation to test how gene flow influences the architecture of local adaptation. This project will collect populations from different geographic contexts and conduct experiments to characterize the genetic basis of local adaptation and expression plasticity. My proposed work will make important strides in testing how tradeoffs along complex environmental gradients influence genetic diversity across the genome.