The role of phenotypic plasticity in responses to environmental challenges.

表型可塑性允许有机体改变特征的表达以响应环境，并对种群的分布、人口统计学和进化产生重要影响。尽管可塑性具有广泛的重要性，但我们仍然在学习可塑性是如何由环境因素诱导的，如何影响健康，以及如何由自然选择塑造的。我的长期目标是促进我们对可塑性在应对环境挑战中的作用的理解，在赠款期间使用两个互补的系统：鸟类中寄生虫的挑战和昆虫中温度变化的挑战。寄生虫。寄生虫几乎影响到地球上的每一个物种。我们研究了一群感染疟疾的红翼黑鸟对寄生虫的塑料反应。我们将控制在自由放养的鸟类中的寄生虫感染，并测量从分子到组织水平、个人内部和世代之间的反应。这项工作将提供对这一假设的首批现场测试之一，该假设认为雌性为应对疟疾感染的挑战做好了准备。或者，感染的代价可能会代代相传，放大其影响。温度。为了在我们对可塑性进化的理解上取得进展，我们最近扩大了我们的研究计划，将埋葬甲虫的塑料反应的研究包括在内。我们将进行受控的圈养研究，以确定多种性状的可塑性如何结合在一起，以决定个体在一系列温度下的表现。在确定了作为适合度重要决定因素的可塑性性状后，我们将在人工选择实验中针对这些性状，以评估可塑性随选择而进化的潜力。意义重大。这项研究计划将使我们在解决表型可塑性研究中的基本问题方面取得重大进展。个体间塑料反应的差异是否决定了他们应对挑战的能力？母亲们会让她们的后代做好准备来应对她们所面临的挑战吗？多个特征的可塑性反应如何结合在一起影响健康？可塑性能因选择而进化吗？我们的互补方法将在我们对生物体如何应对动态环境的理解方面取得重大进展。对挑战的塑料反应会影响个体的健康，并扩大规模，以确定种群和物种在面对不断变化的环境时坚持下来的能力。因此，了解可塑性是至关重要的，因为气候变化和入侵和不断扩大的寄生虫等人为挑战日益威胁着加拿大的生物多样性。这项研究将从不同的实验室和现场技术来回答我们的问题，为HQP提供强有力的跨学科培训，并为他们在生物学领域的一系列职业生涯做好准备。

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to alter expression of traits in response to their environment, and has important consequences for the distributions, demography, and evolution of populations. Despite its broad importance, we are still learning how plasticity is induced by environmental factors, impacts fitness, and is shaped by natural selection. My long-term objective is to advance our understanding of the role of plasticity in mediating responses to environmental challenges using two complementary systems during the grant period: the challenge of parasites in a bird, and the challenge of changing temperatures in an insect. Parasites. Parasites affect almost every species on earth. We study plastic responses to parasites in a population of red-winged blackbirds with a high incidence of malarial infection. We will manipulate parasite infection in free-ranging birds and measure responses from the molecular to organismal level, within individuals and across generations. This work will provide one of the first field-based tests of the hypothesis that females prepare their young to cope with the challenge of malarial infection. Alternatively, the costs of infection might be transmitted across generations, amplifying its effects. Temperature. To make advances in our understanding of the evolution of plasticity, we recently expanded our research program to include studies of plastic responses in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis. We will conduct controlled captive studies to determine how plasticity in multiple traits combines to determine individual performance across a range of temperatures. After identifying plastic traits that are important determinants of fitness, we will target those traits in an artificial selection experiment to evaluate the potential for plasticity to evolve in response to selection. Significance. This research program will allow us to make significant advances in addressing fundamental questions in the study of phenotypic plasticity. Do differences in plastic responses among individuals determine how well they cope with challenges? Do mothers prepare their offspring to cope with the challenges they have faced? How do plastic responses in multiple traits combine to impact fitness? Can plasticity evolve in response to selection? Our complementary approaches will generate significant advances in our understanding of how organisms cope with dynamic environments. Plastic responses to challenges impact individual fitness and scale up to determine the ability of populations and species to persist in the face of changing environments. As such, understanding plasticity is essential as anthropogenic challenges, like climate change and invasive and expanding parasites, increasingly threaten Canada's biodiversity. This research will draw from diverse lab and field techniques to answer our questions, providing strong, interdisciplinary training to HQP, and preparing them for a range of careers in biology.