NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in biology and provide them an opportunity to establish international collaborations and take advantage of research facilities and opportunities abroad. Forging strong international collaborations is mutually beneficial to the U.S. and the foreign hosts. This fellowship to M. Catherine Duryea supports research and training on how molecular variation in female reproductive proteins plays out in reproductive success in nature. Color modifications in the blue-winged damselfly make it a unique experimental organism in which existing knowledge from the genetics of the fruit fly model system can be used to reveal how genetics and ecology combine to define populations and evolution. The host institution is Lund University in Sweden and the sponsoring scientist is Prof. Erik Svensson. Educational outreach involves local schools in Lund.
In many organisms, reproductive proteins show signatures of rapid evolution and high levels of intraspecific variation, suggesting that an intersexual arms race, i.e., sexual conflict, is driving the evolution of these genes. However, very little is known about the ecological pressures that result in this genetic variation. This project investigates intraspecific variation in reproductive proteins in female damselflies. This system is ideal for such studies because females have three different body colors that are related to the rate of male harassment and can be used to infer the degree of conflict between the sexes. Through a combination of field and lab experiments this project identifies female reproductive proteins that are involved in mating, characterizes intraspecific variation in reproductive proteins, and investigates if there is any genomic signature of correlational selection among reproductive proteins and female color morph genes.
