This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award to Dr. Kevin Brix is supported by both the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. During the 24-month fellowship, Dr. Brix will work on a project titled, "Investigation into the Genetic Controls of Osmoregulation in Freshwater Fish" under the co-sponsorship of Professors Dolph Schluter, Colin Brauner, and Chris Wood at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada.
The invasion of ancient marine fish into freshwater environments represents one of the most physiologically significant developments in vertebrate evolution, with multiple invasions occurring over the past 400 million years. A diversity of processes by which fish maintain salt balance in freshwater has been identified, but no systematic effort has been made to understand the genetic factors controlling this diversity. This project will use the stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, to investigate the genetic control of salt balance in freshwater fish. Stickleback has independently invaded freshwater multiple times, providing a powerful model for examining the evolution of salt balance in fish. Dr. Brix will characterize these processes in freshwater and marine stickleback populations and then use genetic mapping techniques to identify the genes controlling differences in salt balance between populations. Stickleback has become an increasingly valuable genetic model for an array of physiological and morphological processes. The genes controlling changes in body shape are now understood and exert control over similar processes in other vertebrates, including humans. This project will develop a similar level of understanding for salt balance with the possibility that key genes identified in stickleback may be important for other fish species and vertebrates in general.
Through this fellowship, Dr. Brix will become a member of the Biodiversity Research Centre and associated Beaty Biodiversity Museum (www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/) at UBC, where he will actively participate in the extensive K-12 educational outreach programs on biodiversity and evolution using stickleback as a teaching tool. Additionally, through a Science without Borders grant to Dr. Wood, he will have an opportunity to teach a course at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil on integrating fish physiology and the gene mapping techniques.
This award provides a unique opportunity for a US scientist to collaborate with foreign scientists, and utilize the unique facilities, expertise and experimental conditions available abroad.
