This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2015, Broadening Participation. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow and a plan to broaden participation of groups under-represented in science. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Derek Caetano-Anollés is "Genetic framework for mouse facial structure under selective pressures." The host institution for this fellowship is the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany, and the sponsoring scientist is Diethard Tautz. This fellowship is funded jointly with the Office of International Science and Engineering. Forming international collaborations is not only beneficial to the young scientist who conducts research at the foreign location but is also in the U.S. national interest because that experience in a world-class research organization exposes the next generation of science leaders to the best the host country has to offer in terms of state-of-the-art research and the promises of continuing collaborations that will continue to strengthen U.S. science in the future
The fellowship research is identifying genes that are responsible for controlling skull shape and facial structure of mice during their development, and how those features are impacted by evolutionary and selection pressures. It seeks to validate the functions of these genes, laying the groundwork for future work that will not only lead to a better understanding of mouse developmental genetics in regards to face structure but develop a finely-tuned set of software and techniques that can then be used to look at various anatomical systems in other organism models as well. This line of research has very exciting prospects for its potential to predict facial morphology from genetic information. The technology being developed is being used to gain the means and knowledge to better understand the fundamental evolutionary forces that shape cranial change in response to environmental and food adaptations.
Training goals include gaining expertise in genetics, husbandry and genomics in mice, and in the CRISPR/Cas genome editing system and its transformative applications to genome biology. Educational outreach to undergraduates and graduate students is through mentoring and serving as a role model and conducted at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Kiel.
