This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2017, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. The Fellow?s research focuses on a key gap in our knowledge of how the diversity of extant life came to be. There is a conflict between the complex traits of organisms, such as the architecture of the head, jaws, and teeth, and the speed at which new species appear over evolutionary time. The major hypothesis for the rapid appearance of new species is the idea of key innovations, which are traits that provide novel ecological opportunity to a group of organisms. However, these traits are part of a complex organism with other traits that may constrain the evolutionary path that is possible. The Fellow?s work will determine if morphological constraints breakdown following the appearance of key innovations in the venom of North and South American snakes. The Fellow will visit several museum collections to quantify variation in head and fang shape of pitviper species, and quantify levels of variation in these traits to determine if changes in snake venom lead to changes in variation and complexity in the venom delivery system, or if the opposite is true. The Fellow will then use 3D printed fang models to determine if fang shape contributes to the toxic actions of venom, which will help us understand snakebite morbidity in humans. This research will train the Fellow in 1) cutting edge research methods in the different fields of molecular evolutionary biology and morphology, 2) mentorship of four graduate and eight undergraduate students who will also learn new methods, and 3) developing outreach programs that bring scientific knowledge out of the lab and to interested citizens. The research will also preserve thousands of valuable museum specimens as digital photographs and lead to the development of a teaching module on key innovations in snake venom for use in the high school and college biology classroom.
The key trait approach focuses on a few traits in isolation, while most traits are inherently complex and interdependent. This interdependence (i.e. phenotypic integration) is manifest as sets of integrated phenotypes (i.e., modules) that vary independently of each other. The extent of phenotypic integration and modularity in a set of traits can, itself, evolve, but the relationship between integration, evolutionary innovations, and biological diversity has not been determined. This research will test the hypothesis that rapid biological diversification is intimately linked with altered patterns of integration and modularity in key traits in New World venomous snakes. The Fellow will achieve the following goals: (1) quantifying the degree of association between diversification rates and the strength and pattern of phenotypic integration in head and fang morphology, (2) determining whether biochemical innovations in the venom are linked to morphological divergence, and (3) using micro-CT scans and 3D printed fang models to test for the hypothesized functional relationship between fang morphology and venom composition. The Fellow will be trained in comparative evolutionary analyses, geometric morphometrics, micro-CT, 3D printing, and mentoring of other young scientists.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
