This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Sex chromosomes are a unique part of the genome of many organisms because, by definition, they spend more time in one biological sex relative to the other. They therefore have distinct evolutionary pasts compared to the non-sex chromosomes (autosomes) and play a disproportionately more important role in processes ranging from speciation to sexual selection. However, their role in intragenomic conflict between males and females remains unclear. Conflict between males and females arises because males and females are often under divergent selection for traits ranging from behavior to morphology but cannot evolve independently because they share the majority of their genome. Exploring how sex chromosomes influence the evolutionary dynamics of antagonistic conflict between males and females is therefore fundamental to understanding the extraordinary diversity among the sexes as observed across the tree of life. The Fellow will involve undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds in the research as well as providing educational gatherings at the host institution to broaden participation of undergraduate and graduate students in theoretical biology and population genetics.
This project will take an integrative approach to investigate how the unique genetic interests of sex chromosomes influence sexual antagonism across evolutionary scales, from within populations to across taxa. Specifically, the project will involve (1) modelling the population and quantitative genetics of sex chromosomes under sexually antagonistic selection; (2) investigating the role of sex chromosomes in the short-term dynamics of sexual antagonism using human population genomics; and (3) determining whether different heterogametic systems (XX/XY or ZW/ZZ) impact the long-term resolution of sexual antagonism across amphibians, a vertebrate clade with great variation in both heterogametic system and degree of sexual dimorphism. The Fellow will undergo training for this project in quantitative modeling and comparative phylogenetics via intensive courses offered at the host institution as well as draw upon background in theoretical biology for recruitment and inclusion of students in this field; this includes undergraduate research as well as workshops and a small, multi-class seminar series to teach the use of evolutionary simulation software and other germane topics.
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.
