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. The process by which new species form (speciation) has long been of interest to evolutionary biologists. Though species boundaries have been documented and revised across the tree of life, this has not led to a broad understanding of speciation. In part, this shortcoming is a function of the approaches used in taxonomic research. Most available methods for uncovering species boundaries using genetic data alone ignore factors that could lend insight into speciation, while methods for combining genetic, phenotypic (trait), and ecological data rely too heavily on concordance across datatypes. The Fellow?s work will develop conceptual models that link process to pattern and allow more meaningful integration across datatypes. These conceptual speciation models will be used to develop and test predictions in taildropper slugs (Genus Prophysaon). This work will provide unprecedented insight into speciation in Prophysaon, and will develop a general framework for process-based studies of species limits in non-model systems. The proposed work will also lead to the publication of a reference genome, the development of a machine-learning approach for testing predictions in genomic data, several training opportunities for undergraduate researchers, and increased taxonomic knowledge in an understudied group.
The Fellow will use three approaches to distinguish among factors driving speciation in Prophysaon: 1) tests of the influence of neutral and selective processes on DNA sequence variation between species, 2) tests of ecological divergence between species, and 3) tests of reproductive isolation between species. The Fellow will use genomic and transcriptomic data, machine learning, electron microscopy, geometric morphometrics, behavioral trials, and metabarcoding of gut contents to test predictions. The Fellow will actively recruit undergraduate researchers from underrepresented groups through established programs at Indiana University to collaborate on the proposed work.
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.
