This award will support a two-year U.S.-Japan cooperative research project between Professor John Wingfield, Department of Zoology, University of Washington, and Professor Masaru Wada, Department of General Education, Tokyo Medical and Dental University. Dr. Wingfield studies the role of environmental factors in controlling the breeding cycle in birds. His present research involves assaying reproductive hormones in different species on birds under different environmental conditions. His project with Professor Wada involves collaboration to develop and apply cDNA probes for the reproductive hormones in chicken, since these probes will hybridize with the pituitary DNA of these birds. Avian reproductive cycles are diverse, spanning continuums from brief to essentially continuous breeding seasons, and from precisely timed to opportunistic reproductive periods. This collaborative effort will measure changes in gene expression for reproductive hormones in response to environmental signals. This will extend Dr. Wingfield's current research to test a constancy/contingency model of predictability as a potential unifying hypothesis to explain how birds, and perhaps other organisms, integrate environmental maturation under varying environmental conditions.
