NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology for FY 2009

Walters James R, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2009 and is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Comparative genomic analysis of sex-chromosome and sex-biased genes in Heliconius butterflies" for James Walters. The host institution for this research is the University of Cambridge, and the sponsoring scientist is Chris Jiggins. The third year will be spent at Stanford University in the laboratory of Hunter Fraser. Several theoretical models exist that predict distinct evolutionary dynamics for genes differentially affiliated with males than females, either via linkage on sex chromosomes or sex-specific function. This research synthesizes genomic data concerning chromosomal linkage, gene expression, and sequence divergence to examine the molecular evolutionary effects of sex-linkage and sex-biased gene expression in Heliconius butteflies. This research provides a novel test of these theories in butterflies, where females have different sex chromosomes (XY; heterogametic) and males have homologous sex chromosomes (XX, homogametic). This work thus provides an important independent contrast to previous studies conducted in male heterogametic groups of organisms such as flies and mammals, and another female heterogametic group (birds). Training goals include computational and analytical skills associated with the analysis of genomic-scale data. Specifically, the fellowship allows the Fellow to gain 1) exposure to genomic methods and data structure, 2) familiarity with software packages for analyzing biological data, and 3) experience with programming skills, statistical methods and theory. The broader impacts of this work include development of Heliconius butterflies as a genomic model system, promoting international collaborations between the United States and the United Kingdom, and collaborating with commercial butterfly exhibits to use Heliconius butterflies as a focus for public science education and outreach.