NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2015

Furness Andrew I, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2015, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Andrew Furness is "The evolution of placentas in Poeciliid fishes: testing adaptive and conflict hypotheses." The host institution for this fellowship is the University of California -- Irvine, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. John Avise. One of the grand challenges in the field of evolutionary biology is to explain the evolution of complexity. The placenta, an intimate fusion of maternal and fetal tissues for sustenance and physiological exchange, is a complex organ and its origin invites explanation. Species in the live-bearing fish family Poeciliidae have independently evolved placentas in numerous lineages of closely related non-placental sister taxa. This unique biological situation provides an opportunity to test alternative hypotheses regarding the conditions and ecological factors favoring their evolution. Adaptive hypotheses posit various maternal fitness advantages for placenta evolution, while the conflict hypothesis posits placentas evolve as a byproduct of a self-reinforcing arms race between maternal and fetal tissue over control of resource transfer. These hypotheses make contrasting predictions regarding the life-history traits associated with placentation and the ecological conditions where placentation is expected to be favored. Beginning with assembling a species-level database on reproductive mode, life-histories, and habitat for the family Poeciliidae, the fellowship research includes deriving a robust evolutionary tree and uses phylogenetic comparative methods to test the hypotheses. It uses the biological collections of numerous U.S. museums including Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Research results promise a deeper understanding of the ultimate (evolutionary) factors favoring placentation, which occurs not only in mammals and fish but also sharks and rays, reptiles, and several groups of invertebrates. Poeciliid fishes are model organisms for the study of natural and sexual selection and the new database provides a useful basic biology resource to a large network of scientists working on diverse research questions. Parts of the database that contain information on species, geographic range, size, habitat, ecology, and life-histories are valuable in terms of conservation and predictive modeling of extinction risk, an important endeavor given that some of these live-bearing species have limited geographic ranges now threatened by human encroachment and habitat disturbance. Training objectives include molecular sequencing, phylogenetic tree construction, statistical and comparative analyses, and developing long-term collaborations with museum associates and scientists. Educational outreach includes participation of undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, and public outreach involves presentations at the museum and creating a project website.