EAPSI: Connecting Genes to Behaviors in Ostracod Bioluminescent Mating Displays

Hensley Nicholai M, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

An unresolved question in biology is how genes contribute to animal behavior. Behaviors are important because they can affect animal survival and reproduction. But with closely related species, similar behaviors can vary. So how can behaviors integral to survival retain their functionality yet also change across species? This project will investigate both the gene-behavior relationship and how it changes using sea fireflies. Many species make glowing displays to attract mates, but these displays differ between species. The gene responsible for making light in these displays, called luciferase, was first described by Dr. Yoshihiro Ohmiya, currently at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan. He and his colleague Dr. Yasuo Mitani will collaborate with the investigator on this project to show how luciferase has changed across sea fireflies. Using techniques developed by Dr. Ohmiya, the investigator will take luciferase from different species and examine how they function to see if any differences can describe changes in their glowing displays. This project aims to connect genotype to behavioral phenotype using sea fireflies. Sea fireflies create bioluminescent mating displays by secreting globs of mucus where the enzyme luciferase oxidizes the substrate vargulin to produce light. In a single bolus, the amount of light and duration of the biochemical reaction varies between species. The investigator will learn molecular cloning, plasmid construction, and protein expression assays from collaborators who invented these techniques. They will characterize luciferase from a suite of species and test if these enzymes have a differential ability to produce light. These data will be combined with behavioral data to test for a correlation between biochemical function and behavioral display differences between species. This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.