NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Ecological drivers of chemosensory gene family evolution

Quinteros, Kevin, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. A principal difficulty in biology is understanding how complex traits in an organism diversify, since complex traits can serve numerous functions and are controlled by multiple genes. Plants and insects are the two most diverse groups on earth and are important to multiple ecosystems. The ability to detect floral scents by insects affects many plant-insect interactions. This project will investigate the genetic evolution of insect smell (olfaction). This research will combine gene-level data with the knowledge of a Panamanian insect communities and plant-insect associations. Integrating these biological scales can help our understanding of how and why environmental and ecological variation generates and maintains variation in complex traits. The Fellow will develop a science communication workshop to foster a collaborative mentoring environment between college students and scientists. Insect chemosensory gene families on the antennae participate in the olfactory recognition of floral scents. This project will unravel ecological factors contributing to the genomic evolution of floral scent detection in the highly co-evolved symbiosis between figs (genus Ficus) and fig wasps (superfamily Chalcidoidea). By addressing three questions: (1) Does pollinating and non-pollinating fig wasp attraction to the same fig host result in convergent evolutionary patterns at the genomic level? (2) Is greater host breath and attraction to a larger diversity of floral scents associated with greater chemosensory gene family variation? (3) Is a larger effective population size also associated with greater chemosensory gene family variation? To answer the aforementioned questions, the Fellow will use next-generation sequencing to construct de novo genomic references. Furthermore, the fellow will incorporate comparative genomics with fig wasp community composition, estimates of effective population size, and plant-host association. This project will provide opportunities for the Fellow to gain new skills in genomics, de novo genome assembly, and wet lab techniques. The broader impacts of this project include the development of a grant writing and science communication workshops with the goals to (1) disseminate tips and information on grant writing, (2) foster a mentoring environment in which participants can share their research, and (3) help establish professional connections and mentoring relationships among participants. 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.