NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2022: The endocrine and neurogenomic regulation of male parental care strategies

Lane, Samuel Joseph, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Songbirds express a latitudinal gradient in paternal care, with southern males providing more care for offspring than northern males. This research will leverage this natural variation in behavior to address the physiological and neurological control of paternal care. The fellow will compare male paternal behavior across latitudes as it relates to two hormones known to regulate parental behaviors, and will investigate the neurological control of these behaviors between more paternal and less paternal males. This research will add insight into the evolution of paternal care and how these behaviors are governed within and across populations with changing ecological conditions. The fellow will achieve these goals by mentoring volunteers, technicians, and graduate students from underrepresented groups that will assist with these research goals while developing and executing independent research projects at four research sites. The fellow will investigate how variation in testosterone and prolactin mediate variation in male life history strategies and identify potential gene networks governing paternal behaviors in male house sparrows (Passer domesticus). To relate natural variation in these two hormones to male incubation behavior, males will be sampled at four sites along a latitudinal gradient from ND to TX. Northern males are predicted to have elevated testosterone, suppressed prolactin, and reduced parental care relative to southern males. To establish causal roles of these hormones in influencing parental behavior, testosterone and prolactin will be experimentally manipulated across sites. Experimentally blocking testosterone and increasing prolactin is predicted to increase parental behavior. Finally, brain tissue will be collected from incubating males, males that spend little to no time incubating, and incubating females to identify potential gene networks in the hypothalamus that govern male incubation behaviors and determine if they are similar across sexes and populations. The fellow will recruit technicians and volunteers from a diverse group of applicants by engaging with the North Dakota’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research organization and NDSU’s ROPES program. Participants will assist the fellow with research goals while developing and executing independent research projects. 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.