Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology: Development, Evolution, and Genetic Mechanisms of Regionalization within the Axial Column: Aves (Birds) as a Model System

Musser, Grace, Austin TX

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. This research addresses fundamental questions in biology; namely, how new anatomical traits evolve and how living things diversify. Although developmental differences in the structure and regionalization of the axial column (the spine, shoulders and hips) determine much of diversity in vertebrates, the function, structure, evolution and development of these differences remains largely unknown. This comparative study of how regions of fused vertebrae develop and evolve in birds is thus critical to better understand the genetics behind these processes, how the skeleton develops, and how vertebrates evolve. New collections will be produced for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), which will support future research in vertebrate evolution, and will provide the fellow with training necessary to pursue cutting-edge interdisciplinary research across paleontology and biology. This research will provide mentorship and training to undergraduate interns. The fellow will use this research as a springboard to contribute to NMNH public and educational programs as well as complete 36 classroom visits to minoritized middle and high schools. The fellow will use genetic, developmental, morphological, and evolutionary approaches to study the evolution of the axial skeleton of birds in a phylogenetic and functional context, describe and track the development of vertebral column fusion across five bird species, and study gene expression associated with these fusions across these species. Birds provide an excellent study system in which to study trait evolution in the vertebral column, as their spine presents a natural experimental system with three regions of bone fusion, each with a separate evolutionary history. Few studies regarding the axial column have focused on birds, and those that have largely examine only one study species. The fellow will conduct fieldwork and work with breeders to collect avian embryos and chicks and will use phylogenetic analysis and fossil calibration, specimen imaging and dissection, creation of ontogenetic series, and transcriptome extraction and analysis to investigate evolutionary and ecological, developmental, and gene expression rules regarding the axial column. The fellow will receive training in these methods, and broader impacts will focus on broadening participation of the public, undergraduates and minoritized students in STEM. 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.