Postdoctoral Fellowship: PRFB: Unlocking the evolutionary consequences of genetic rescue: Insights from genomics and quantitative genetics

Guerrera, Alexa G, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2024, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Many species that are vulnerable to extinction live in small, fragmented habitats where individuals are often highly related to each other and share similar genes. This is a problem because genetic variation is required for populations to adapt to a changing environment. One way to restore beneficial genetic variation is to introduce individuals from a healthy population into small, declining populations. When successful, these introductions lead to the “genetic rescue” of vulnerable populations. This project will use data from an experiment with Trinidadian guppies to better understand the long-term effects of genetic rescue attempts. The fellow will also conduct activities to broaden participation in field biology by collaborating with community college directors, field station managers, research faculty, and other postdoctoral fellows across the United States to provide field-based research experiences to students from diverse backgrounds. In a previous field experiment, small, inbred guppy populations received gene flow from a genetically divergent source population. After several generations, these recipient populations increased in size, harbored more genetic diversity, and showed evidence of sustained hybrid vigor, providing strong evidence for genetic rescue. However, the genomic basis and evolutionary response to genetic rescue in these populations is not known. This work will combine population genomics and quantitative genetics to identify ecologically important traits that contributed to genetic rescue, isolate genomic regions associated with these traits, and quantify the adaptive potential of recipient populations through time. Adaptive potential is used to predict how organisms will respond to a changing environment and can be harnessed by conservation biologists to improve management plans. The fellow will also lead a summer field course for undergraduates at Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. Hands on experience in nature is extremely beneficial for retention in the life sciences. The fellow will recruit students from local community colleges and minority programs to partake in this summer course. Simultaneously, the fellow will collaborate with NSF-funded group of scientists and community college faculty to secure funding for undergraduate field experiences. 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.