NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Contributions of linkage, dominance and plasticity to variation in fitness in a wild pedigreed bird population

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, 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. Evolution has two requirements: (1) differences in survival and reproduction between individuals (Darwin’s concept of “fitness”) and (2) genes underlying those differences.

Although genes for fitness are a central tenet of evolution, scientists have not found many genes that contribute to fitness differences between individuals. Recent theory suggests some fitness differences may be caused by interactions between genes with their environment instead of by the action of genes themselves. By tracking the fitness and genomes of 4000+ birds in a wild natural reserve, the fellow is testing whether gene interactions can explain differences in fitness between individuals.

This project will use cutting-edge statistical methods, highly accurate estimates of fitness, the latest genome assembly techniques, detailed resource availability data, and whole genome resequencing of hundreds of Florida Scrub-Jays. First, the fellow will consider the impact of interaction between pairs of genetic variants on the heritability of fitness using genotypes from hundreds of individual Florida Scrub-Jays.

Next, the fellow will compare the heritable variation in fitness explained across different chromosomes, which will require developing new methods to assemble the sex chromosomes of the Florida Scrub-Jay. Finally, using decades of data on acorn availability, the fellow will compare heritability and selection estimates across low and high resource years in the Florida Scrub-Jay population.

The methods and results have important implications for prediction of evolutionary change. This work will also allow the fellow to develop a module aimed at broadening participation in STEM, in that this module will add a consideration of works from the field of gender studies into undergraduate lectures.

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.