CAREER: The Role of Light Environment and Genetics in Shaping Visual and Behavioral Plasticity

Many animals rely on visual cues to guide behaviors such as finding food, finding mates, and avoiding predators. The detectability of visual cues is influenced by environment, as habitats have different amounts and qualities of ambient light. Due to habitat-specific variation in ambient light, it is hypothesized that the eyes of species that share the same habitat are adapted to be most sensitive to the colors of light in that habitat.

This visual tuning may be the result of genes underlying vision as well as responses to environmental cues, such as induced changes in sensory system development and adult vision. However, it remains unclear how genetics and environmental cues work together to produce the diverse adult visual systems we see. Using butterflies, an ecologically and economically important group of pollinators, the project will determine the genetic mechanisms underlying the responsiveness of animal visual systems to changes in light environment.

The project will then examine the downstream effects of variation in vision on pollinator food selection and mate selection, thus connecting genes, habitat, and both foraging and mate selection behavior. To enhance public understanding of the effects of environment on animal behavior and pollinator abundance, the researcher will utilize the charismatic nature of butterflies to engage hundreds of students of all ages and backgrounds in a Community Science Research project.

This project examines the seasonal behavior and light responses of butterflies in collaboration with a local non-profit botanical garden, faculty in the humanities, and college students from both science and humanities courses.

This project will identify the role of genetics and ambient and developmental light environments in shaping visual ability and subsequent flower preference and mate selection in butterflies, a prominent group of pollinators. Ambient light environment is known to influence what colors of light are easiest for animals to see, yet the ability of animals to modify their vision to match changes in light environment in response to developmental cues remains poorly understood.

Neither the environmental cues inducing visual tuning nor the genes underlying these processes are well described. Using an integrative approach that combines developmental and genetic manipulation, transcriptomics, behavior, and field ecology, the proposed research will address the following questions: 1) Does the developmental light environment influence visual system development and subsequent foraging and mating behavior in butterflies? 2) What genes are associated with developmental and behavioral responses to variation in light? 3) Do conspecific visual signals vary with light environment, improving detectability and visual tuning? 4) Do pollinator communities exhibit visual tuning corresponding to seasonal changes in ambient light and background color?

By characterizing the role of light environment in shaping visual systems and determining whether seasonal species assemblages exhibit shifts in visual tuning that match seasonal shifts in light environment, this work will enhance the scientific and agricultural communities’ ability to predict pollinator behavioral responses to changes in land use and light environment.

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.