NSF PRFB FY 2023: The impact of changes in genome structure on diversification in adaptive radiation.

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, 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. The aim of this project is to examine how changes in genetic organization can interfere with reproduction and fast-track adaptation to the environment, driving the evolution of animal diversity. The Fellow will use genome sequencing, chromosome mapping, and comparison of patterns of DNA change among North American lizards to study how chromosome changes may initiate divergence between groups even when those groups are found in the same place. In doing so, this work will illuminate how biodiversity arises and is maintained, findings that are particularly urgent in this age of biodiversity loss and global change. Through engagement with students at the Fellow’s host institution and while conducting fieldwork, this work will also help to expand avenues for participation in science for people of all backgrounds. A major gap in our understanding of speciation concerns the mechanisms that initially disrupt gene flow among adaptively-diverging lineages. This project will shed new light on this question by investigating the role that changes in genome organization may play as early drivers of speciation during adaptive radiation. Over the course of this project, the Fellow will generate high-quality reference genomes, apply synteny mapping and cytogenetic techniques to detect signatures of structural changes, and test for evidence of selection and shifts in evolutionary rates. This work will focus on a clade within Anolis lizards as a case study to uncover general principles governing major bursts of diversification as standing genetic variation becomes exposed to different selection regimes through chromosomal fission and fusion. While carrying out this project, the Fellow will receive training in the methods involved with the aims of the study and expand access to scientific training for students through both research mentorship and institution-based programs. 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.