项目编号: | 1501355
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项目名称: | DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Quantitative test of evolutionary bet-hedging theory in a mirobial model system |
作者: | Daniel Weinreich
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承担单位: | Brown University
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批准年: | 2014
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开始日期: | 2015-06-01
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结束日期: | 2017-05-31
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资助金额: | USD21125
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资助来源: | US-NSF
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项目类别: | Standard Grant
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国家: | US
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语种: | 英语
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特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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英文关键词: | bet-hedging
; researcher
; bet-hedging strategy
; environment
; research
; computational model
; evolutionary theory
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英文摘要: | This project will provide understanding of the fundamental principles that influence adaptation in changing environments. Evolutionary theory predicts that natural selection in changing environments will favor traits so long as they confer a net benefit over time. This context of adaptation in changing environments is central to understanding many traits, such as the ability to sense and respond to the environment, and drug resistance of pathogenic microorganisms. This research will therefore help to elucidate the evolutionary processes underlying medically important traits. The researchers will also develop and distribute a lesson plan aimed at teaching the basic tenets of adaptation in changing environments to high school students, thus helping to raise public awareness about a biologically relevant problem.
Biological traits such as phenotypic plasticity and bet-hedging are presumed to evolve by increasing the long-term geometric mean fitness of a lineage. This framework serves as a useful description of the average selective advantage of traits in a variable environment. However, there are known theoretical limitations with this approach since it fails to explicitly capture evolutionary dynamics of evolving populations and thus does not provide a mechanistic description of the evolutionary origin and maintenance of traits such as bet-hedging. Using laboratory yeast populations adapted to rapid periods of environmental stress, the researchers will experimentally measure evolutionary dynamics of competing bet-hedging strategies in a variable environment. The researchers will use a combination of genome sequencing and reverse genetics to construct a panel of fluorescently labeled yeast strains that express differing bet-hedging strategies. By carefully tracking the abundance of competing strains during the course of competition experiments in variable environments, the researchers will directly compare evolutionary changes in the laboratory to the predictions of computational models of adaptation in varying environments. In doing so, the research will generate data necessary to directly test of the geometric mean fitness concept and will experimentally determine the extent of its limitations for describing adaptation to varying environments. |
资源类型: | 项目
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标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/94512
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Appears in Collections: | 影响、适应和脆弱性 气候减缓与适应
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Recommended Citation: |
Daniel Weinreich. DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Quantitative test of evolutionary bet-hedging theory in a mirobial model system. 2014-01-01.
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