| 项目编号: | 1341385
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| 项目名称: | Collaborative Research: Winter Survival Mechanisms and Adaptive Genetic Variation in an Antarctic Insect |
| 作者: | Richard Lee
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| 承担单位: | Miami University
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| 批准年: | 2013
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| 开始日期: | 2014-08-15
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| 结束日期: | 2018-07-31
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| 资助金额: | USD391092
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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: | Geosciences - Polar
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| 英文关键词: | stress tolerance
; adaptive variation
; antarctic insect
; project
; genetic approach
; research project
; unique survival mechanism
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| 英文摘要: | Polar regions are deserts that are not only cold but also lack access to free water. Antarctic insects have unique survival mechanisms including the ability to tolerate freezing and extensive dehydration, surviving the loss of 70% of their body water. How this is done is of interest not only for understanding seasonal adaptations of insects and how they respond to climate change, but the molecular and physiological mechanisms employed may offer valuable insights into more general mechanisms that might be exploited for cryopreservation and long-term storage of human tissues and organs for transplantation and other medical applications. The investigators will study the proteins that are responsible for removing water from the body, cell level consequences of this, and how the responsible genes vary between populations. The project will also further the NSF goals of making scientific discoveries available to the general public and of training new generations of scientists. Each year a K-12 teacher will be a member of the field team and assist with fieldwork and outreach to school children and their teachers. Educational outreach efforts include presentations at local schools and national teacher meetings, providing lesson plans and podcasts on a website, and continuing to publish articles related to this research in education journals. In addition, undergraduate and graduate students will receive extensive training in all aspects of the research project with extended experiences that include publication of scientific papers and presentations at national meetings.
This project focuses on deciphering the physiological and molecular mechanisms that enable the Antarctic midge Belgica antarctica to survive environmental stress and the loss of most of its body water in the desiccating polar environment. This extremophile is an ideal system for investigating mechanisms of stress tolerance and local geographic adaptations and its genome has recently been sequenced. This project has three focal areas: 1) Evaluating the role of aquaporins (water channel proteins) in the rapid removal of water from the body by studying expression of their genes during dehydration; 2) Investigating the mechanism of metabolic depression and the role of autophagy (controlled breakdown of cellular components) as a mediator of stress tolerance by studying expression of the genes responsible for autophagy during the dehydration process; and 3) Evaluating the population structure, gene flow, and adaptive variation in physiological traits associated with stress tolerance using a genetic approach that takes advantage of the genomic sequence available for this species coupled with physiological and environmental data from the sampled populations and their habitats. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/95975
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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: | |
Richard Lee. Collaborative Research: Winter Survival Mechanisms and Adaptive Genetic Variation in an Antarctic Insect. 2013-01-01.
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