New research avenues abound in evolutionary studies
By Andy Flick Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator
With the funding of seven pilot grant projects last year, there are numerous new research avenues across evolutionary studies. Check out the precursor to this story here.
Arner experiences anthropological field research for the first time
The sole graduate student recipient last year was Audrey Arner of Amanda Lea’s lab. Arner used the funds for a 5-week trip to collect preliminary data on how changes in ecological and cultural environments impact health- and fitness-related traits in the Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of Malaysia.
“The Orang Asli are typically divided into three broad sub-populations: the Semang, traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers; the Senoi, traditionally horticulturalists; and the Proto-Malay, traditionally mixed subsistence practitioners. All three are currently undergoing rapid lifestyle change due to government resettlement initiatives, deforestation, and urbanization,” Arner said.
While in Malaysia, Arner sampled blood, conducted lifestyle interviews, and even supported efforts to provide free health care while collecting research data. Arner’s original task was to learn about blood sample collection and processing. However, Arner was not satisfied at simply learning sample processing and wanted a deeper understanding of the indigenous people she was studying.
According to Arner, “while I enjoyed gaining mastery in blood sample processing during this first field trip, I found that I wanted to have more interactions with local people and research participants. Therefore, for our final two trips, I joined Drs. Kraft and Venkataraman to conduct interviews prior to the medical clinics. During these times I began learning Malay and gaining a more complete understanding of the sociocultural environment of the Orang Asli.”
Since her pilot grant was funded, Arner successfully wrote for an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant.
Racicot expands research scope
Research assistant professor, Rachel Racicot, used her pilot grant funds to help offset the cost of industry standard Avizo software. Access to Avizo has not only contributed to the originally proposed work but has also expanded the lab’s reach into two additional projects. Racicot used Avizo to train several students in her lab in methods of inner ear studies. Of note, Sydney Rosen (MAJOR/YEAR), leveraged her work with the new software into an NSF-REU opportunity at the American Museum of Natural History studying the inner ears of animals including and related to horses and rhinoceroses.
Additionally, undergraduate student Joyce Sanks has been funded through a SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Program. Sanks is studying a group of extinct dolphins looking for evidence of the transition from marine to freshwater environments in the development of the inner ear. She will present her research at the Geological Society of America annual conference.
Finally, Racicot is using the new software to expand her research from dolphins and whales to rodents. Her work will help determine how and if echolocation evolved in the pygmy dormouse – the only known rodent that may use echolocation.
Patel lab identifies causative agent for evolutionary trade-off between maintenance and reproduction
The Patel lab put in a true team effort to uncover the mechanism behind a mitochondrial stress response. The project was led by graduate student James Held, who discovered 12 mutant lines from a forward genetic screen. These dozen mutant lines were then examined more closely through the pilot grant funds. Held got help from undergraduate student Cassidy Johnson and research assistants Nadir Dbouk and Adrianna Strozak. The team discovered one of the genes responsible for the mutant lines from the original screen and, according to Patel, “can now proceed with characterization of this gene within the context of the reproductive-soma evolutionary tradeoff.”
Tate lab discovers new role of regulatory immune genes
Assistant professor Ann Tate, graduate student Justin Critchlow, and undergraduate student Katherine Zhong completed work testing an array of regulatory immune genes for their role in the creation of antimicrobial peptides. Of the four genes they tested, only cactus showed significant results. After silencing the expression of cactus in flour beetles, the team exposed the beetles to a common, fungal pathogen (Bacillus thuringiensis). These beetles showed higher rates of survival after infection. However, these beetles also had a lower rate of survival compared to the control group without infection.
These results will spurn the lab forward in various, exciting ways. First, Tate will use the results to improve the preliminary data section of a major NSF grant. Second, Critchlow and Zhong will write the experiment up into a manuscript. Finally, Zhong will build off this experiment to conduct an honors thesis project.
Behringer and Bratton develop new phenotypic biosensors for E. coli
The Behringer and Bratton labs acquired seven fluorescent biosensors that will allow for the detection of six different molecular phenotypes. They used the biosensor pHluorin, along with a pH sensitive dye, to test the effects of environmental pH on intracellular pH levels with four strains of E. coli.
The pair is also working to improve their single-cell scope capabilities. Currently available technology does a good job of getting clear images near the center of focus but does a poor job nearer to the edges. Improved lenses or upgraded scopes will give the capacity to investigate the entire field of vision moving forward. They modeled the lenses for us below.
This grant also allowed the training of an undergraduate student in the Bratton lab, Aaron Yeh, and a postdoctoral researcher in the Behringer lab, Sarah Worthan. The trainees developed skills in molecular cloning, phenotyping, and microscopy.
The DeSantis lab explores the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
While visiting the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Larisa DeSantis and two of her undergraduate trainees, Ashley Rogers and Kristen Koehler, collected dental microwear samples from a crabeater seal, leopard seal, and bottlenose dolphin, among others. More than 200 samples were collected and will be used for undergraduate research projects moving forward. Rogers is a MARC scholar and will use the data for subsequent dietary analyses.
Rogers offered her thoughts on the experience:
“Last year, I came into Dr. DeSantis’ lab with a general interest in studying and working with marine mammals. Though Dr. DeSantis had not worked with marine mammals in the lab prior, she was willing to allow me to explore my interest further and gather marine mammal samples for my project. The trip to the Smithsonian was the perfect place to spearhead my research. We previously collected a few samples from the Museum of the North in Fairbanks Alaska, and the marine mammal collection at the Smithsonian provided an even greater selection of marine mammals from various regions around the world. The preliminary results look promising, and thanks to the Dr. DeSantis, the Pilot Grant that funded my trip, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum as well as other members of the DREAM lab, I aim to eventually complete these analyses and publish my findings in a peer-reviewed journal. This research is extremely important to me as it explores an area yet undeveloped by the scientific community.”
The Creanza and Benn Torres labs funded an undergraduate researcher and published a paper in Evolution
The Creanza lab published an open-access paper in the journal Evolution using pilot grant funds. The paper, “Modeling how population size drives the evolution of birdsong, a functional cultural trait,” received a high-attention score on Altmetric, indicating a larger than average amount of interest in the work.
The funds also helped a collaborative research project between the Benn Torres and Creanza labs. This project investigates genetic admixture along with Creole and Creole-source languages. The grant paid for an undergraduate student, Toluwani Star David, to work on analyzing data as part of her Immersion research project. One interesting result from her work so far is that non-European words are less likely to be adjectives compared to pronouns, interrogatives, or quantifiers.