| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 5, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 5, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1402604 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
George Gilchrist
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $15,828.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $15,828.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
310 E CAMPUS RD RM 409 ATHENS GA US 30602-1589 (706)542-5939 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
UW Medicine Pathology Seattle WA US 98195-7470 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Why do some species live longer than others? Scientists have identified molecular pathways that influence the lifespan of model organisms in the laboratory. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that account for the enormous variation that we see among species, from mayflies that live for a day, to clams that can live for centuries. This project will use metabolomics to investigate mechanisms that influence lifespan. Metabolomics involves measuring and analyzing the thousands of small molecules (metabolites) circulating within an organism. Enzymatic proteins help regulate metabolite levels, and although protein evolution is well studied, little is known about the evolution of metabolite levels. This project will measure metabolite levels at various ages during the lifespan in ten species of fruit flies (Drosophila spp.) to determine if selection affects the rate at which metabolomic profiles diverge over evolutionary time and if the evolution of fitness traits is tied to evolutionary change in specific biochemical pathways.
This study will be one of the first to use metabolomics to answer evolutionary based scientific questions, and the presentation of the results will enable more scientists to understand the evolution of metabolomics. This project involves the combination of different scientific fields (evolutionary biology, molecular biology, and statistics). As such, undergraduate researchers involved in this project will have the opportunity to learn to combine multiple research approaches, including organismal, molecular, and quantitative, to carry out high-level scientific inquiry.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Comparative studies historically looked at how behavior, morphology, and life history traits evolved across species. With the advent of molecular biology, researchers were able to determine how genes and proteins changed, appeared or disappeared over evolutionary time. However, no one has attempted to describe the deep evolution of profiles of metabolites, the physical molecules that make up the functional building blocks of complex traits. Here, we have completed the first large-scale analysis to understand the evolution of the metabolome across 11 closely related Drosophila species spanning 40 million years of evolution. The project included two specific aims. Aim 1 was to complete global metabolomic profiling on these Drosophila species and determine if species-specific differences in variances in metabolite concentration was associated with rates of protein evolution. Aim 2 was to describe broad evolutionary patterns in the metabolome, and to determine if species-specific differences in individual metabolites were associated with species-specific life history traits. Importantly, unlike most lab-based comparative studies that use a single genotype to represent each species, for this experiment we utilized multiple genotypes of the same species such that we were able to distinguish species effects from genotype effects, giving more power to our result. We were able to determine specific metabolites that appear to show very strong gain and loss patterns across the Drosophila phylogeny, as well as hundreds of metabolites that are associated with longevity across all 11 species. Many of the metabolites that showed an association with longevity did so in a sex specific manner. This finding points to the possibility that we might be able to explain sex-differences in lifespan in terms of sex-differences in metabolic pathways. The results of this project have provided the foundation for understanding how evolution acts on metabolites and metabolic pathways, and what effects these changes have on life history trait evolution. We are very excited by the initial results for Aim 2, and we are currently writing two manuscripts describing this work. We are confident that these first descriptions of metabolome evolution over the course of 40 million years in the genus Drosophila will have a significant impact on the field. Once this work is submitted, we will then begin to address the questioned addressed by Aim 1. In particular, we will ask if the variances seen in metabolite concentration are associated with rates of protein evolution across the 11 species. This will be the first study to attempt to determine the actual metabolic consequences of protein evolution.
Last Modified: 07/29/2015
Modified by: Jessica Hoffman
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