Award Abstract # 1839915
RoL: FELS: RAISE: A Phylogenomically-Based Bioinspired Robotic Model Approach to Addressing the Evolution of Terrestrial Locomotion

NSF Org: DEB
Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient: NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Initial Amendment Date: December 14, 2018
Latest Amendment Date: November 19, 2024
Award Number: 1839915
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Gordon Burleigh
jburleig@nsf.gov
 (703)292-8543
DEB
 Division Of Environmental Biology
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: January 1, 2019
End Date: September 30, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $997,510.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $997,510.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2019 = $997,510.00
History of Investigator:
  • Brooke Flammang (Principal Investigator)
    FLAMMANG@NJIT.EDU
  • Lawrence Page (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Prosanta Chakrabarty (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: New Jersey Institute of Technology
323 DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR BLVD
NEWARK
NJ  US  07102-1824
(973)596-5275
Sponsor Congressional District: 10
Primary Place of Performance: New Jersey Institute of Technology
323 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd,
Newark
NJ  US  07102-2990
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): SGBMHQ7VXNH5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): OFFICE OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY AC,
PHYSICS OF LIVING SYSTEMS,
Cross-BIO Activities
Primary Program Source: 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 049Z, 068Z
Program Element Code(s): 125300, 724600, 727500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

One clear example of a Rule of Life is evolutionary convergence, the occurrence of the same or extremely similar adaptations in independent lineages of species on the Tree of Life. The recent discovery of a blind cavefish that walks and climbs waterfalls with a salamander-like gait and has evolved a robust pelvic girdle (a kind of hip) offers an extraordinary opportunity to study, in living fishes, a pivotal event in evolutionary history. That event, the vertebrate invasion of land, hinged on the evolution of fins to limbs that enabled the first vertebrates to walk on land. The fossil record of this transition is scarce, and extant fishes were thought to lack the morphological features necessary for studying the origin of quadrupedal walking. This research will provide a unique opportunity to understand, through phylogenetic analysis and mathematical and robotic modeling, the mechanism underlying a major event in the history of life: how fishes were able to transition to a terrestrial lifestyle and evolve into the tetrapods. The broader impacts of this project will promote teaching, training, and learning for high school students in diverse and underprivileged communities. The project will also provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research training and make important contributions to public science education. This project was co-funded by the Biology Directorate and the Physics of Living Systems Program in the Physics Division.

The proposed work will identify the genomic, morphological, and mechanical qualities that enable a fish to walk on land. Advancing previous work on the functional morphology and kinematics of terrestrial walking in the blind cave fish Cryptotora thamicola, the proposed research will examine the phylogenomic relationships, morphology, biomechanics, and walking performance from an evolutionary perspective among balitorid loaches. Genomic sequencing will determine convergent genetic markers known to be involved in pelvic girdle formation in other walking vertebrates. Morphological examinations will reveal how functional phenotypic adaptations can be formed by major genomic changes. A biorobotic model organism, validated through comparison with our experimental biomechanical data, will be used to take a modular approach to examining convergence and answering questions on the effect of pelvic morphology on walking performance in extinct fin-to-limb transitional forms and modern forms. The work proposed will discriminate the fundamental physical properties which are inherent to the transition to terrestrial walking from an aquatic form. The evolution of the terrestrial pelvic girdle was critical to the diversification of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals; the proposed work uses a convergent fish model to study the evolution of anatomical structures that support the vertebrate body against gravity and show how modulation of muscular control can produce a tetrapodal gait within a given range of skeletal morphologies. This research will inform scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying the convergent evolution of morphological innovation, allowing development of a unifying principle for mass support in tetrapods based on the genomics, basic physics, and mechanics that define the pelvic girdle contribution to quadrupedal walking.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Boyd, David A. and Tongnunui, Sampan and Page, Lawrence M. "Catfishes of the Genus Glyptothorax (Siluriformes: Sisoridae) in the Mae Klong River Basin, Thailand, with Taxonomic Implications for Several Southeast Asian Species" Ichthyology & Herpetology , v.111 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1643/i2022045 Citation Details
Ciccotto, Patrick J. and Page, Lawrence M. "Revision of the Genus Henicorhynchus, with a Revised Diagnosis of Gymnostomus (Cyprinidae: Labeoninae)" Copeia , v.108 , 2020 https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-19-304 Citation Details
Crawford, Callie H. and Randall, Zachary S. and Hart, Pamela B. and Page, Lawrence M. and Chakrabarty, Prosanta and Suvarnaraksha, Apinun and Flammang, Brooke E. "Skeletal and muscular pelvic morphology of hillstream loaches (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae)" Journal of Morphology , v.281 , 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.21247 Citation Details
Crawford, Callie H. and Webber-Schultz, Amani and Hart, Pamela B. and Randall, Zachary S. and Cerrato-Morales, Cristian and Kellogg, Audrey B. and Amplo, Haley E. and Suvarnaraksha, Apinun and Page, Lawrence M. and Chakrabarty, Prosanta and Flammang, Broo "They like to move it (move it): walking kinematics of balitorid loaches of Thailand" Journal of Experimental Biology , v.225 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.242906 Citation Details
Flammang, Brooke E. "Bioinspired Design in Research: Evolution as Beta-Testing" Integrative And Comparative Biology , v.62 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac134 Citation Details
Page, L. and Ray, B. R. and Boyd, D. A. and Randall, Z. S. "Garra surinbinnani, a new species of labeonine from the Mae Khlong basin of Thailand (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)." None , v.29 , 2019 https://doi.org/10.23788/IEF-1117 Citation Details
TANGJITJAROEN, WEERAPONGSE and RANDALL, ZACHARY S. and TONGNUNUI, SAMPAN and BOYD, DAVID A. and PAGE, LAWRENCE M. "Species of Garra (Cyprinidae: Labeoninae) in the Salween River basin with description of an enigmatic new species from the Ataran River drainage of Thailand and Myanmar" Zootaxa , v.5311 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5311.3.3 Citation Details

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