Award Abstract # 1937815
NSFDEB-NERC: Integrating phylogenomics, biophysics, and functional genomics to unravel the evolution of hearing and singing in Ensifera (katydids, crickets and relatives)

NSF Org: DEB
Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient: TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE RESEARCH
Initial Amendment Date: October 31, 2019
Latest Amendment Date: October 31, 2019
Award Number: 1937815
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Christopher Balakrishnan
cbalakri@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2331
DEB
 Division Of Environmental Biology
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: January 1, 2020
End Date: December 31, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $884,474.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $884,474.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $884,474.00
History of Investigator:
  • Hojun Song (Principal Investigator)
    hsong@tamu.edu
  • Michael Whiting (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Seunggwan Shin (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Nathan Bailey (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Fernando Montealegre-Z (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Texas A&M AgriLife Research
2147 TAMU
COLLEGE STATION
TX  US  77843-0001
(979)862-6777
Sponsor Congressional District: 10
Primary Place of Performance: Texas A&M AgriLife Research
2475 TAMU
COLLEGE STATION
TX  US  77843-2475
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): KU3DCFJJTVN3
Parent UEI: ZM3QVJ8ACN11
NSF Program(s): Systematics & Biodiversity Sci
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9251
Program Element Code(s): 737400
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

Just as humans use voices to talk to one another, many other animals also use sound for communication. The use of sound to send and receive messages, known as acoustic communication, is found in many different types of animals, including insects, birds, frogs, and mammals. Among these animals, singing insects, such as crickets and katydids, were the first to evolve the ability to hear and produce sound an estimated 300 million years ago. Since then, crickets, katydids, and relatives (Ensifera) have diversified extensively, giving rise to an estimated 15,000 known species, and several different mechanisms of hearing and singing. They now represent the most diverse group of organisms that rely on acoustic communication. Therefore, studying how hearing and singing evolved and diversified in these insects can reveal important insights about the origin and evolution of animal communication. This collaborative research project including scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France will gather a massive amount of genetic data to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among crickets, katydids, and relatives. The team will also employ cutting-edge techniques in three-dimensional imaging, biophysics, and genomics to investigate the diverse mechanisms of hearing and singing in these insects. This project will fill important gaps in understanding the biodiversity and bioacoustics of the group and provide unique educational opportunities including, project-enabled outreach activities targeting K-12 students, hands-on undergraduate research experience to six Polynesian and Hispanic undergraduate students, as well as training of two graduate students and two postdoctoral researchers.

This project will produce a comprehensive dated phylogeny of Ensifera (crickets, katydids, and relatives), the most speciose and ancient lineage of the extant singing insects, based on 1,600 species and 1,000 loci generated from target capture DNA sequencing. Using this phylogeny as a robust comparative framework, the researchers will generate an unprecedented amount of detailed morphological, biophysical, and genetic data using X-ray micro- and nano- computed tomography (CT) scanning, micro-scanning laser Doppler vibrometry, and RNA-seq across major ensiferan lineages to identify mechanisms of hearing and singing. Researchers will measure real-time ear function and compare 3-dimensional anatomy and biophysical properties of hearing organs, conduct a large-scale comparative analysis of sound-producing organs and their corresponding song frequencies using both extinct and extant species, and generate and compare wing venation genes and tibial hearing organ transcriptomes. Using these data, researchers will address several longstanding questions about when acoustic communication first evolved and how often it has been lost, how lineages independently evolved different hearing and signaling mechanisms, what the physical, neural and genetic bases of these hearing and signaling mechanisms are, and how signaling diversity is linked to diversification and speciation. These findings will collectively reveal general insights about the evolution of acoustic communication that could serve as a model for the study of similar mechanisms in other insects.

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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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 15)
Celiker, Emine and Woodrow, Charlie and Guadayol, Òscar and Davranoglou, Leonidas-Romanos and Schlepütz, Christian M and Mortimer, Beth and Taylor, Graham K and Humphries, Stuart and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "Mechanical network equivalence between the katydid and mammalian inner ears" PLOS Computational Biology , v.20 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012641 Citation Details
Hemp, Claudia and Montealegre-Z, Fernando and Woodrow, Charlie and Heller, Klaus-Gerhard "Bush-crickets with very special ears and songs review of the East African Phaneropterinae genus Dioncomena Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, with notes on its biogeography and the description of new species" Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift , v.70 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.70.100804 Citation Details
Holmes, Lewis B and Woodrow, Charlie and Sarria-S, Fabio A and Celiker, Emine and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "Wing mechanics and acoustic communication of a new genus of sylvan katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Pseudophyllinae) from the Central Cordillera cloud forest of Colombia" PeerJ , v.12 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17501 Citation Details
Kim, Do-Yoon and Kim, Sangil and Song, Hojun and Shin, Seunggwan "Phylogeny and biogeography of the wingless orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae" Communications Biology , v.7 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06068-x Citation Details
Pulver, Christian A and Celiker, Emine and Woodrow, Charlie and Geipel, Inga and Soulsbury, Carl D and Cullen, Darron A and Rogers, Stephen M and Veitch, Daniel and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "Ear pinnae in a neotropical katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) function as ultrasound guides for bat detection" eLife , v.11 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77628 Citation Details
Shin, Seunggwan and Baker, Austin_J and Enk, Jacob and McKenna, Duane_D and Foquet, Bert and Vandergast, Amy_G and Weissman, David_B and Song, Hojun "Orthoptera-specific target enrichment (OR-TE) probes resolve relationships over broad phylogenetic scales" Scientific Reports , v.14 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72622-6 Citation Details
Siamantouras, Eleftherios and Woodrow, Charlie and Celiker, Emine and Cullen, Darron A. and Hills, Claire E. and Squires, Paul E. and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "Quantification of bush-cricket acoustic trachea mechanics using Atomic Force Microscopy nanoindentation" Acta Biomaterialia , v.153 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2022.08.056 Citation Details
Song, Hojun and Béthoux, Olivier and Shin, Seunggwan and Donath, Alexander and Letsch, Harald and Liu, Shanlin and McKenna, Duane D. and Meng, Guanliang and Misof, Bernhard and Podsiadlowski, Lars and Zhou, Xin and Wipfler, Benjamin and Simon, Sabrina "Phylogenomic analysis sheds light on the evolutionary pathways towards acoustic communication in Orthoptera" Nature Communications , v.11 , 2020 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18739-4 Citation Details
Tan, Ming Kai and Duncan, Jacob and Wahab, Rodzay bin and Lee, Chow-Yang and Japir, Razy and Chung, Arthur Y. and Baroga-Barbecho, Jessica B. and Yap, Sheryl A. and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "The calling songs of some katydids (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea) from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia" Journal of Orthoptera Research , v.32 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.32.84563 Citation Details
WEISSMAN, DAVID B and SONG, HOJUN and VANDERGAST, AMY G "Phylogenomics, male internal genitalia, a new species, and other notes on New World Stenopelmatus Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatini)" Zootaxa , v.5443 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5443.2.6 Citation Details
Woodrow, Charlie and Baker, Ed and Jonsson, Thorin and Montealegre-Z, Fernando "Reviving the sound of a 150-year-old insect: The bioacoustics of Prophalangopsis obscura (Ensifera: Hagloidea)" PLOS ONE , v.17 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270498 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 15)

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