{"id":56156,"date":"2019-07-11T09:45:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=56156"},"modified":"2019-07-11T09:45:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:45:57","slug":"holeski-new-traits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/holeski-new-traits\/","title":{"rendered":"How do new traits emerge? NAU researcher working to answer one of evolutionary biology\u2019s most challenging questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 11, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evolutionary\nbiologists have long puzzled over how new traits emerge in nature, largely\nbecause much of the evolutionary information available is from the distant\npast. To learn more about how genes influence evolution, these researchers\nstudy organism phenotypes\u2014the\nobservable characteristics of an organism that are influenced by genetics and\nenvironment\u2014and how they change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying and studying novel\ntraits, such as new patterns seen in turtle shells, butterflies and flowers, may\nhelp biologists solve one of the most challenging problems in evolutionary\nbiology: how these traits originate and evolve. Decoding that mystery could improve\nthe quality of human life\u2014for example, by helping researchers understand the\nevolutionary histories of disease-causing genes in order to control hereditary\ndiseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liza\nHoleski<\/strong>, an associate professor of biology in NAU\u2019s College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences<\/a>,\nrecently received a $106,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to\nstudy a distinct pigmentation pattern that evolved very recently among a wild\npopulation of crimson monkeyflowers (Mimulus\nverbenaceus<\/em>). Holeski\u2019s study is part of a larger five-year project spearheaded\nby principal investigator Yaowu Yuan, an assistant professor and evolutionary\ndevelopmental geneticist at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with Ph.D. and undergraduate students, Holeski will\nconduct experiments to provide a detailed view of how the new trait, a specific\nstripe pattern that appears on the flower\u2019s leaf, developed and evolved. The\nteam hopes to identify the genes that underlie the phenotype and learn how the\nplant\u2019s genetics and the environment interacted to produce the trait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost\nof the work will be done in the field, but we will propagate plants in the\ngreenhouse by moving\npollen from one plant onto the stigma of another to fertilize according to a\nspecific breeding design,\u201d\nHoleski said. \u201cIn\nthe lab, we\u2019ll enter data, conduct statistical analysis and identify any insect\nherbivores found in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monkeyflowers\nideal for studying phenotypes, genetics<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Monkeyflowers are indigenous to the western and southwestern\nUnited States and northern Mexico, but the particular trait Holeski is studying\nappears in crimson monkeyflowers growing in only two canyons in northern\nArizona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe trait we\u2019re examining evolved\nrelatively recently, which allows us to characterize not only the genetic and\ndevelopmental pathways underlying the trait, but also the evolutionary\nprocesses that lead to its presence or absence in different populations,\u201d\nHoleski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discerning the factors that drive an initial adaption requires\nrigorous investigation, which can\u2019t be performed on most organisms. Monkeyflowers\nare ideal for studying the link between phenotypes and genetics because they\nhave short generation spans and small genomes, allowing researchers to\nmanipulate the genes and observe the results in a relatively short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dA wealth of previously developed genomic\nresources and tools are available that can help researchers map the trait,\u201d\nHoleski said. \u201cAnd learning more about how traits develop, no matter how simple\nor unimportant they may seem, can contribute to the overall understanding of how\nnatural selection occurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCharacterizing gene regulatory networks in model organisms has\nled and will continue to lead to greater understanding of developmental\nprocesses in other organisms, including humans. We anticipate that these\nstudies will, for the first time, provide a detailed view of the genetic and\ndevelopmental mechanisms and the evolutionary process driving them in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holeski, who joined NAU in 2013, focuses on plant evolution,\necology and genetics to understand how herbivores and environmental factors\u2014such\nas temperature, water availability and growing season length\u2014create trait\nselection pressures in plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"NAU<\/figure>
\n

Kerry Bennett and Amy K. Phillips
Office of the Vice President for Research<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 11, 2019 Evolutionary biologists have long puzzled over how new traits emerge in nature, largely because much of the evolutionary information available is from the distant past. To learn more about how genes influence evolution, these researchers study organism phenotypes\u2014the observable characteristics of an organism that are influenced by genetics and environment\u2014and how they…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":56157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}