Studies on the Evolutionary Genetics of Pocket Gophers GenusThomomys
{'Code': '08010207', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'DEB', 'LongName': 'Division Of Environmental Biology'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Scott L. Collins', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Pocket gophers, subterranean rodents of western North                      America, are among the world's most variable mammals with respect               to their genetic and morphological features.  They occur in all                 available soil types from desert valleys to mountain tops, across               an extremely wide range of ecological settings.  They are, in                   fact, major agricultural pests in many areas of their range,                    particularly in areas where the native vegetation has been                      replaced by monocultures of alfalfa or other crops.                                  Over the past 20 years, James Patton has studied aspects of                the genetic differentiation among populations of pocket gophers                 in features such as chromosomal changes and shifts in gene                      frequencies.  These have provided clues to the processes involved               in the development of the enormous degree of evolutionary                       divergence that is readily observable among populations of pocket               gophers.  The current proposal will be directed primarily to                    aspects of morphological change among pocket gopher populations,                with particular emphasis on body size variation and its influence               on various aspects of life history, such as density, litter size,               number of litters per year, and so forth.  The focus of the study               is on comparisons between populations of pocket gophers from                    natural desertscrub vegetation communities in the deserts of                    eastern California and those that have invaded recently developed               monocultures of alfalfa.  Observations to date show that in as                  few as a dozen years or so, the average body size in alfalfa                    populations increases over two-fold, and that there are major                   shifts in reproductive performances associated with these body                  size changes.  These reproductive changes are of such magnitude                 that alfalfa farmers are, in fact, also farming pocket gophers.                 The principal investigator will investigate the causal basis of                 this size variation by a series of transplant experiments,                      shifting animals from natural vegetation to alfalfa fields, by                  observing growth rates of individuals in both habitats, and by                  rearing young, born in the laboratory to mothers caught in both                 habitat types, under a common nutritional regime.  By so doing,                 it will be determined if the body size increase is merely a                     reflection of the radical change in diet represented by alfalfa,                or whether it represents a major change in genetical                            constitution due to natural selection.  These studies will                      incorporate several different paired natural and alfalfa                        populations, and the relationships among the pairs will be                      ascertained by genetic techniques, such as protein                              electrophoresis and DNA sequence analysis.
{'FirstName': 'David', 'LastName': 'Wake', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'B', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'David B Wake', 'EmailAddress': 'wakelab@berkeley.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000402607', 'StartDate': '05/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of California-Berkeley', 'CityName': 'BERKELEY', 'ZipCode': '947101749', 'PhoneNumber': '5106433891', 'StreetAddress': '1608 4TH ST STE 201', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'California', 'StateCode': 'CA', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '12', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'CA12', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'GS3YEVSS12N6', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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{'Code': '1127', 'Text': 'Evolutionary Processes'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8822345.xml'}