NSFDEB-NERC: The evolution of visual systems during major life history transitions in frogs

How organisms interact with their environment depends on how they perceive external stimuli through, for example, tactile, chemical, electrical, magnetic, and visual cues. Animal sensory systems detect environmental variables that ultimately elicit behavioral responses to pursue prey, avoid predators, regulate homeostasis, and find mates. These behavioral responses depend on sensory systems that are adapted to particular environments and can thus have important consequences on the distribution of species (sensory ecology), which in turn can promote evolutionary divergence among populations and species. Because sensory systems play vital roles in multiple aspects of animals' lives, analyzing the evolution of sensory systems is fundamental to understanding the diversification of any particular animal group. Our project investigates how the visual system has evolved during the history of frogs, and particularly with respect to the many evolutionary changes in ecology and life history that frogs have undergone. For example, we will investigate how vision was influenced by and may have influenced the evolution of bright or sexually dimorphic colour patterns, and the evolution of burrowing and of different kinds of adult and tadpole lifestyles. Frogs are a major group, with > 6,600 living species that have evolved over >250 million years, yet they have barely been included in previous studies of vision of vertebrates. Our project will substantially advance knowledge of both vertebrate vision and frog evolution.

The broader impacts of this project can be summarised in four categories: international collaboration, training, science communication, and museum exhibitions. First, this project is a collaboration between two of the world's best known and prolific natural history museums - the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA and the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) - a joint effort of its personnel that makes the goals of this project not just possible, but feasible. Furthermore, our team of collaborators (both frog experts and vision biologists) from Gabon, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Ecuador, and Australia forms the essential network and expert insight that allows us to address our specific aims and questions. Second, this project will train a postdoctoral researcher at the NHM and provide training opportunities for Masters and undergraduate students that study within the NHM Herpetology Research Group (where the project is based). Third, a focus on communicating the results of our research to a public audience is central to our proposal - via public engagement events at the NHM. Finally, our research products will be made available to the public via incorporation into the upcoming NHM temporary exhibition "Life in the Dark" (scheduled October 2018) - where an updated understanding of how frogs see at night will be presented.

Our proposed research project has been designed to fill in a major gap in the understanding of vertebrate visual system diversity and evolution. A project in pure biological research, we will generate results of interest to a wide range of academics, including those working on frogs, molecular biology and vision. In addition to answering fundamental questions about vision (e.g. the molecular basis) the data and analytical results will be of wider and direct value to vision research academics with the potential to change our current understanding of, for example, nocturnal colour vision. Such a fundamental understanding about phenotypic diversity, its molecular underpinnings and evolution has societal value because it is medically relevant to human vision, given that medicine is now underpinned by molecular biological studies.

Vertebrate vision is generally well studied and understood, but most knowledge comes from detailed studies of mammals, birds and fish. Amphibians have been greatly overlooked thus far, especially considering their evolutionary age and extant phylogenetic, morphological and ecological diversity. Given the relatively unexplored field of frog vision research, we expect to make several noteworthy discoveries using the technologies and methods we propose. To disseminate these discoveries effectively, we will communicate findings via peer-reviewed publications in international journals, present multiple talks at international conferences, and hold a workshop with opportunities for UK stakeholders to attend. All data collected during the project will be deposited in public repositories (e.g. NCBI for genomic data, NHM Data Portal for specimen data).

We will also plan to engage with the national and international media to broaden the impact of our findings to a wide public audience. The proposed topic offers exceptional promise for public dissemination because frogs are awe-inspiring and captivating animals and because vision plays an important role in communicating evolutionary biology. We have the infrastructure and plan to ensure that our project exploits its potential impact on the public sector via public engagement in science (PES) activities that will reach and inform non-academic audiences. The NHM lead Investigators are both experienced in PES, having written popular science books and online content and given interactive presentations and workshops with the general public and non-specialists. The NHM Press Office is experienced with preparing press-releases for novel findings and important scientific publications. The NHM provides an informal learning opportunity for museum visitors via the "Nature Live" seminar series. PI Streicher and Co-I Gower are regularly featured in these talks, and we have budgeted to develop a frog vision Nature Live to coincide with the herein proposed research. The NHM receives millions of visitors a year in person, and we will communicate our project to this audience.

The proposed research represents mostly new collaborations among researchers with expertise in frogs, molecular biology and visual physiology and ecology, and we expect this project to be the first of several collaborative projects. The lead applicants will benefit from the development of novel angles to their research. The lead applicants are experienced in working on and managing grants that employ potdoctoral research assistants, and they have conducted and disseminated high quality research. An important additional impact of the proposed research is the training of an early career scientist who will gain experience and advanced skills in a range of molecular biological and phenotypic methods. The PDRA will attend one major scientific conference for each of the three years they are employed on the project. Training for presentations will be available to the PDRA through the NHM's Organisational Development group (Human Resources Department) and Department of Life Sciences seminar series.