Within-Colony Kin Discrimination in a Social Insect

自达尔文时代以来，群居昆虫一直是进化生物学的一大难题。他们的工人种姓是自然界生殖利他主义的主要例子，然而，自然选择的过程在很大程度上预计会导致生殖自私。进化是如何导致放弃繁殖的？对于群居昆虫(也许在某种程度上对人类也是如此)的答案是亲属关系。群居昆虫群是一群近亲。工人不生育，但他们帮助亲属生育，这允许选择工作行为的基因。然而，我们仍然不明白在个人利益和整体利益之间取得了什么样的平衡。同样的进化血缘关系理论解释了合作是如何进化的，也预测了群体内部可能存在冲突。如果个体能够辨别和帮助他们在群体中的近亲，这一点尤其正确，但还不知道他们是否这样做。斯特拉斯曼博士和奎勒博士将使用DNA技术来回答这个问题。他们将使用一类被称为微卫星基因的基因。因为这些基因数量众多，变异性很大，它们可以用来对相关性做出必要的精细估计。因此，斯特拉斯曼和奎勒博士将确定，在多大程度上，群居昆虫群体实际上是完全合作的实体，或者它们是否在一定程度上是个体的神秘的、有争议的集合，每个个体都在追求自己的目标。这将大大提高人们对自然界中利他主义的程度和性质的理解。该项目将有助于围绕微卫星基因的新技术，这在许多领域都很重要，包括各种进化研究、保护遗传学、法医学以及农业和医疗需求的基因图谱研究。除了对博士后和研究生的培训做出贡献外，斯特拉斯曼和奎勒博士还鼓励本科生、高中生和教师将他们学到的知识带回课堂。

From the time of Darwin on, the social insects have posed one of the great puzzles of evolutionary biology. Their worker castes are the prime example of reproductive altruism in the natural world, yet the process of natural selection is expected, for the most part, to lead to reproductive selfishness. How can evolution lead to giving up reproduction? The answer for social insects (and perhaps also to some extent for humans) turns out to be kinship. Colonies of social insects are groups of kin. Workers don't reproduce, but they help relatives to reproduce and this permits selection for genes for working behavior. However, we still don't understand what kind of balance is struck between the interests of the individual and the interests of the group as a whole. The same evolutionary kinship theory that explains how cooperation can evolve also predicts that there may be conflict within colonies. This is particularly true if individuals can distinguish and aid their closest relatives in their colony, but it is not known whether they do this. Drs. Strassmann and Queller will use DNA technology to answer this question. They will use a class of genes called microsatellite genes. Because these genes are both numerous and highly variable, they can be used to make the necessary fine-level estimates of relatedness. Thus, Drs. Strassmann and Queller will determine to what extent social insect colonies really are completely cooperative entities, or if they are in part cryptically contentious assemblies of individuals, each pursuing its own aims. This will greatly increase understanding of the extent and nature of altruism in the natural world. This project will contribute to the new technology surrounding microsatellite genes, which is important in many areas, including all kinds of evolutionary studies, conservation genetics, forensics, and gene-mapping studies for agricultural and medical needs. Besides contributing to the training of postdoctoral and graduate students, Drs. Strassmann and Queller encourage participation of undergraduates, high school students, and teachers who take the knowledge they gain back to the classroom.