RUI: Endocrinological Basis of Parental Behavior and Dominance in Burying Beetles

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Trumbo, Stephen IBN-9420985 NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Behavioral flexibility is the key to relating behavior to ecology and to reproductive success. The research proposed here will develop the first invertebrate model of a biparental organism for studying the behavioral and hormonal mechanisms that regulate reproductive behavior. Blood levels of juvenile hormone will be determined and correlated with detailed changes in parental behavior. Topical application of juvenile hormone will be used to test the hypothesis that increased male parental effort will increase the rate of larval development and lead to a decrease in parental effort by the male's partner. Hormone levels will also be measured during competitive interactions between two females to test the hypothesis that contests for the breeding resource result in elevated levels of juvenile hormone. Furthermore, Juvenile hormone will be administered to subordinate females during competition for resources to examine hormonal influences on dominance, reproductive output and parental contributions to broods of mixed parentage. This study will be based on an already thorough understanding of behavioral variation in the animals in a natural ecological context. The ability to integrate behavioral and physiological analyses in a group amenable to experimental manipulation will contribute to a broader understanding of the flexibility of reproductive behavior. The proposed project promises to advance our understanding of how complex sequences of behavior are organized, and how behavioral flexibility contributes to effective parental care.