Career Advancement Award: Hormonal Factors Affecting Reproductive Dominance, Cooperation and Parental Behavior in Communally-Breeding Burying Beetles

行为生物学的一个关键领域是荷尔蒙调节社会行为的机制。内分泌系统和环境，包括其他个体的行为，可能如何相互作用，越来越引起人们的兴趣。然而，尽管昆虫拥有丰富的行为储备，但对调节昆虫社会行为的内分泌机制几乎一无所知。埋葬甲虫准备并埋葬小身体，这些身体将成为它们幼虫的食物。它们在几个方面都是不同寻常的。它们必须使繁殖与在时间和空间上都不可预测的必要资源的位置相协调。他们的行为必须经历从竞争到合作，从杀婴到父母的定期变化。雄性和雌性还必须协调自己的生殖行为和内分泌系统与配偶的生殖行为和内分泌系统。Scott博士的研究项目有以下目标：1.利用放射免疫分析方法，建立雄性和雌性在一个繁殖周期，特别是在父母照料期间的保幼激素(JH)和蜕皮激素的分布；2.确定激素对父母行为的控制，特别是幼虫从杀婴转向取食和父母照看的线索；3.表征JH和蜕皮激素在集体繁殖雌性动物建立生殖优势中的作用。

A key area of behavioral biology is the mechanisms of hormonal regulation of social behavior. How the endocrine system and the environment, including the behavior of other individuals, might interact is of growing interest. Yet hardly anything is known of the endocrine mechanisms for the regulation of social behavior of insects, in spite of their rich repertory of behavior. Burying beetles prepare and bury small carcasses that will become food for their larvae. They are unusual in several respects. They must coordinate reproduction with the location of a necessary resource that is unpredictable in both time and space. Their behavior must undergo regular changes from competitive to cooperative and from infanticidal to parental. Males and females must also coordinate their reproductive behavior and endocrine system with those of their mates. Dr. Scott's research project has the following aims: 1. to establish the profiles of juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids, using radioimmunoassay, during a breeding cycle, especially during parental care, for both males and females, 2. to identify the hormonal control of parental behavior, especially the cue for switching from infanticide to feeding and parental care of larvae, and 3. to characterize the role of JH and ecdysteroids in establishment of reproductive dominance in communally breeding females.