Cooperation with and without Genetic Relatedness

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Queller and Strassmann will study cooperation and conflict Polistes dominulus, a social wasp that is unusual because its colonies include both close relatives and non-relatives. They will study the degree to which kinship, determined by DNA fingerprinting methods, influences aggression, reproductive sharing, and altruistic helping behavior. They will also study how this unusual genetic structure influences the rules of queen succession and whether the power to determine the new queen lie with asingle strong individual or with the more numerous workers. This study continues the successful tradition of using social insects as model systems for understanding how living things come to be organized into cooperative entities. Kinship is one of the most important correlates of cooperative behavior. Yet there have been few systems where the behavior of both relatives and non-relatives could be compared within the same colony, so P. dominulus provides a unique opportunity for critical tests. The strong conflict over queen succession will allow Queller and Strassmann to study how such conflicts are resolved in cooperative groups. Finally, because P. dominulus is a non-native pest species in the U. S., knowledge of its behavior may be useful ultimately in preserving native biodiversity.