DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Kin Favoritism and Communal Nesting

论文研究：亲属偏爱和共同筑巢

• 批准号: 0206581
• 负责人: Warren Holmes
• 金额: $ 1万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-04-15 至 2003-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0206581&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Kin; Favoritism; Communal

Kin Favoritism and Communal NestingDr. Warren HolmesStephanie JesseauThis combined laboratory- and field-research project will investigate kin recognition and nepotism in a communally-nesting, South American rodent, the degu (Octodon degus). Field evidence suggests that female degus nest communally, which means that two or more females share a burrow in which both females rear their litters. Due to communal nesting and birth synchrony, degu mothers encounter and become familiar with pups that are not their own offspring. Similarly, pups interact with both their siblings and non-siblings from the time they are born. In general, if a mother and her offspring share an early rearing environment with others, thus contaminating the correlation between rearing association and kinship, simple "familiarity" is unlikely to explain discriminative maternal care or sibling nepotism. In prior work, captive degu mothers discriminated between the odors of their own young and those produced by their co-nesting partner despite having lived with both kinds of pups. Three follow-up laboratories studies are proposed to investigate how kinship and being reared together affect maternal care and sibling relationships. First, it will be determined whether co-nesting mothers preferentially nurse their own young. Observations will be made of mothers' behavior toward their own vs other offspring. Differential milk transfer will also be determined by injecting mothers with small amounts of radiation (thus labeling their milk) and measuring the amount of radiation in the pups' feces. Second, food quality will be manipulated to evaluate how nutrition affects nursing preferences. The same behavioral observations and milk-labeling techniques as the previous experiment will be used. Third, I will examine juveniles' social preferences, specifically play-partner preferences, to determine how growing up together and kinship affect social development. Several field studies will also be conducted at Quebrada de la Plata, the field station of Universidad de Chile. It is not known whether degu mothers in the wild share the same natal chamber even though they occupy the same burrow system. Therefore, the first portion of the proposed field work will consist of monitoring co-nesting mothers using radio telemetry to determine if they share underground burrows before and/or after they give birth. The genetic relationship of co-nesting females in the wild is also not known. Therefore, small tissue samples will be taken from free-living degus to perform genetic analyses of DNA to determine the kinship of females sharing the same burrow. Behavioral observations will also be made to examine how agonistic and amicable behaviors vary with relatedness in degus. This study will reveal how kin recognition and nepotism are mediated in a group-living species in which "simple" familiarity is an inadequate proxy for kinship.

亲属偏爱和公共巢穴。 Warren Holmesstephanie Jesseauthis合并了实验室和实地研究项目，将在南美啮齿动物（Contodon degus）中调查亲属的认可和裙带关系。 现场证据表明，雌性Degus Nest在共同体上，这意味着两个或多个女性共享洞穴，两个雌性都抬起窝。 由于公共筑巢和出生同步，Degu母亲会遇到并熟悉不是自己后代的幼犬。 同样，幼崽从出生开始就与兄弟姐妹和非兄弟姐妹互动。 通常，如果母亲和她的后代与他人共享一个早期的饲养环境，从而污染了饲养关联与亲属关系之间的相关性，那么简单的“熟悉度”就不可能解释歧视性的孕产妇护理或兄弟姐妹裙带关系。 在先前的工作中，圈养的degu母亲歧视了自己的年轻人的气味，尽管他们与两种幼犬生活在一起，但他们的同事伴侣产生的气味。 提出了三项随访实验室研究，以研究亲属关系和养育如何影响孕产妇护理和兄弟姐妹的关系。 首先，将确定共同纽约的母亲是否优先为自己的年轻人护理。 观察将对母亲对自己的行为与其他后代的行为进行观察。 还将通过注射少量辐射的母亲（从而标记其牛奶）并测量幼犬粪便中的辐射量来确定差异牛奶转移。 其次，将操纵食品质量以评估营养如何影响护理偏好。 将使用与先前实验相同的行为观察和标记技术。 第三，我将研究少年的社会偏好，特别是玩伴侣的偏好，以确定成长如何共同成长，而亲属关系会影响社会发展。 还将在智利大学的田野站Quebrada de la Plata进行一些现场研究。尚不清楚野外的degu母亲是否占据了相同的洞穴系统，即使他们占据了同一出生室。 因此，拟议的现场工作的第一部分将包括使用射电遥测的共同纽约母亲，以确定他们是否在分娩之前和/或分娩后共享地下洞穴。 野生中共巢女性的遗传关系也不为人所知。 因此，小组织样品将从自由活着的DEG中采集，以进行DNA的遗传分析，以确定共享相同洞穴的女性的亲属关系。 还将进行行为观察，以研究激动和友好行为与DEG的相关性如何变化。 这项研究将揭示亲属识别和裙带关系是如何在“简单”熟悉度的群体生存物种中介导的，而“简单”的熟悉程度不足以替代亲属关系。