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.

亲属偏爱和公共嵌套博士。这个实验室和实地研究相结合的项目将调查一种共同筑巢的南美啮齿动物--德古的亲属识别和裙带关系。 现场证据表明，女性degus共同筑巢，这意味着两个或两个以上的女性共享一个洞穴，其中两个女性后，他们的窝。 由于共同筑巢和出生同步，德古母亲遇到并熟悉不是自己的后代的幼崽。 同样，幼崽从出生起就与兄弟姐妹和非兄弟姐妹互动。 一般来说，如果母亲和她的后代与其他人分享早期养育环境，从而污染了养育协会和亲属关系之间的相关性，简单的“熟悉”不太可能解释歧视性的母亲照顾或兄弟姐妹裙带关系。 在之前的工作中，圈养的德古母亲区分自己的幼崽和共同筑巢的伙伴产生的气味，尽管与这两种幼崽生活在一起。 三个后续的实验室研究，提出了调查如何亲属关系和被抚养在一起影响母亲的照顾和兄弟姐妹关系。 首先，将确定是否共同筑巢的母亲优先照顾自己的年轻人。 将观察母亲对自己和其他后代的行为。 通过给母鼠注射少量辐射（从而标记它们的乳汁）并测量幼崽粪便中的辐射量，也可以确定不同的乳汁转移。 其次，将操纵食物质量来评估营养如何影响护理偏好。 将使用与之前实验相同的行为观察和牛奶标记技术。 第三，我将研究青少年的社会偏好，特别是游戏伙伴的偏好，以确定如何共同成长和亲属关系影响社会发展。 还将在智利大学的外地站-Quebrada de拉普拉塔进行几项实地研究。目前尚不清楚是否德古母亲在野外共享同一个纳塔尔室，即使他们占据相同的洞穴系统。 因此，拟议的实地工作的第一部分将包括使用无线电遥测技术监测共同筑巢的母亲，以确定它们在分娩之前和/或之后是否共用地下洞穴。 在野外共同筑巢的雌性的遗传关系也不清楚。 因此，将从自由生活的迪格斯身上采集小组织样本，进行DNA遗传分析，以确定共享同一洞穴的雌性动物的亲缘关系。 行为观察也将被用来研究对抗行为和友好行为是如何随着degus的相关性而变化的。 这项研究将揭示如何在一个群体生活的物种，“简单”的熟悉是一个不充分的代理亲属关系的亲属识别和裙带关系介导。