Mating Systems and the Resolution of Intrafamily Conflict in a Marine Snail

生态和基因利益冲突的解决几乎支配着从基因到社会的所有社会关系。家庭是一个普遍和特别激烈的合作和冲突场所：父亲和母亲、儿子和女儿、兄弟和姐妹可能经常为彼此牺牲，但在适当的情况下，他们也会互相残杀。40年前亲缘选择理论的发展为分析家庭成员之间冲突的解决提供了基础，阐明了任何物种的亲缘对如何以及何时应该和不应该互相帮助。然而，社会冲突很少涉及孤立的亲属。相反，冲突是在不同家庭成员之间的互动中发生的，甚至是在其他家庭成员之间。这一建议的重点是解决一种非凡的海蜗牛的多方式家庭内部冲突，在这种冲突中，雌性把它们的后代关在“托儿所”里，然后附着在雄性身上。随着后代的发育，它们会自相残杀，这是兄弟姐妹争夺母亲提供的资源的一种极端形式。因为雌性与几个雄性交配，所以在一个托儿所里的后代通常是同父异母的兄弟姐妹的混合体。这种雌性多次交配的普遍习惯增加了父母和后代之间以及后代之间冲突的范围。理论预测后代应该先吃掉同父异母的兄弟姐妹，然后再吃掉同父异母的兄弟姐妹，而通过实验和基因分析来验证这一预测是这项提议的主要目标。此外，本提案中的研究将通过实验来确定雌性是否控制同父异母兄弟姐妹的混合，从而调整托儿所内同类相食的比率。这项研究涉及与墨西哥的同事和学生进行广泛的国际合作。该项目将支持基础设施建设，包括一个分子生态学网站和相关研讨会，以及一个多用户遗传学设施，用于培训学生和博士后研究人员进行最先进的分子分析。在过去的三年里，NSF资助了6名博士生（3名女性，1名西班牙裔），4名博士后（1名女性，1名西班牙裔）和9名本科生（5名女性，1名少数民族）的培养。这项提案将支持培训相当数量的年轻科学家，为他们提供行为学、生态学、进化论和海洋生物学等多学科交叉的培训。

The resolution of ecological and genetic conflicts of interest governs virtually all social relationships, from genes to societies. Families represent a universal and especially intense arena for cooperation and conflict: fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters may often die for each other, but given the right circumstances, they will also kill each other. The development of kin selection theory 40 years ago provided the foundation for analyzing the resolution of conflicts between family members, clarifying how and when pairs of relatives of any species should and should not help each other. However, social conflicts rarely involve isolated pairs of relatives. Instead, the conflicts play out on a matrix of interactions between different family members, and beyond. This proposal focuses on the resolution of multiway intrafamily conflicts in a remarkable marine snail, in which females enclose their offspring in "nurseries" that they attach to males. As the offspring develop, they cannibalize each other, an extreme form of sibling competition for resources provided by their mother. Because females mate with several males, the offspring within a nursery are usually a mixture of full- and half-brothers and sisters. This widespread habit of multiple mating by females increases the scope for conflict between parents and offspring, and among the offspring. Theory predicts that offspring should consume their half-sibs before their full sibs, and testing this prediction using experiments and genetic analyses is a major goal of this proposal. In addition, the studies in this proposal will use experiments to determine whether females control the mixture of full- and half-siblings, so as to adjust the rates of cannibalism within nurseries. The research involves extensive international collaboration with colleagues and students in Mexico. The project will support infrastructure, including a molecular ecology website and associated workshops, and a multi-user genetics facility used to train students and postdoctoral researchers in state-of-the-art molecular analysis. NSF support over the last three years has supported the training of 6 Ph.D. students (3 women, 1 Hispanic), 4 postdocs (1 woman, 1 Hispanic), and 9 undergraduates(5 women, 1 minority). This proposal will support the training of a comparable number of young scientists, giving them multidisciplinary training at the interface of behavior, ecology, evolution, and marine biology.