International DDEP: Protein Fingerprint Identification of Brood Parasites in Waterfowl

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This doctoral dissertation enhancement project (DDEP) for collaborative research with Swedish partners at Gotenborg University will enable principal investigator, Dr. Michael S. Webster of Washington State University, and graduate student, Letitia Reichart, to work with Dr. Malte Andersson on conspecific brood parasitism (CBP). Among waterfowl, brood parasitism involves females who lay eggs in nests other than their own and they provide no paternal care to their parasitic offspring. Instead, host females incur the costs associated with paternal care. The project will draw upon aspects of animal behavior, physiology, and multiple molecular genetic techniques to gain a better understanding of this reproductive strategy.The U.S.-Swedish team will use a tool pioneered in the Andersson laboratory, known as albumen protein fingerprinting, to study the ruddy duck as a model organism. By examining albumen protein patterns that are unique between females, the researchers intend to identify individual females who lay eggs parasitically and estimate the relatedness between the hosts and parasites. Data and evidence obtained from this collaboration will be used to test hypotheses generated by CBP such as differential investment theory. Results are expected to contribute to basic behavioral theory and may yield information that is helpful in waterfowl conservation and management. A DDEP in behavioral systems biology fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling the junior researcher and experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include early career introduction of the participant U.S. graduate student to teamwork with leading scientists at centers of excellence in the international research community.