International Research Fellowship Program: Indirect Genetic Effects and the Evolution of Cannibalism

0700452 Bleakley国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。Bleakley与英国埃克塞特大学的John Hunt和艾伦摩尔博士，以及美国北方亚利桑那州立大学的Stephen Shuster博士合作。一个人的行为可能不仅是由他自己的基因和居住的环境决定的，也可能反映出这个人的社会伙伴携带的基因。 社会伴侣携带的基因对另一个体行为的影响被称为“间接遗传效应”。间接遗传效应是产生“相互作用表型”的一种方式，其中个体的表型只能在相互作用的背景下描述。 间接遗传效应在社会行为的进化中特别重要，因为它们可能会改变选择对个体的作用方式，并产生社会选择。 社会选择的相对影响很少在自然种群中被划分出来，而间接遗传效应对社会选择强度的影响从未被记录在案。 同类相食行为是一种相互作用的表型，很可能反映了间接的遗传效应，并被预测会产生社会选择，但从未在此背景下进行过探索。 我们正在开发的第一个定量遗传模型描述的进化中的间接遗传效应和利用自然系统，Socorro等足类Thermosphaeroma嗜热，实验测试模型的背景下，同类相食。 我们正在设计一个定量遗传模型，考虑遗传方差和协方差的基础上的身体大小和同类相食，强度和方向的性和社会选择这些性状上操作，和频率和强度的种内相互作用，可能会影响这些性状的表达和进化，通过间接的遗传效应。 我们正在使用该模型对同类相食和体型之间的遗传协方差结构以及社会选择的强度进行数学操作，以预测这些因素对同类相食进化速度的影响。我们同时获得实验室种群中的相互作用和非相互作用性状（体型和同类相食）及其遗传方差和协方差的经验测量结果。嗜热菌;预测社会选择对这些等足类动物进化的相对影响;确定体型和同类相食之间的遗传协方差是否在现有的实验种群中存在差异，从而允许对选择的不同反应。

0700452BleakleyThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Bronwyn H. Bleakley to work with Drs. John Hunt and Allen Moore at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and with Dr. Stephen Shuster at Northern Arizona State University in the US.An individual's behavior may result not only from its own genes and the environment in which is resides, but may also reflect genes carried in the individual's social partners. The effects of genes carried in a social partner on the behavior of another individual are termed "indirect genetic effects." Indirect genetic effects are one way of generating "interacting phenotypes," where an individual's phenotype can only be described in the context of an interaction. Indirect genetic effects are predicted to be particularly important in the evolution of social behavior because they may alter the way selection operates on individuals, as well as generate social selection. The relative effects of social selection have only rarely been partitioned out in natural populations and the impacts of indirect genetic effects on the strength of social selection have never been documented. Cannibalistic behavior is an interacting phenotype, is likely to reflect indirect genetic effects, and is predicted to generate social selection, but has never been explored in this context. We are developing the first quantitative genetic model describing the evolution of cannibalism in the context of indirect genetic effects and utilizing a natural system, the Socorro Isopod Thermosphaeroma thermophilum, to experimentally test the model. We are designing a quantitative genetic model that considers the genetic variances and covariances underlying body size and cannibalism, the intensity and direction of sexual and social selection operating on these traits, and the frequency and strength of intraspecific interactions that may influence the expression and evolution of these traits via indirect genetic effects. We are using the model to mathematically manipulate the genetic covariance structure between cannibalism and body size and the intensity of social selection to predict the impact of these factors on the rate of evolution of cannibalism. We are concurrently obtaining empirical measurements of interacting and non-interacting traits (body size and cannibalism) and their genetic variances and covariances in lab populations of T. thermophilum; generating predictions for the relative influence of social selection on the evolution of these isopods; and determining if the genetic covariance between body size and cannibalism varies across existing experimental populations, allowing for differential response to selection.