Comparative Genomics, Molecular Evolution, and the Evolution of Bee Societies

生物学中的一大挑战是理解动物社会是如何进化的。蜜蜂之所以特别有趣，是因为不同的物种表现出自然界存在的各种社会性，从独居到群居再到高度社会性，在这些社会性中，个体(工蜂)照顾兄弟姐妹而不是繁殖自己。分子工具正在变得可用，这些工具允许一种新的方法来解决有关社会性的问题。这项建议建立在10只独居和群居蜜蜂的1G基因组序列的可用性基础上，PI将免费获得NSF和罗氏公司的特别奖项。将识别在昆虫社会进化过程中发生变化的基因；这些基因可能是社会进化的原动力。基因还将被用来检验一个著名的理论假设，即工人的行为是从母亲的照顾演变而来的。这个项目描绘了一条研究社会进化的新途径。它将有助于开发重要物种的基因组资源，这是美国国家科学基金会的一个战略目标，将使所有生物学领域受益。它还将为研究生和本科生提供综合了进化生物学、行为学、分子生物学、基因组学和生物信息学的培训。

A major challenge in biology is to understand how animal societies have evolved. Bees are especially interesting because different species display the full range of sociality that exists in nature, from solitary to communal to highly social, in which individuals ("workers") care for siblings rather than reproduce themselves. Molecular tools are just becoming available that permit a new approach to questions about sociality. This proposal builds on the availability of one gigabyte of genome sequence for 10 solitary and social bees, which the PI is obtaining at no cost to NSF in conjunction with a special award from Roche Inc. Genes will be identified that have changed during the evolution of insect societies; these might be prime movers in social evolution. Genes also will be used to test a prominent theory hypothesizing that worker behavior evolved from maternal care.This project charts a new avenue of study on the evolution of societies. It will contribute to the development of genomic resources for important species, an NSF strategic goal that will have benefits across all of biology. It will also provide training to graduate students and undergraduates in an approach that integrates evolutionary biology, behavior, molecular biology, genomics, and bioinformatics.