Intraspecific habitat variation and social systems: Integrating behavioral genomics and neuroscience in the Taiwan field vole

该奖项支持国会议员Loren Hayes和Larry Young于2010年3月对台北国立台湾大学进行为期十天的计划访问。此次计划访问将把对社会性啮齿类动物行为生态学感兴趣的科学家与对神经生物学和基因表达感兴趣的科学家聚集在一起，讨论一种拟议的社会性进化机制模型，并发展长期合作，以测试将行为生态学、基因组学和神经解剖学联系起来的假设，并为美国研究生和初级研究人员创造国际研究机会。海斯是一位行为生态学家，杨是一位神经学家，他们将与台湾大学生态与进化生物学研究所的行为科学家林柯克和动物研究所的余汉森合作。每位合作者将有一名研究生或博士后加入。被提议的研究物种（菊地鼠）被认为是社会一夫一妻制的。了解这一物种的社会性和交配系统可以与其他社会一夫一妻制哺乳动物（如鼠）进行比较，从而增加对趋同进化的理解。pi将评估长期合作的潜力，包括评估潜在的实地地点，评估台湾的实验室能力，为附属研究生/博士后制定初步项目，以产生长期研究的数据，并讨论合作和独立的拨款撰写策略，以支持项目的长期目标。

This award supports PIs Loren Hayes and Larry Young to undertake a ten-day planning visit to National Taiwan University in Taipei in March 2010. The planning visit will bring together scientists interested in the behavioral ecology of social rodents with scientists interested in neurobiology and gene expression to discuss a proposed evolutionary-mechanistic model for sociality and to develop a long-term collaboration to test hypotheses linking behavioral ecology, genomics and neuroanatomy and to generate international research opportunities for U.S. graduate students and junior researchers. Hayes, a behavioral ecologist, and Young, a neuroscientist, will collaborate with behavioral scientist Kirk Lin of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Alex Hon-Tsen Yu of the Institute of Zoology, both at National Taiwan University. The collaborators will each be joined by a graduate student or postdoc.The proposed study species (Microtus kikuchii) is thought to be socially monogamous. Understanding the sociality and mating systems of this species could lead to comparisons with other socially monogamous mammals (e.g. Microtus ochrogaster), increasing understanding of convergent evolution. The PIs will assess the long-term potential for collaboration, including assessing potential field sites, evaluating laboratory capabilities in Taiwan, developing preliminary projects for affiliated graduate students/postdocs to generate data for long-term study, and discussing strategies for collaborative and independent grant-writing to support the long-term goals of the project.