DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The (epi)genetic basis of increased MUP expression during rapid adaptation to sociality in MUS

社会选择是一种进化形式，是社会竞争的结果，它作用于求爱、争夺资源和社会优势所必需的特征，以及群体行为。通过实验控制社会选择的人工选择实验是一种用来理解行为遗传基础的最新技术。虽然这些实验揭示了社会选择下的许多特征，但它们仅限于无脊椎动物群体。此外，现在的研究表明，生物体可以通过非基因组表观遗传对社会环境的变化做出反应，在这种遗传中，对环境的表型反应传递给后代。这个项目通过检测重新引入高种群密度和社会选择机会的实验室饲养的野生小鼠的行为、遗传和表观遗传反应，解决了我们理解中的这些差距。预测是，在缺乏社会选择的实验室条件下培育的小鼠，会下调或消除仅在激烈的社会选择过程中才相关的昂贵特征。数据显示，将小鼠重新引入社会环境会迅速增加雄性交配的成功率，但会降低在竞争环境中的存活率，增加雄性信号和吸引力，并增加雄性主要尿蛋白(MUPs)的表达，MUPs是小鼠交流的主要信号。已知MUPs受表观遗传调控，但其功能尚不清楚。该项目现在调查MUP表达增加的行为学意义以及导致遗传和表观遗传的机制。它展示了哺乳动物如何对社会环境的变化做出反应，并将通过展示健康和沟通如何在社会环境中变化来帮助我们理解行为生态学。它还将继续鼓励本科生和高中生参与科学发现，鼓励他们在研究中发挥独立作用，并在会议上展示他们的工作。

Social selection is a form of evolution that results from social competition, and acts on traits necessary for courtship, competition for resources and social dominance, and group behaviors. Artificial selection experiments that experimentally control social selection are a recent technique used to understand the genetic basis of behavior. While these experiments have revealed many traits under social selection, they have been limited to invertebrate groups. Moreover, research now indicates that organisms can respond to changes in the social environment via non-genomic epigenetic inheritance, where phenotypic responses to the environmental are transmitted to subsequent generations. This project addresses these gaps in our understanding by examining the behavioral, genetic, and epigenetic responses of laboratory-bred wild mice reintroduced to high population density and the opportunity for social selection. The prediction is that mice bred under laboratory conditions, where social selection is absent, down-regulate or eliminate costly traits that are only relevant during intense social selection. Data show that reintroduction of mice to a social environment rapidly increases male mating success but decreases survivorship in competitive environments, increases male signaling and attractiveness, and increases male expression of Major Urinary Proteins (MUPs), a primary signal in mouse communication. MUPs are known to be regulated by epigenetic inheritance, but the function remains unknown. This project now investigates the behavioral significance of increased MUP expression and the causal genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. It demonstrates how mammals respond to changes in the social environment, and will contribute to our understanding of behavioral ecology by showing how fitness and communication vary across social environments. It also will continue to engage undergraduate and high school students in scientific discovery by encouraging them to take independent roles in the research and to present their work at conferences.