DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Genetic Polymorphism in Behavioral Traits in a Bird with Maltreatment of Young

苏拉·格兰蒂是一种长寿的海鸟，它提供了一个独特的机会来研究自然界中非父母虐待身体和社会的潜在机制。没有生育能力的成年人对没有血缘关系的幼崽表现出直接和强烈的社会兴趣(从属、攻击性和/或生殖)。这在脊椎动物中是一种独特的行为特征，尽管针对非亲缘关系的青春期前或未成年幼崽的不适当的人类成年生殖行为可能是此类脊椎动物行为中最相似的。Sula granti虐待行为是一种很有前途的早期社会创伤模型系统，因为它与人类虐待儿童有几个共同的特征，包括通过“暴力循环”的代际传播，年龄与脆弱性之间的关系，社会虐待事件的频率，以及通过早期社会创伤和长期神经内分泌组织效应传播虐待的证据。研究人员将调查基因多态和养育环境之间的相互作用，这些环境可能会影响这种行为和人格的其他方面(例如，害羞、攻击性、焦虑/神经质)的代际传递。预计特定基因的某些变异将缓冲个体免受早期虐待的影响，从而降低成年后表现出虐待和/或焦虑相关行为的可能性。这项研究将在自然条件下对野生种群进行，将首次全面评估多个基因和基因x环境相互作用的相对独立和联合预测能力，并将调查遗传学、动物行为和对早期创伤的生理反应之间的联系，这可能是哺乳动物和鸟类谱系之间的相似或之前的分化。研究人员和鸟类生物学本科生将利用维克森林大学国际文凭合作伙伴关系建立的当地学校关系，将他们的结果带入当地高中生物课堂，以满足北卡罗来纳州关于先天、后天和社会动物行为的教育标准4.05。

Sula granti, a long-lived seabird, offers a unique opportunity to study the underlying mechanisms of physical and social maltreatment by non-parents, in nature. Non-breeding adults show a directed and intense social interest (affiliative, aggressive, and/or reproductive) in unrelated young. This is a unique behavioral quality among vertebrates, though inappropriate human adult reproductive behavior directed toward non-related pre-pubertal or under-age young is perhaps the most similar such vertebrate behavior. Sula granti maltreatment behavior is a promising new model system for early social trauma because it shares several features with human child abuse, including intergenerational transmission through a "cycle of violence", the relationship between age and vulnerability, frequency of social maltreatment episodes, and evidence for transmission of maltreatment through both early social trauma and long term neuroendocrine organizational effects. The researchers will investigate interactions between genetic polymorphisms and rearing environment that may influence intergenerational transmission of this behavior and other aspects of personality (e.g., shyness, aggression, anxiety/neuroticism). It is expected that some variants of specific genes will buffer individuals from the effects of early maltreatment, reducing the probability of displaying abusive and/or anxiety-related behavior as an adult. This research will be conducted on a wild population under natural conditions, will be the first comprehensive evaluation of the relative separate and combined predictive ability of multiple genes and gene x environment interactions, and will investigate the associations between genetics, animal behavior, and physiological response to early trauma which may be analogous between, or alternatively predate the divergence of, mammalian and avian lineages. The researchers and Avian Biology undergraduate students will use local school connections developed through the Wake Forest University International Baccalaureate Partnership to take their results into local high school biology classes to address North Carolina Educational Standard 4.05 on innate, learned, and social animal behavior.