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

苏拉·格兰蒂，一只长寿的海鸟，提供了一个独特的机会来研究自然界中非父母对身体和社会虐待的潜在机制。非繁殖成虫对无亲缘关系的幼虫表现出直接而强烈的社会兴趣（亲缘关系、攻击性和/或生殖）。这是脊椎动物中独特的行为品质，尽管人类成年后不恰当的生殖行为指向不相关的青春期前或未成年的年轻人可能是最类似的脊椎动物行为。苏拉·格兰蒂虐待行为是一个很有前景的早期社会创伤新模型系统，因为它与人类儿童虐待有几个共同的特征，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，以及虐待通过早期社会创伤和长期神经内分泌组织效应传播的证据。研究人员将调查遗传多态性和养育环境之间的相互作用，这些相互作用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。预计某些特定基因的变异将缓冲个体早期虐待的影响，减少成年后表现出虐待和/或焦虑相关行为的可能性。本研究将在自然条件下的野生种群中进行，将首次对多基因和基因与环境相互作用的相对分离和组合预测能力进行综合评估，并将研究遗传、动物行为和对早期创伤的生理反应之间的关联，这些创伤可能类似于哺乳动物和鸟类谱系之间的分化，或者早于它们的分化。研究人员和鸟类生物学的本科生将利用通过维克森林大学国际学士学位合作伙伴关系建立的当地学校关系，将他们的研究结果应用于当地高中的生物学课程，以解决北卡罗来纳州教育标准4.05关于先天、习得和社会动物行为的问题。

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.