DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Kin selection and intragenomic conflict in the reproductive behavior of honey bees

任何同时有父亲和母亲的个体都将有50%的基因来自父母双方。对于大多数性状来说，这些母系和父系基因的作用是和谐的。然而，在某些特征中，特定的后代行为对父母一方有利，但对另一方不利。这可能会导致个体自身发展和行为中的遗传冲突。这种冲突的一个潜在例子是，蜜蜂工作者是否应该在他们的母亲女王在场的情况下产卵。当工蚁产卵时，父亲会从基因上受益；但工蜂产卵必须以牺牲蚁后的生殖产量为代价。因此，来自母亲的工蚁的基因应该反对工蚁繁殖，并通过摧毁工蚁产卵来“监管”任何工蚁产卵。该项目的目标是对基因组内的冲突进行数学建模，以预测“印记”基因可能进化的条件(即，在后代中产生不同影响的基因，取决于它们来自母亲还是父亲)。该项目还将有选择地培育蜜蜂，以确定工蜂产卵和工蜂监管行为的表达是否取决于它们基因的原生父母。然后，组织样本可以被保存下来，用于以后的基因组分析，以找出哪些基因被印记。研究人员现在认识到，印记基因和基因组内的冲突在自然界中很常见。基因组内冲突与人类健康问题有关，例如怀孕期间可能出现的一些并发症。因此，了解在一个易于操纵的系统(如蜜蜂群体)中基因组内冲突的进化和表达，可能会对理解基因类型如何转化为表型的一般问题产生广泛的影响。

Any individual that has both a mother and father will have 50% of their genes coming from each parent. For most traits, these maternal and paternal genes work in harmony. There are, however, some traits in which particular offspring behaviors benefit one parent, but harm the other. This can result in a genetic conflict within an individual's own development and behavior. One potential example of such a conflict concerns whether honey bee workers ought to lay eggs in the presence of their mother, the queen. The father benefits genetically when workers lay eggs; but worker egg laying must come at the expense of the queen's reproductive output. Therefore, the genes in workers that come from their mother ought to oppose worker reproduction and "police" any worker-laid eggs by destroying them. The goal of this project is to mathematically model within-genome conflicts to predict the conditions under which "imprinted" genes might evolve (i.e., genes that produce different effects in offspring depending on whether they come from the mother or father). This project will also selectively breed honey bees to determine if the expression of worker laying and worker policing behavior depends on the parent-of-origin for their genes. Tissue samples then can be preserved for later genomic analyses to find which genes are imprinted. Investigators now recognize that imprinted genes and within-genome conflict are common in nature. Within-genome conflict has been implicated in human health problems, such as some complications that may arise during pregnancy. Thus, understanding the evolution and expression of within-genome conflict in an easily manipulated system, like honey bee colonies, is likely to have broad impacts for understanding general questions of how genotypes are transformed into phenotypes.