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

任何一个有父亲和母亲的个体都将有50%的基因来自父母双方。对于大多数特征来说，这些母系和父系基因和谐地工作。然而，在某些特征中，后代的特定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育和行为中的基因冲突。这种冲突的一个潜在的例子是，蜜蜂工蜂是否应该在它们的母亲蜂王在场的情况下产卵。当工蜂产卵时，父亲从基因上受益；但是工蜂产卵必须以牺牲蚁后的繁殖能力为代价。因此，来自母亲的工蜂基因应该反对工蜂的繁殖，并通过摧毁工蜂产下的卵来“保护”它们。该项目的目标是建立基因组内冲突的数学模型，以预测“印记”基因可能进化的条件（即，对后代产生不同影响的基因取决于它们是来自母亲还是父亲）。该项目还将选择性地培育蜜蜂，以确定工蜂产卵和工蜂治安行为的表达是否取决于其基因的父母来源。然后，组织样本可以保存下来，以供以后的基因组分析，以发现哪些基因被印迹。研究人员现在认识到，印记基因和基因组内部冲突在自然界中很常见。基因组内部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，了解基因组内冲突在一个容易操纵的系统中的进化和表达，如蜜蜂群体，可能对理解基因型如何转化为表型的一般问题具有广泛的影响。

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.