Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance in Cebus capucinus

白面卷尾猴（Cebus capucinus）生活在由母亲和父亲亲属组成的广泛网络组成的社会群体中——这种人口统计情况在哺乳动物中很少见，但它强调了避免近亲繁殖的进化机制的重要性。研究这些灵长类动物是如何对某些个体而不是其他个体产生生殖厌恶的，将提高我们对这些机制的理解，以及对高度社会化动物亲属识别的局限性的理解。该项目还将提供比较工作，可能有助于理解人类社会中避免乱伦的起源和变化。加州大学洛杉矶分校的博士生Irene Godoy在Susan Perry博士的指导下，将行为观察、遗传学和内分泌学结合起来，研究了哥斯达黎加洛玛斯巴布达尔野生卷尾猴种群的交配行为。这些数据将检验以下假设：(a)早期社会熟悉度，(b)表型匹配，或(c)使用年龄接近和成年男性等级等线索是个体避免与近亲交配的机制。关于女性和男性对防止近亲繁殖行为的责任的其他假设，以及共同社会化的发展方面的重要性，也将被讨论。将收集24只成年雌性的行为观察数据。非侵入性收集粪便样本，用于随后提取DNA或类固醇激素，以确定个体的父系和母系，并跟踪女性生殖阶段的变化。实验室分析将在德国莱比锡的马克斯普朗克进化人类学研究所进行。该项目的资金将用于培训研究助理和一名多种族的第一代拉丁裔研究生。将在哥斯达黎加的六所当地小学作外联介绍，促进学生对科学事业的兴趣，并鼓励为保护高度濒危的热带干燥森林环境所作的养护努力。

White-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) live in social groups comprised of extensive networks of both maternal and paternal kin - a demographic circumstance that is rare among mammals, but one that accentuates the importance of evolved mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance. Research on how such primates develop reproductive aversion toward certain individuals, and not others, will improve our understanding of these mechanisms and the limits of kin recognition in highly social animals. This project also will provide comparative work that may contribute to understanding the origins of, and variation in, incest avoidance across human societies. The research by doctoral student Irene Godoy (University of California, Los Angeles), under the supervision of Dr. Susan Perry, combines behavioral observation, genetics, and endocrinology to study mating behavior in the Lomas Barbudal population of wild capuchins in Costa Rica. These data will test the hypotheses that (a) early social familiarity, (b) phenotypic matching, or (c) the use of such cues as age proximity and adult male rank are the mechanisms by which individuals avoid mating with close relatives. Additional hypotheses regarding female versus male responsibility for behaviors that prevent inbreeding, and the importance of developmental aspects of co-socialization, also will be addressed.Observational data will be collected on the behavior of 24 adult females. Fecal samples will be collected non-invasively for later extraction of DNA or steroid hormones to determine paternity and maternity of individuals, and to track changes in female reproductive phase. Laboratory analyses will take place at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.Funding for this project will support training of research assistants and a multi-ethnic, first-generation Latina graduate student. Outreach presentations will be made at six local elementary schools in Costa Rica, promoting interest among the students in careers in science and encouraging conservation efforts to protect the highly endangered tropical dry forest environment.