Dissertation Research: Uncovering molecular mechanisms of facial recognition using comparative transcriptomics

论文研究：利用比较转录组学揭示面部识别的分子机制

• 批准号: 1311512
• 负责人: Amy Toth
• 金额: $ 1.92万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1311512&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Uncovering; molecular; mechanisms

Very few animals, mostly humans and other primates, are known to have a special ability to recognize each other's faces. How is this impressive feat of learning accomplished? Until now, technical limitations have made it difficult to study the ways in which animals' brains and genes permit them to recognize faces. Here the researchers are taking advantage of what some may consider a surprising model for this, insects, to delve into how facial recognition works on the level of brains and genes. The researchers have shown that several species of social paper wasps (Polistes) possess the ability to recognize individual faces. Polistes fuscatus wasps have striking variation in facial color patterns and they can learn faces much more readily than other visual patterns. In contrast a closely related species, Polistes metricus, does not have facial variation and lacks the special ability to learn faces more readily than other patterns. These two species with contrasting facial recognition abilities provide a unique opportunity to study the relationship between genes, brains and this ability. In collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Tibbetts, wasps of each species are trained to recognize faces or non-face patterns. Dr. Toth and Ms. Berens will use "next generation" sequencing to measure the activity of thousands of genes in these wasps' brains to determine whether there are particular genes associated with facial recognition. The team will then manipulate gene activity in wasps' brains in order to determine whether such a change can improve or impair wasps' facial recognition abilities. Understanding the interplay between brains, genes, and facial recognition will be of benefit to human health since disordered facial recognition can impair human social interactions. This project is significant because it will use the paper wasp model to provide the first in-depth genetic analysis of a sophisticated form of learning that has been difficult to study in detail in humans and other primates.RNA data will be deposited at ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/)

众所周知，很少有动物，主要是人类和其他灵长类动物，具有识别彼此脸的特殊能力。 这项令人印象深刻的学习壮举如何完成？ 到目前为止，技术局限性使研究动物的大脑和基因允许它们识别面孔的方式变得困难。 在这里，研究人员正在利用某些人可能认为这是一个令人惊讶的模型的昆虫，以深入研究面部识别如何在大脑和基因水平上起作用。研究人员表明，几种社会纸黄蜂（Polistes）具有识别单个面孔的能力。 polistes fuscatus黄蜂的面部颜色模式有惊人的变化，它们可以比其他视觉模式更容易学习面孔。相比之下，密切相关的物种，Polistes Metricus没有面部变化，并且缺乏比其他模式更容易学习面部的特殊能力。 这两个具有对比面部识别能力的物种为研究基因，大脑与这种能力之间的关系提供了独特的机会。与伊丽莎白·蒂贝特（Elizabeth Tibbetts）博士合作，对每种物种的黄蜂进行了训练以识别面部或非面模式。 Toth博士和Berens女士将使用“下一代”测序来测量这些黄蜂大脑中数千个基因的活性，以确定是否存在与面部识别相关的特定基因。然后，小组将操纵黄蜂大脑中的基因活性，以确定这种变化是否可以改善或损害黄蜂的面部识别能力。了解大脑，基因和面部识别之间的相互作用将对人类健康有益，因为无序的面部识别会损害人类的社会互动。 该项目之所以重要，是因为它将使用纸质黄蜂模型来提供对一种复杂的学习形式的第一个深入的遗传分析，这种学习形式很难在人类和其他灵长类动物中进行详细研究。RNA数据将存放在ArrayExpress（http://www.ebi.ac.ac.ac.uk/arrayexpress/）中。