COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Understanding how a Hormone-signaling Pathway Modulates Behavioral Phenotype within a Social Network

合作研究：了解激素信号通路如何调节社交网络中的行为表型

• 批准号: 1353093
• 负责人: Ignacio Moore
• 金额: $ 32万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Understanding; how; Hormone

Social networks are a common characteristic of most animal societies. While we know that individual differences in behaviors such as cooperation or aggression influence the role that individuals play within their social network, we know little about the physiological mechanisms underlying those differences. Wire-tailed manakins provide a model system to study the links between hormones, behavior and social networking because males form cooperative partnerships that are the foundation of complex social networks. Using this model system this research will integrate evolutionary, behavioral, endocrine and neurogenetic approaches to understand the physiological and evolutionary basis of individual variation in cooperation and how those individual-level processes scale up to influence an individual's role and position within their social network in a dynamic fashion. Because endocrine function is similar across a wide variety of animals, the outcomes of this work will be broadly applicable. The project will train at least 16 undergraduate students and 1 graduate student in integrative research in the US and at the field site in Ecuador. This research will also be featured in a planned exhibit which will describe the hormonal basis of social behavior and highlight the similarities between human and animal social networks at the National Zoological Park's Amazonia Science Gallery. Research products will be integrated in to tropical ecology courses at the Tipunti Biodiversity Station which hosts the work in Ecuador. This project is jointly supported by the Animal Behavior Program and International Science and Engineering.This project will link hormone-regulatory networks and social networks to transform our understanding of how the endocrine system regulates behavior and influences social dynamics at the individual and population levels. The project will test two alternative hypotheses for how selection has shaped the evolution of hormone-mediated social behaviors involving testosterone: the phenotypic integration hypothesis and the phenotypic independence hypothesis in wire-tailed manakins where males cooperate to perform mating displays on a lek. This highly integrative project will quantify male behaviors in nature (dominance, cooperation, display rate), use nanotags and proximity data loggers to capture all the social interactions and map the social network, measure circulating hormone levels across the year, describe the maximum capacity for testosterone production in males of different status using GnRH challenges, measure the effect of social intrusion on hormone titers, block or increase hormone titers to manipulate phenotype, and measure expression levels of candidate genes for steroidogenic enzymes, steroid receptors and steroid influenced peptide signaling systems in the brains of these males using RT-qPCR. These data from individual birds will then be combined to examine network structures using binary and weighted models and to examine the influence of hormones on network structure and dynamics. All data from the study will be archived at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center web site (http://www.si.edu/smbc). The brain transcriptome assembly for the wire-tailed manakin will be posted on NCBI GenBank.

社交网络是大多数动物社会的共同特征。虽然我们知道个体行为的差异，如合作或攻击，会影响个体在其社会网络中所扮演的角色，但我们对这些差异背后的生理机制知之甚少。线尾侏儒鸟为研究荷尔蒙、行为和社交网络之间的联系提供了一个模型系统，因为雄性侏儒鸟形成的合作伙伴关系是复杂社交网络的基础。使用这个模型系统，本研究将整合进化，行为，内分泌和神经遗传学的方法来了解合作中的个体差异的生理和进化基础，以及这些个体水平的过程如何扩大到影响个人的角色和位置在他们的社会网络中的动态方式。由于各种动物的内分泌功能相似，因此这项工作的结果将广泛适用。该项目将在美国和厄瓜多尔实地培训至少16名本科生和1名研究生进行综合研究。这项研究还将在计划中的展览中展出，该展览将描述社会行为的荷尔蒙基础，并突出人类和动物社交网络之间的相似之处。研究成果将被纳入Tipunti生物多样性站的热带生态学课程，该站在厄瓜多尔主持这项工作。该项目由动物行为计划和国际科学与工程联合支持。该项目将连接内分泌调节网络和社交网络，以改变我们对内分泌系统如何调节行为和影响个体和群体水平的社会动态的理解。 该项目将测试两个备选假设选择如何塑造涉及睾丸激素的睾丸激素介导的社会行为的演变：表型整合假设和表型独立假设在钢丝尾侏儒，其中男性合作执行交配显示在一个列克。这个高度综合的项目将量化自然界中的雄性行为（支配，合作，显示率），使用纳米标签和接近数据记录器来捕获所有的社会互动并绘制社会网络，测量全年的循环激素水平，使用GnRH挑战描述不同状态的男性中睾酮产生的最大能力，测量社会入侵对激素滴度的影响，阻断或增加激素滴度以操纵表型，并使用RT-qPCR测量这些雄性动物脑中类固醇生成酶、类固醇受体和类固醇影响的肽信号传导系统的候选基因的表达水平。然后将这些来自个体鸟类的数据结合起来，使用二元和加权模型来检查网络结构，并检查激素对网络结构和动态的影响。本研究的所有数据将在史密森候鸟中心网站（http：//www.si.edu/smbc）存档。线尾侏儒鸟的大脑转录组组装将发布在NCBI GenBank上。