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

社交网络是大多数动物社会的共同特征。虽然我们知道，合作或攻击性等行为的个体差异会影响个人在其社会网络中扮演的角色，但我们对这些差异背后的生理机制知之甚少。线尾假人提供了一个模型系统来研究荷尔蒙、行为和社交网络之间的联系，因为男性会形成合作伙伴关系，这是复杂社会网络的基础。使用这个模型系统，这项研究将整合进化、行为、内分泌和神经遗传学方法，以了解合作中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，以动态的方式影响个人在其社会网络中的角色和位置。由于内分泌功能在各种各样的动物中都是相似的，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。这项研究还将出现在一个计划中的展览中，该展览将描述社会行为的荷尔蒙基础，并在国家动物园的亚马逊科学馆强调人类和动物社会网络之间的相似性。研究产品将被整合到在厄瓜多尔主持这项工作的Tipunti生物多样性站的热带生态学课程中。该项目由动物行为计划和国际科学与工程组织共同支持。该项目将荷尔蒙调节网络和社会网络联系起来，以改变我们对内分泌系统如何在个体和种群层面上调节行为和影响社会动态的理解。该项目将测试两种可供选择的假说：表型整合假说和表型独立性假说，这两种假说是关于选择如何塑造荷尔蒙介导的涉及睾酮的社会行为的进化的：表型整合假说和表型独立性假说，在线尾假人身上，雄性在LEK上合作进行交配展示。这个高度整合的项目将量化男性在自然界的行为(优势、合作、显示速度)，使用纳米标签和邻近数据记录器来捕获所有的社交互动并绘制社交网络图，测量一年中循环中的激素水平，使用GnRH挑战描述不同状态的男性产生睾酮的最大能力，测量社会入侵对激素滴度的影响，阻止或增加激素滴度以操纵表型，并使用RT-qPCR测量这些男性大脑中类固醇生成酶、类固醇受体和类固醇影响的肽信号系统的候选基因的表达水平。然后，这些来自单个鸟类的数据将被结合起来，使用二进制和加权模型来检查网络结构，并检查激素对网络结构和动力学的影响。这项研究的所有数据将在史密森候鸟中心网站(http://www.si.edu/smbc).)存档线尾马纳金的大脑转录组组装将发表在NCBI GenBank上。

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.