"LTREB: Impacts of polyandry over the lifetime of a social mammal"

“LTREB：一妻多夫制对社会性哺乳动物一生的影响”

• 批准号: 1353466
• 负责人: John Hoogland
• 金额: $ 49.87万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-03-01 至 2022-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353466&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Impacts; polyandry; over; lifetime

Mating involves costs such as increased exposure to diseases and parasites, and a female usually obtains all the sperm she needs from a single mating. Paradoxically, however, polyandry (i.e., mating with multiple males) is ubiquitous among animals of all types. Longterm research with prairie dogs has revealed that reproductive success (RS) is higher for polyandrous females than for monandrous females. To investigate the costs and benefits of polyandry, researchers from The University of Maryland will perform a manipulative field experiment that will compare monandry versus polyandry for female prairie dogs matched for age, body mass, colony size, and the adult sex ratio. This comprehensive experiment will be the most detailed examination of polyandry to date for a mammal living under natural conditions. The researchers will use two innovations, ultrasounds and remote-controlled serpentine robots (snakebots), to count offspring at previously un-observable portions of the life-history. Further, they will capitalize on a powerful combination of behavioral observations of matings with molecular analyses of paternity to investigate genetic mechanisms by which polyandry might enhance female RS. This longterm research of polyandry under natural conditions will have sweeping consequences for our understanding of several key issues in Animal Behavior, including mate choice, generation and maintenance of genetic diversity, sexual selection, and population viability. Broader impacts include training 8 undergraduates per year, many of whom will be under-represented minorities; a Critter-Cam, which will enable amateur and professional biologists to view live interactions among marked prairie dogs; assistance to 5 organizations working to conserve prairie dogs; lectures to pre-K through high school students; 2 websites with information about prairie dogs; and frequent radio and television shows about prairie dogs. Data ManagementBehavioral and genetic data will be stored and available to the general public in databases such as the DRYAD data repository (http://datadryad.org/) and NCBI Genbank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/).

交配涉及成本，如增加疾病和寄生虫的暴露，雌性通常从一次交配中获得所有她需要的精子。然而，讽刺的是，一妻多夫制（即，与多个雄性交配）在所有类型的动物中普遍存在。 对草原土拨鼠的长期研究表明，多雄雌性的繁殖成功率（RS）高于单雄雌性。为了调查一妻多夫制的成本和收益，来自马里兰州大学的研究人员将进行一项操纵性的实地实验，比较一妻多夫制与一妻多夫制对年龄，体重，群体大小和成年性别比例相匹配的雌性土拨鼠的影响。这项综合性实验将是迄今为止对自然条件下哺乳动物一妻多夫制最详细的研究。研究人员将使用两项创新，超声波和远程控制的蛇形机器人（snakebots），在生命史中以前不可观察的部分计算后代。此外，他们将利用交配行为观察与父权分子分析的有力结合，研究一妻多夫制可能增强雌性RS的遗传机制。 在自然条件下对一妻多夫制的长期研究将对我们理解动物行为中的几个关键问题产生广泛的影响，包括配偶选择，遗传多样性的产生和维持，性选择和种群生存能力。更广泛的影响包括每年培训8名本科生，其中许多人将是代表性不足的少数民族;一个生物摄像头，使业余和专业生物学家能够观看有标记的土拨鼠之间的现场互动;协助5个致力于保护土拨鼠的组织;为学前班到高中学生举办讲座; 2个网站，提供有关土拨鼠的信息;以及频繁的关于土拨鼠的广播和电视节目。数据管理行为和遗传数据将存储在数据库中，并向公众提供，如DRYAD数据库（http：//datadryad.org/）和NCBI Genbank（http：//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/）。