Physical Aspects of Superorganism Physiology: Construction, Circulation, and Homeostasis in Fire Ant Colonies

超有机体生理学的物理方面：火蚁群的构建、循环和稳态

• 批准号: 1410971
• 负责人: Daniel Goldman
• 金额: $ 59.56万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1410971&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Physical; Aspects; Superorganism; Physiology; Construction

Major transitions in the history of life occurred when individual biological entities came together to form interdependent groups with emergent properties that differed from the individuals. The most recent of these transitions occurred when solitary organisms joined together to form cooperative societies. This transition to sociality has been particularly remarkable because many distinct individuals are able to behave as a single organism through the coordinated actions of society members. The best examples of such "superorganisms" are colonies of social insects. Social insect super-organisms breathe, feed, grow, breed and modify their environments. Although each life system is important on its own, the balance at the colony level arises from coordinated action of all systems. The purpose of this research program is to discover physical principles that play important roles in super-organism physiology. Super-organism regulatory principles will be of use in systems where information and physical networks coexist, such as in pedestrian and vehicle traffic, urban and disaster landscapes, and neural and artificial networks. The proposed studies could also help explain why the biological transition to sociality has been so successful.The proposed studies will probe physical aspects of super-organism physiology from a "top-down" approach to discover emergent behavioral, biomechanical, and social features. This will be complemented by a "bottom-up" approach that will discover how aspects of super-organism physiology (exoskeleton, organization of circulatory system, healing mechanisms) depend on soil properties, ant morphology, grain manipulation biomechanics, and genetics. This research will be conducted using the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, as a model super-organism system. Fire ants possess highly developed social systems and work together to complete complex tasks. The goal of this research is to elucidate principles governing the functioning of the super-organism and the processes responsible for super-organism stability and success. Specifically, this program will study super-organism features that are analogous to those in single organisms including: (1) Super-organism exoskeleton construction: this research will investigate processes by which the super-organism constructs a robust exoskeleton, its nest, from cohesive granular media. Such processes will include biomechanics of excavation in different media, social interactions upon nest formation (like communication, recruitment, workload distribution) and intelligent construction methods (e.g. can ants probe grain level stresses). (2) Super-organism circulation: This research will deduce traffic optimization strategies in confined spaces. Such strategies may include separation of work tasks in space and time, localization of movement in nest space, organization of information hubs, and modification of the carrier's behavior in response to heavy traffic. (3) Super-organism nervous system: This research will discover how information is transmitted through a patterned environment through tactile interactions of individuals. The approaches used will lead to an understanding of how the superorganism nervous and circulatory systems co-exist. (4) Super-organism homeostasis of physical properties of the nest: This research will determine the response of the super-organism to perturbations arising from flooding, mechanical insults to nest networks, invasion of competitive species, and genetic variation derived from hybridization of fire ant species. The research team will leverage the representation of female group members to attract female students to study of the interface between biology and physics, which should attract students who might be discouraged by the barriers in more established fields. The research team will also explore strategies of public involvement through hands-on and DIY initiatives, collaboration with public education clubs and integration of science with the entertainment industry.

生命历史上的重大转变发生在个体生物实体走到一起形成相互依赖的群体，这些群体具有不同于个体的新兴特性。这些转变中最近的一次发生在孤立的有机体结合在一起形成合作社会的时候。这种向社会性的转变特别引人注目，因为许多不同的个体能够通过社会成员的协调行动表现为一个单一的有机体。这种“超级有机体”的最好例子是群居昆虫的群体。社会性昆虫超级有机体呼吸、进食、生长、繁殖和改变它们的环境。虽然每个生命系统本身都很重要，但殖民地层面的平衡来自于所有系统的协调行动。该研究计划的目的是发现在超生物生理学中发挥重要作用的物理原理。超级有机体的监管原则将用于信息和物理网络共存的系统，如行人和车辆交通，城市和灾害景观，以及神经和人工网络。这些研究还有助于解释为什么生物向社会性的转变如此成功。这些研究将从“自上而下”的方法探索超有机体生理学的物理方面，以发现涌现的行为、生物力学和社会特征。这将通过一种“自下而上”的方法来补充，该方法将发现超有机体生理学的各个方面（外骨骼，循环系统的组织，愈合机制）如何依赖于土壤特性，蚂蚁形态，谷物操纵生物力学和遗传学。本研究将以红火蚁作为模式超生物系统进行。火蚁拥有高度发达的社会系统，并共同完成复杂的任务。这项研究的目的是阐明超级有机体的运作原理以及超级有机体稳定和成功的过程。具体而言，该计划将研究与单个生物类似的超有机体特征，包括：（1）超有机体外骨骼构建：本研究将研究超有机体从粘性颗粒介质中构建坚固的外骨骼（其巢）的过程。这些过程将包括在不同介质中挖掘的生物力学，巢穴形成时的社会互动（如沟通，招聘，工作量分配）和智能构建方法（例如，蚂蚁可以探测颗粒水平压力）。(2)超有机体循环：本研究将推导出受限空间的交通优化策略。这些策略可能包括在空间和时间上分离工作任务，在巢空间中移动的本地化，信息枢纽的组织，以及响应于繁忙的交通而修改载体的行为。(3)超有机体神经系统：这项研究将发现信息是如何通过个人的触觉互动通过模式化的环境传输的。所使用的方法将导致了解超有机体神经和循环系统如何共存。(4)巢的物理特性的超有机体动态平衡：这项研究将确定超有机体对洪水、巢网络的机械损伤、竞争物种的入侵以及火蚁物种杂交产生的遗传变异所产生的扰动的反应。研究小组将利用女性小组成员的代表性，吸引女学生学习生物学和物理学之间的界面，这应该会吸引那些可能会因在更成熟的领域中遇到障碍而气馁的学生。研究团队还将通过实践和DIY倡议，与公众教育俱乐部合作以及将科学与娱乐业结合起来，探索公众参与的策略。