CAREER: Genetic Architecture and Proximate Mechanisms Underlying Indirect Genetic Effects on Cooperative Antipredator Behavior

现代生物学中的一个中心问题是了解一个人的特征，无论是身体特征、疾病还是行为，是如何由基因、物理环境和个人相互作用的社会环境共同作用的结果。如果社会伴侣中的基因相互作用来产生行为，那么描述遗传对行为的影响就特别具有挑战性。关于这种遗传影响的程度，无论它们的影响在不同群体中是不同的，还是允许一个人的基因影响另一个人的行为的生理机制，人们知之甚少。特里尼迪亚孔雀鱼是研究这些行为影响的一个很好的模型系统，因为孔雀鱼执行一套合作的反捕食者行为，这一行为受到社会伙伴的强烈影响，并且根据捕食风险的不同，种群之间的差异很大。该项目使用统计遗传学来描述个体自身基因及其社会伙伴的基因对孔雀鱼之间产生合作的相对重要性。该项目还将把生理、基因表达和感官解剖的差异与跨种群合作的差异联系起来。来自代表性不足群体的本科生将获得长期全面的研究和指导经验。将为进化课开发一门主动学习课程。这项工作将促进我们对包括社会行为在内的复杂特征遗传学的科学理解，同时培养不同的学生成为科学家、教育者和导师。相互作用的表型，如合作，如何演变既取决于行为的遗传架构，也取决于社会环境的结构。这个项目将描述间接遗传效应(IGES)对孔雀鱼反捕食者行为的完整遗传结构，特别是它可能会随着不同捕食风险下合作施加的社会选择的变化而变化。结合行为实验的定量遗传育种设计将测量高捕食性和低捕食性种群中社会伴侣施加的影响和对这些特征的反应，以及这些特征之间的遗传协方差。这些性状的变异将与激素受体和同源激素分泌、信息素排泄和体感解剖的基因表达差异相关。社会环境的差异将通过衡量每个人口中对其伴侣的社会环境有影响和/或对其作出反应的个人的比例来确定。最后，有影响力和响应性的合作伙伴的组合将有所不同，以衡量不同组合的合作情况，量化不同人群在社会选择方面的差异。这项工作将在最近的机制、IGES的变异和社会选择之间提供一些初步的实验联系。数据将被存档，并酌情通过Dryad数字存储库和GenBank公开提供。

A central problem in modern biology is understanding how an individual's traits, whether physical features, disease or behavior, result from the combined action of genes, the physical environment and the social environment in which an individual interacts. Describing genetic influences on behavior is particularly challenging if genes in social partners interact to generate behavior. Little is known about the extent of such genetic influences, whether their effects vary across populations or the physiological mechanisms that allow the genes in one individual to influence another individual's behavior. Trinidadian guppies are an excellent model system to study these effects on behavior because guppies perform a suite of cooperative antipredator behavior that is strongly influenced by social partners and which varies greatly across populations depending on predation risk. This project uses statistical genetics to describe the relative importance of an individual's own genes and those of its social partners for generating cooperation among guppies. This project will also link variation in physiology, gene expression, and sensory anatomy to variation in cooperation across populations. Undergraduates from under-represented groups will be provided long-term comprehensive research and mentorship experiences. An active learning curriculum for evolution classes will be developed. This work will advance our scientific understanding of the genetics of complex traits, including social behavior, while preparing diverse students to be scientists, educators, and mentors.How interacting phenotypes, such as cooperation, evolve depends on both the genetic architecture of the behavior and the structure of the social environment. This project will describe the complete genetic architecture of indirect genetic effects (IGEs) on guppy antipredator behavior, especially as it might vary with changes in social selection imposed by cooperation under differential predation risk. A quantitative genetic breeding design paired with behavioral experiments will measure the influence imposed by and responsiveness to social partners and genetic covariances between those traits for high and low predation populations. Variation in these traits will be correlated with differences in gene expression for hormone receptors and cognate hormone secretion, pheromone excretion, and somatosensory anatomy. Differences in social environments will be characterized by measuring the proportions of individuals in each population that are influential on and/or responsive to social their partners. Lastly, the combination of influential and responsive partners will be varied to measure how well different combinations cooperate, quantifying differences in social selection across populations. This work will provide some of the first experimental links between proximate mechanisms, variation in IGEs, and social selection. Data will be archived and made publically available through Dryad Digital Repository and GenBank, as appropriate.