Collaborative Research: From Solitary to Eusocial: Comparative Genomics of Very Early Stages of Insect Social Evolution

了解动物社会行为的进化是生物学中的一个重要课题。最近，由于基因组学的进步，为理解社会进化开辟了新的大门，为在分子水平上研究社会行为提供了前所未有的机会。通过确定哪些基因的表达随社会角色的不同而不同，以及这些基因是如何在一系列社会行为中进化的，该项目将阐明特定基因在推动社会进化中的相对重要性。因此，它提供了以往研究所缺乏的东西。具体地说，它可以阐明在社会进化的每个阶段哪些类型的基因组变化是重要的。这种了解社会进化的循序渐进的方法提供了比以前的工作更大的优势，利用了一群独特的木工蜜蜂，其中的社会性从孤立到简单到复杂的社会物种都有不同。这项研究将把学生纳入研究岗位，并将数据集整合到新课程中。它将涉及长期传粉者生物多样性监测的外联活动，包括对本地蜜蜂的实地调查和公民科学倡议。目前正在开发一个基于网络的界面，以教育公众有关本地蜜蜂的知识。这个网站将提供一个关于本地传粉者的互动教育工具，以强调它们对农业、园艺和公园可持续发展的重要性。基因组工具首次可以用来测试关于行为的基因组基础的替代假设，利用具有简单和复杂社会行为的蜜蜂物种。这将是第一次确定与简单社会性的最早起源以及随后对复杂社会性的阐述相关的基因组变化的类型。它利用了一种独特的木工蜜蜂支系，其中的社会行为差异很大，从孤独到复杂，有许多中间和非常弱的社会性物种。转录分析和基因组序列比较将在系统发育的背景下进行评估，以确定从简单的合作形式向更复杂的社会的转变是否与关键基因的差异表达、这些基因结构的变化或两者都有关。该项目涉及以下三个关键组成部分：1)开发蜜蜂基因组数据库，其中将汇编和注释六个物种的基因组，以便提供关于分类限制基因的基因互补和功能类别的基本信息，并了解每个物种中基因家族的扩展/收缩。2)基因表达的比较，这将使用跨物种的转录比较来了解孤独行为的哪些元素(觅食、繁殖)与社会性的起源和维持有关。3)基因组中基因和调控元件的适应性进化，这将涉及跨局部物种的基因和顺式调控元件的序列比较，以确定社会转型除了基因表达差异外，是否还涉及DNA序列的适应性变化。拟议的项目超越了所有以前对蚂蚁、蜜蜂和群居黄蜂的基因组研究，因为它能够捕捉到与社会性黎明时的变化相关的遗传事件。数据将存放在NCBI全基因组猎枪(WGS)、功能基因组(GEO)和短读档案(SRA)上，信息将根据NCBI标准提供。所有数据将在提交发布时发布给NCBI。

Understanding the evolution of animal social behavior is a key topic in biology. Recently, new gateways for understanding social evolution have opened up due to advances in genomics, allowing unprecedented opportunities to study social behavior on a molecular level. By identifying which genes vary in their expression according to social roles, and how those genes have evolved across a range of social behavior, this project will shed light on the relative importance of particular genes in driving social evolution. Thus, it provides what previous studies lack. Specifically, it can clarify what types of genomic changes are important at each stage of social evolution. This step-wise approach to understanding social evolution provides major advantages over previous work, capitalizing on a unique group of carpenter bees where sociality varies from solitary to simple to complex social species. This study will incorporate students in research positions and integrate data sets into new courses. It will involve outreach activities for long-term pollinator biodiversity monitoring, including field surveys of native bees and citizen-science initiatives. A web-based interface is currently being developed to educate the public on native bees. This website will provide an interactive education tool on native pollinators to highlight their importance for agricultural, garden, and park sustainability.For the first time, genomic tools can be used to test alternative hypotheses about the genomic basis of behavior, utilizing bee species with both simple and complex social behavior. This will be the first study to determine the types of genomic changes associated with the earliest origins of simple sociality and its subsequent elaboration into complex sociality. It utilizes a unique clade of carpenter bees where social behavior ranges enormously, from solitary to complex with many intermediate and very weakly social species. Transcriptomic assays and genome sequence comparisons will be assessed within a phylogenetic context to determine whether transitions from simple forms of cooperation to more complex societies are associated with differential expression of key genes, changes in the structure of those genes, or both. The project involves the following three key components: 1) Development of bee genome databases, where the genomes of six species will be assembled and annotated in order to provide basic information on the gene complement and functional categories of taxonomically restricted genes and to understand gene family expansion/contraction in each species. 2) Comparisons of gene expression, which will use transcriptomic comparisons across species to understand which elements of solitary behavior (foraging, reproduction) are associated with the origin and maintenance of sociality. 3) Adaptive evolution in genes and regulatory elements across the genome, which will involve sequence comparisons of genes and cis-regulatory elements across focal species to determine whether social transitions have involved adaptive changes in DNA sequences in addition to differential gene expression. The proposed project moves beyond all previous genomic studies of ants, honey bees, and social wasps by being able to capture the genetic events associated with changes at the dawn of sociality. Data will be deposited on the NCBI whole genome shotgun (WGS), functional genomic (GEO) and short read archive (SRA), and information will be provided in accordance with NCBI standards. All data will be released to NCBI upon submission for publication.