DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary Consequences of Direct and Indirect Contributions to Additive Genetic Variation in Wild Baboons.

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A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand how genes and environments combine to create the variation we see among animals in nature. Variation in social behavior, in particular, is important to understand, because we know that an animal's social behavior has a major impact on how effectively it copes with its environment. However, social living blurs the distinction between genes and environments because the social environment is (at least partly) determined by the genes of its members. Accordingly, the genes that influence an animal's social behavior include its own genes (direct genetic effects, DGEs) and potentially also the genes of its parents, siblings and social partners (indirect genetic effects, IGEs). Theory has shown that IGEs can profoundly affect how social behavior evolves. However, remarkably few studies have investigated how IGEs contribute to variation in social behavior or whether IGEs affect life history traits and social behavior in natural animal populations, outside of the laboratory. This proposal investigates the role of direct and indirect genetic effects in the evolution of life history and social behavior in a natural population of highly social non-human primates and will thus provide data that can test the theoretical result described above. This will be one of only a handful of studies of both direct and indirect genetic effects on phenotypic variation in the wild, and has the potential to greatly enhance understanding of the evolution of life history and social behavior. The PIs will use mixed effects linear models (in particular, the 'animal model') in a quantitative genetics approach to measure the direct and indirect genetic variation contributing to life history and social behaviors in the well-studied wild baboons of Amboseli National Park, Kenya. We will also measure the covariance between direct and indirect genetic effects to understand the consequences of this genetic architecture on the phenotypic evolution of these traits. These findings will be communicated to the scientific community and general public through conference presentations and educational outreach. Additionally, this work will provide important training for students and researchers from underrepresented minorities and foster global collaborations between USA, Kenyan and UK institutions.