Dissertation Research: Cooperation and the Covariance between Genetic Monogamy and Limited Dispersal

论文研究：遗传一夫一妻制与有限扩散之间的合作与协变

• 批准号: 1601425
• 负责人: David Westneat
• 金额: $ 1.9万
• 依托单位: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-01 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1601425&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Cooperation; Covariance; between

Many animals, including humans, live in extended family groups where both parents and mature offspring share the responsibility of caring for young. This type of social system, called cooperative breeding, is frequently associated with monogamy across a diversity of animal groups. This association is thought to result from the fact that helpers in monogamous groups share on average 50% of their genes with their full siblings - the same proportion they share with their own offspring. Therefore, from a gene's eye view, helping can be as good a strategy as reproducing independently when helpers can assist in rearing full siblings. Although staying near home to help can be beneficial in some circumstances, the benefits of cooperating could be reduced or even cancelled out if helpers find themselves competing with close relatives for resources when they do not disperse from the area where they were born. This project investigates the contexts in which cooperation and competition occur to determine if animals can balance these costs and benefits through dispersal behavior. This proposal also tests a novel alternative explanation for the observed association between monogamy and cooperation, asking whether this relationship could be due to environmental factors that similarly influence both mate fidelity and helping behavior. The role of sibling relatedness in the evolution of cooperation is of major interest in the field of behavioral evolution, and the studies proposed here could have profound influences on our understanding of family-based cooperative societies, such as our own. The project will also provide multiple training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students in a range of modern scientific skills, including the use of the most cutting edge DNA sequencing techniques. The work will be shared with the public through a community science festival and scientific illustration classes.This research investigates the relationship between mating systems and social systems using cooperative bess beetles as a model organism. First, fine-scale population structure will be assessed to test the hypothesis that beetles cooperate locally within their highly related family group before dispersing to compete globally with unrelated individuals, allowing them to avoid the costs of competing with kin while maximizing the benefits of cooperating with relatives. The second objective in this study will test the novel hypothesis that certain environments may favor both monogamy and cooperation simultaneously, leading to a correlation between mating and social system that is consequential rather than causal. Conceptually, this hypothesis suggests that the terms in Hamilton's Rule (rB-C0) may covary in certain environments. Specifically, this study will test whether a single ecological factor, low resource density, reduces the costs (C) of helping (by increasing the costs of dispersal) while simultaneously increasing the relatedness between helpers and their siblings (r) by reducing extra-pair paternity. To assess this possibility, paternity and dispersal will be investigated in response to resource density in both natural and experimental populations of bess beetles. The results of this study could suggest that the terms in Hamilton?s Rule are not modular, but rather covary under certain conditions, changing the way we understand both the correlated evolution of social and mating systems as well as the association between relatedness and cooperation.

许多动物，包括人类，生活在大家庭群体中，父母和成熟的后代都分享照顾年轻的责任。这种称为合作育种的社会系统经常与各种动物群体的一夫一妻制有关。人们认为，这一协会是由于一夫一妻制的助手与他们的完整兄弟姐妹平均共享50％的基因 - 与他们自己的后代相同的比例。因此，从基因的眼光看，帮助可以像在帮助者可以帮助养育完整兄弟姐妹时独立再现一样好。尽管在某些情况下待在家里待在家里可能是有益的，但是如果助手发现自己与近亲争夺资源时，合作的好处可能会降低甚至取消，而当他们不散布出生的地区时。该项目调查了进行合作和竞争的情况，以确定动物是否可以通过分散行为平衡这些成本和收益。该提案还测试了一夫一妻制与合作之间观察到的关联的新型替代解释，询问这种关系是否可能是由于环境因素同样影响伴侣保真度和帮助行为。同胞相关性在合作演变中的作用是行为进化领域的主要兴趣，此处提出的研究可能会对我们对基于家庭的合作社会（例如我们自己的合作社会）的理解产生深远的影响。该项目还将为研究生和本科生提供多种现代科学技能的培训机会，包括使用最前沿的DNA测序技术。这项工作将通过社区科学节和科学插图课程与公众共享。这项研究研究了使用合作Bess甲虫作为模型有机体的交配系统与社会系统之间的关系。首先，将评估精细的人口结构，以检验以下假设，即甲虫在其高度相关的家庭组中在本地合作，然后分散到与无关的个体进行全球竞争，从而避免与亲戚竞争的成本，同时最大程度地与亲戚合作。这项研究的第二个目标将检验新的假设，即某些环境可能同时偏爱一夫一妻制和合作，从而导致交配与社会系统之间的相关性，而不是因果关系。从概念上讲，这一假设表明，汉密尔顿规则（RB-C0）中的术语可能在某些环境中可能会发生。具体而言，这项研究将测试单一的生态因素，低资源密度，降低了帮助（通过增加分散成本）的成本（C），同时通过减少助手及其兄弟姐妹（R）之间的相关性来减少生育于生育生的同期。为了评估这种可能性，将对贝斯甲虫的自然和实验种群中的资源密度进行研究和分散。这项研究的结果可能表明，汉密尔顿规则中的术语不是模块化的，而是在某些条件下的群体，改变了我们了解社会和交配系统的相关演变的方式，以及相关性与合作之间的关联。