SG: Understanding the genetic and behavioral basis of novel social phenotypes in damaging invasive wasps

入侵物种可以成为主要的城市害虫，破坏农业，并破坏入侵地区的本地物种。 尽管危害如此广泛，但关于入侵者的哪些特征允许它们传播，仍然存在许多问题。在入侵物种中，社会性昆虫由于其群体规模大和合作行为而更具危害性。其中一个特征是能够形成包含多个女王的群体，这是几种最具破坏性的入侵性社会昆虫所共有的，包括阿根廷蚂蚁，火蚁和黄夹克黄蜂。结合实验，行为观察和遗传分析，我们的研究询问为什么以及如何入侵黄夹克黄蜂形成多女王殖民地。这个项目将比较本地种群，其中大多数殖民地有一个单一的女王和持续一年，入侵种群，其中殖民地包含多个女王，成长到非常大的规模，并可能持续数年。这个系统提供了一个理想的机会，研究多皇后社会，并确定这种战略的优势和劣势。这项研究还将为控制入侵黄蜂的努力提供信息。这项研究为学生提供了教育机会，并将通过提供影响非本地物种入侵的因素的基本信息来造福社会。尽管由非亲属组成的社会存在于许多生物体中，但从简单的以家庭为基础的社会群体转变为更复杂的社会组织的驱动力仍然是个谜。黄胡蜂（Vespula spp.）提出了一个迷人的模型系统，因为过渡到多女王，多年生殖民地最近发生，并收敛在不同的入侵种群。这种初期的表型提供了一个窗口，以了解一个主要的进化过渡的早期阶段的动态过程。该项目采用三管齐下的方法，将为重新排序过程提供新的思路。要求区分多女王，多年生殖民地发现的入侵范围从单女王，一年的殖民地，发生在大多数的本地范围。首先，在田间试验中，将通过实验方式将交配后的蜂王引入蜂群入口，以直接测试来自本地种群和入侵种群的蜂王和工蜂的行为反应和基因表达谱。如果在多女王殖民地的工人更有可能接受新的女王，他们应该表现出减少侵略引进女王相比，工人从单女王殖民地。与此同时，已知介导其他昆虫侵略的基因应该在单与多女王殖民地引入女王期间，在工人和女王的大脑中差异表达。这两种社会背景之间的其他监管差异将被确定。其次，在入侵生境中，将连续调查殖民地的遗传结构，以确定在殖民地生命周期中何时发生重新羽化，共同出现的蜂王之间的相关性，并估计建立和加入蜂王的寿命。最后，生殖分配在多女王，一夫多妻制殖民地将进行评估基因分型数百个年龄匹配的育雏。了解殖民女王数量，女王寿命和生殖分区之间的相互作用将提供新的见解，介导这一重大的进化转变，在这个系统中，一个有害的入侵表型的选择力。

Invasive species can become major urban pests, damage agriculture, and devastate native species in invaded areas. Despite such widespread harm, many questions remain about what characteristics of invaders allow them to spread. Among invasive species, social insects are more harmful due to their large colony sizes and cooperative behaviors. One trait, the ability to form groups containing multiple queens, is shared by several of the most devastating invasive social insects, including Argentine ants, fire ants, and yellowjacket wasps. Combining an experiment, behavioral observations, and genetic analyses, our research asks why and how invasive yellowjacket wasps form multi-queen colonies. This project will compare native populations, where most colonies have a single queen and persist for one year, to invasive populations, where colonies contain multiple queens, grow to very large sizes, and may persist for several years. This system provides an ideal opportunity to study multi-queen societies and to identify strengths and weaknesses of this strategy. This research will also inform efforts to control invasive wasps. The research supports educational opportunities for students and will benefit society by providing basic information on the factors influencing invasiveness of non-native species.Although societies composed of non-relatives occur in many organisms, the drivers of the transition from simple family-based social groups to more complex social organization remain enigmatic. Yellowjackets (Vespula spp.) present a fascinating model system because the transition to multi-queen, perennial colonies has occurred recently and convergently in different invasive populations. This incipient phenotype offers a window into the dynamic processes underlying early stages of a major evolutionary transition. Using a three-pronged approach, this project will shed new light on the requeening process. Requeening distinguishes the multi-queen, perennial colonies found in the invasive range from the single-queen, annual colonies that occur in most of the native range. First, in field trials, mated queens will be experimentally introduced to colony entrances to directly test the behavioral response and gene expression profiles of queens and workers from both native and invasive populations. If workers in multi-queen colonies are more likely to accept new queens, they should display decreased aggression toward introduced queens compared to workers from single-queen colonies. In parallel, genes known to mediate aggression in other insects should be differentially expressed in the brains of workers and queens during queen introduction in the single- versus multi-queen colonies. Additional regulatory differences between these two social contexts will be identified. Second, the genetic structure of colonies will be surveyed successively in the invasive habitat to determine when in the colony life cycle requeening occurs, relatedness among co-occurring queens, and to estimate the longevity of founding and joining queens. Finally, reproductive partitioning in multi-queen, polygynous colonies will be assessed by genotyping hundreds of age-matched brood. Understanding the interactions between colony queen number, queen longevity and reproductive partitioning will provide novel insights into the selective forces that mediate this major evolutionary transition and, in this system, a harmful invasive phenotype.