CAREER: How female aggression evolves: scaling genomics and phenomics from individuals to species

动物行为是一门跨学科的科学，但整合多个物种的遗传和生理机制的研究是有限的，这使得行为多样性在自然界中如何产生存在不确定性。这项研究通过关注雌性对雌性的攻击填补了这一知识空白，这是一种在动物王国中广泛存在且有益的行为，但人们对此知之甚少。这项研究将通过实验来测试攻击性的个体差异是如何在大脑水平上产生的。此外，实验和比较分析将探讨侵略的生理和环境驱动因素是否在多个物种中是保守的或独特的。这些努力将产生关于行为变异起源的定量模型，包括连接从基因到环境，从个体到物种的多层次生物复杂性的观点。这项研究与一项教育计划相结合，该计划将写作注入动物行为研究课程。活动包括写作练习和培训，这将提高本科生和研究生的科学理解，批判性思维和沟通。大一和大一学生也将通过一个新的写作密集课程为基础的研究计划，使用这里收集的数据通过完整的科学过程的指导。这些活动将产生持久的机构方案，以改善研究和科学教育。通过消除糟糕的写作作为成功的障碍，这些活动将吸引和留住不同的科学家，在动物行为和相关生物学科中产生更好的准备工作。向社区团体和学校传播结果将进一步扩大这些目标，提高公众和专家的科学素养和动物行为知识。本研究的目标是整合雌性攻击性物种内和物种间变异的机制和功能观点，以揭示行为进化是如何展开的。通过对比神经基因组在个体和物种水平上对攻击的反应，新的数据将揭示产生行为变异的机制如何在生物组织的各个层面上保持不变。再加上对30个物种中女性攻击的进化驱动因素的系统发育分析，这项研究将系统地测试行为进化中的平行度（或缺乏平行度），包括功能和机制的角度。早期对雌性动物竞争特征的研究取得了有限的成功，但之前测试的假设来自对雄性动物的研究。考虑到雌性鸟类是最初的传播者，因此是应对新环境挑战的前线，对雌性的研究尤为重要。综合研究和教育计划提供了一个非凡的机会，将进化时间内的行为功能和机制联系起来，同时也改变了科学训练的文化，以反馈动物行为和相关STEM领域的进步。针对高等教育多层次的写作研究活动将更好地为未来的STEM劳动力做好准备。通过本科生，格拉德和博士后学员的指导，以及与写作密集课程为基础的研究经验的新伙伴关系，该补助金促进了综合行为研究的特殊培训，并建立了自我维持的计划，这些计划将在行为，进化和基因组学的界面上产生进步。 这项工作是由综合有机体系统部的行为系统集群和环境生物学部的进化过程集群共同资助的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Animal behavior is an interdisciplinary science, but research that integrates genetic and physiological mechanisms across multiple species is limited, leaving uncertainty as to how behavioral diversity arises in nature. The research fills this knowledge gap by focusing on female-female aggression, a behavior that is widespread and beneficial in the animal kingdom, but poorly understood. This research will experimentally test how individual differences in aggression arise at the level of the brain. In addition, experiments and comparative analyses will explore whether the physiological and environmental drivers of aggression are conserved or unique across multiple species. These efforts will yield quantitative models on the origin of behavioral variation, including perspectives that connect multiple levels of biological complexity, from genes to the environment and from individuals to species. This research is coupled with an educational plan that injects writing into research-based curricula in animal behavior. Activities include writing exercises and training that will improve scientific comprehension, critical thinking and communication in undergraduate and graduate students. Freshmen and sophomores will also be guided through the full scientific process through a new writing intensive course-based research program using data collected here. These activities will generate lasting institutional programs for improved research and scientific education. By removing poor writing as a barrier to success, these activities will attract and retain diverse scientists, generating a better prepared workforce in animal behavior and allied biological disciplines. Dissemination of results to community groups and schools will further amplify these goals, improving science literacy and knowledge of animal behavior for the general public and specialists alike.The goal of this research is to integrate mechanistic and functional perspectives on within- and among-species variation in female aggression to unveil how behavioral evolution unfolds. By contrasting neurogenomic responses to aggression at both individual and species levels, new data will reveal how the mechanisms generating behavioral variation are conserved across levels of biological organization. Together with phylogenetic analyses on the evolutionary drivers of female aggression across 30 species, this research will systematically test the degree of parallelism (or lack thereof) in behavioral evolution, including both functional and mechanistic perspectives. Earlier efforts to understand competitive traits in females have met with limited success, but the hypotheses tested previously were derived from research on male animals. Considering that female birds are the initial dispersers and therefore front-line responders to new environmental challenges, the studies on females are especially critical. The integrated research and educational plan offers an extraordinary opportunity to link function and mechanism of behavior over evolutionary time, while also changing the culture of scientific training in ways that feed back to advances in animal behavior and allied STEM fields. The writing-research activities directed at multiple levels in higher education will better prepare the future STEM workforce. Through the mentorship of undergrad, grad, and postdoctoral trainees, and new partnerships with a writing intensive course-based research experience, this grant facilitates exceptional training in integrative behavioral research and establishes self-sustaining programs that will generate advances at the interface of behavior, evolution, and genomics. This work is jointly funded by the Behavioral Systems Cluster in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.