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有限，这给行为多样性在自然界中如何产生留下了不确定性。这项研究通过关注雌雄之间的攻击性来填补这一知识空白，这种行为在动物界很普遍，也是有益的，但人们对此知之甚少。这项研究将在实验上测试攻击性的个体差异是如何在大脑层面上产生的。此外，实验和比较分析将探索攻击性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量化模型，包括将从基因到环境、从个体到物种的多个层次的生物复杂性联系起来的观点。这项研究与一项教育计划相结合，该计划将写作注入基于研究的动物行为课程。活动包括写作练习和培训，以提高本科生和研究生的科学理解、批判性思维和沟通能力。一年级和二年级学生还将通过一个新的以写作为基础的强化课程研究项目，利用这里收集的数据，指导完成整个科学过程。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，产生一支在动物行为和相关生物学学科方面准备更充分的劳动力。将研究结果传播给社区团体和学校将进一步放大这些目标，提高普通公众和专家的科学素养和动物行为知识。这项研究的目标是整合关于女性攻击性的物种内和物种间差异的机械和功能观点，以揭示行为进化是如何展开的。通过在个体和物种水平上对比神经基因组对攻击的反应，新的数据将揭示产生行为差异的机制是如何在生物组织水平上保持不变的。结合对30个物种的雌性攻击性进化驱动力的系统发育分析，这项研究将系统地测试行为进化中的平行程度(或缺乏)，包括功能和机制两个角度。早期研究雌性动物竞争特征的努力收效甚微，但之前测试的假说是从对雄性动物的研究中得出的。考虑到雌性鸟类是最初的分散者，因此是应对新环境挑战的第一线反应者，因此对雌性鸟类的研究尤其关键。综合研究和教育计划提供了一个非同寻常的机会，将进化过程中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。高等教育中针对多个层次的写作研究活动将为未来的STEM劳动力做好更好的准备。通过对本科生、研究生和博士后实习生的指导，以及与以写作为基础的密集课程研究经验的新伙伴关系，这笔赠款促进了综合行为研究的特殊培训，并建立了自给自足的项目，将在行为、进化和基因组学的界面上产生进展。这项工作由综合组织系统部门的行为系统小组和环境生物学部门的进化过程小组共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.