NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Identifying the mechanisms that link social environment to physiological plasticity in an incipiently social orchid bee

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。这项研究考察了社会性昆虫（如蜜蜂和蚂蚁，在一个大群体中只有少数繁殖成虫）的社会行为的基本方面是如何进化的，从而导致它们在不同的生态系统中取得成功。这项研究将使用兰花蜂，蜜蜂的近亲，形成只有两三个个体的社会群体，进行实验，改变社会条件，以了解基本的社会互动如何影响生理。这项工作通过探索生理如何首先对社会环境敏感，填补了我们对社会进化的理解空白，这是社会性物种中专门的蚁后和工蜂进化的重要一步。这项研究将涉及与佛罗里达公共自然中心的合作，以及记录佛罗里达兰花蜜蜂筑巢的社区科学项目。社会性昆虫表现出显著的表型可塑性，个体能够根据其社会环境的变化改变行为和生理。这一点可以通过工蜂个体的卵巢失活来证明，这是对一个正在繁殖的蚁后的反应。尽管这种社会调节的生理在全社会物种中都有发现，但在社会进化的早期阶段，人们对社会环境与生理之间的联系机制知之甚少。由于缺乏与真社会物种密切相关的模式系统，同时仍然保留了简单的社会结构，因此这种理解受到阻碍。在这项研究中，研究人员将利用兰花蜜蜂Euglossa困境，一种形成2或3个小社会群体的蜜蜂的近亲，1)识别调节生理可塑性的社会刺激，2)揭示这种可塑性与社会环境之间的联系。首先，我们将进行实验，改变育雏年龄和成人社会互动的时间，以研究社会环境如何调节生理可塑性。其次，基因表达和激素水平将被评估，以检验这样一种假设，即社会线索被触角探测到，整合到大脑中，然后通过特定的激素途径在组织中传播。这项工作将使研究员能够将Euglossa困境发展为社会进化的模型，并涉及对本科生和研究生的分子技术培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research examines how fundamental aspects of social behavior evolved in eusocial insects (such as honey bees and ants where there is only a few reproductive adults within a large colony), leading to their success across diverse ecosystems. This research will use orchid bees, close relatives of honey bees that form social groups of only two or three individuals, to perform experiments, varying social conditions to understand how basic social interaction influences physiology. This work fills a gap in our understanding of social evolution by exploring how physiology first becomes sensitive to social environment, an important step in the evolution of the specialized queens and workers of eusocial species. This research will involve outreach in collaboration with Florida public nature centers as well as community science projects documenting orchid bee nesting across Florida.Eusocial insects exhibit remarkable phenotypic plasticity, with individuals capable of altering behavior and physiology in response to changes in their social environment. This is demonstrated by worker individuals that inactivate their ovaries in response to the presence of a reproductive queen. Although this socially regulated physiology is found across eusocial species, little is known about the mechanisms that link social environment to physiology in the early stages of social evolution. This understanding is hindered by the lack of model systems that are closely related to eusocial species while still retaining a simple social structure. In this study, using the orchid bee Euglossa dilemma, a close relative of honey bees that forms small social groups of two or three, the fellow will 1) identify the social stimuli that regulate physiological plasticity and 2) uncover the links between this plasticity and social environment. First, an experiment will be conducted, varying the age of brood and the timing of adult social interaction to examine how social environment mediates physiological plasticity. Second, gene expression and hormone levels will be assessed to test the hypothesis that social cues are detected by the antennae, integrated in the brain, and then communicated across tissues via specific hormone pathways. This work will allow the fellow to develop Euglossa dilemma as a model for social evolution and involve training of undergraduate and graduate students in molecular techniques.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.