The genetic basis of division of labor - testing the "reproductive ground plan hypothesis" in ants

分工的遗传基础——检验蚂蚁的“生殖平面假说”

• 批准号: 247832468
• 负责人: Dr. Tobias Pamminger
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Department of Evolution, Behaviour and Environment
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Fellowships
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/247832468?language=en
• 关键词: genetic; basis; division; labor; testing

Division of labour (DoL) is a defining characteristic of social insects and an important factor for their ecological success. The reproductive groundplan hypothesis (RGPH) postulates that conserved gene networks, which underlie the reproductive physiology and behavior of the solitary insects, were co-opted and modified during the evolution of eusocial insects to generate worker DoL. This hypothesis is potentially of fundamental and far-reaching importance for our understanding of the mechanistic basis by which eusociality evolved, but empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis is still limited to only a few species. Combining the first large scale phylogenetic analysis, state of the art molecular techniques (RNAi) and classic behavioral analysis we will investigate if the RGPH applies to ants and therefore presents a general explanatory framework for the evolution of DoL in social insects.

劳动分工是社会性昆虫的一个重要特征，也是其生态成功的一个重要因素。生殖平面假说（RGPH）认为，在真社会性昆虫进化过程中，作为独居昆虫生殖生理和行为基础的保守基因网络被增选和修饰，从而产生了工蜂DoL。这一假说对于我们理解真社会性进化的机制基础具有潜在的根本性和深远的重要性，但支持这一假说的经验证据仍然仅限于少数物种。结合第一个大规模的系统发育分析，最先进的分子技术（RNAi）和经典的行为分析，我们将调查，如果RGPH适用于蚂蚁，因此提出了一个一般的解释框架，在社会昆虫的进化DoL。