Collaborative Research: RUI: Uncovering eusocial pathways and consequences: Phylogenomics, morphological, and molecular evolution in Synalpheus snapping shrimps.

群居行为被认为是动物社会组织的顶点，其典型特征是群居生活和生殖分工。在一个群居群体中，一个或一组个体（蚁后）执行所有的繁殖职责，而其他个体（工蜂）放弃自己的繁殖，承担与照顾后代、维护巢穴或获取资源有关的任务。这种深刻而具有生态影响的行为转变在动物身上至少出现了19次。值得注意的是，在已知的群居性进化起源中，有近四分之一发生在一种名为Synalpheus的海生虾属中。然而，这些水生动物社会性进化的原因和方式仍不清楚，这些问题的答案可能揭示与高级社会复杂性相关的潜在普遍要求或后果。该项目旨在重建该属物种之间的进化关系，以确定与向高级社会性过渡相关的形态和基因组变化。该项目将产生开放获取的资源，用于测试与动物谱系的社会进化有关的潜在普遍“规律”。该项目还将为本科生提供大量研究机会，并为K-12学校和网络渠道提供教育内容。该项目将生成全球约130种Synalpheus对虾的基因组和表型数据。这些数据将用于：1)用系统基因组学方法重建长尾藻类群的系统发育；2)评估群居性与分子进化之间的关系；3)恢复形态的前适应和社会性的后果。基因组数据将通过先前发表的和新开发的探针集的靶向富集进行测序。形态学数据将通过传统的显微镜和基于x射线的显微ct扫描产生，这些扫描对象是跨越不同社会组织的近亲物种。基因组和表型数据将使用系统发育比较方法与初始系统发育产物进行分析。项目活动将查明真群居物种和非真群居物种之间的分子进化模式，以检验有关社会组织通过诸如减少有效种群规模和增加世代时间等人口效应影响分子进化速度的假设。通过3D形态计量学分析，该项目将致力于揭示对真社会起源的形态前适应，社会行为对形态进化的影响，以及趋同表型综合征的推定偶然或确定性途径。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。

Typified by obligate group living and reproductive division of labor, eusocial behavior is considered the apex of animal social organization. Within a eusocial colony, a single or subset of individuals (queens) perform all reproductive duties while others (workers) forgo their own reproduction and undertake tasks related to brood care, nest maintenance, or resource acquisition. This profound and ecologically impactful behavioral transition has arisen at least 19 times in animals. Remarkably, nearly one fourth of known evolutionary origins of eusociality have occurred within a genus of sponge-dwelling snapping shrimps called Synalpheus. However, why and how eusociality evolved in these aquatic animals remains unclear and the answers to these questions may reveal potential universal requirements or consequences relating to advanced social complexity. This project seeks to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships between species in this genus to identify morphological and genomic changes that are associated with the transitions to advanced sociality. The project will generate open access resources that will be used to test potentially universal “laws” related to social evolution across animal lineages. The project will also support numerous research opportunities for undergraduate students as well as educational content for K-12 schools and web-based channels.The project will generate genomic and phenotypic data spanning about 130 species of Synalpheus snapping shrimps worldwide. These data will be used to 1) reconstruct a dated phylogeny of Synalpheus taxa using phylogenomic methods; 2) evaluate the relationship between eusociality and molecular evolution; and 3) recover morphological preadaptations and consequences of eusociality. Genomic data will be sequenced through targeted enrichment of previously published and newly developed probe sets. Morphological data will be generated through traditional microscopy and X-ray based micro-CT-scanning of closely related species spanning different social organizations. Both genomic and phenotypic data will be analyzed using phylogenetic comparative methods enabled with initial phylogenetic products. Project activities will identify patterns of molecular evolution between eusocial and non-eusocial species to test hypotheses suggesting that social organization affects rates of molecular evolution via demographic effects such as reduced effective population sizes and increased generation time. Through 3D morphometric analyses, the project will work to uncover morphological preadaptations to eusocial origins, impacts of social behavior on morphological evolution, and putatively contingent or deterministic pathways toward convergent phenotypic syndromes.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.