Why Do Breeders Tolerate Non-breeders In Animal Societies?

在动物社会中，一些个体放弃自己的繁殖，帮助其他个体繁殖，这一直困扰着进化生物学家。这种社会存在于各种各样的动物中，包括蚂蚁、蜜蜂、黄蜂、鸟类和哺乳动物（包括传统的人类社会）。特别不清楚的是，为什么繁殖个体在他们的社会群体中容忍非繁殖者，而他们不是帮手。这个项目的重点是这个问题使用小丑海葵作为模型。该项目涉及实验室实验，田间实验和分子遗传学的结合，以测试几个假设的潜在好处，以育种对生活在一个更大的群体。小丑海葵鱼已经成为一个模型系统的社会系统的调查，由于其在实验室和现场的易处理性，因此这项研究将告知我们的理解类似的社会群体，这是不太容易实验处理。研究目标与多个更广泛的影响活动相结合。本科生和研究生将接受各种可转移技能的培训，如实验设计，数据收集，数据管理，统计建模和科学交流，同时还学习动物行为。 来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的高中生将作为项目实习生接待，并将参与科学过程的各个方面。此外，一本针对青少年读者的建议书将介绍动物行为研究和动物行为研究人员的概况，以提高公众对这一领域的理解。动物社会是进化最显著的产物之一，自从达尔文指出社会的某些特征（例如，非育种和帮助策略）提出的自然选择理论。为了充分理解这些社会，必须理解为什么非繁殖者容忍他们的处境，为什么繁殖者容忍非繁殖者。通常，繁殖者容忍非繁殖者，因为他们帮助提供后代或繁殖者自己，但在一些典型的脊椎动物社会中，繁殖者从非繁殖者那里获得的好处并不明显。该提案的首要目标是解决这一悖论，调查为什么繁殖者能够容忍小丑海葵（Amphiprion percula）中的非繁殖者，小丑海葵已成为海洋科学的模型系统。该项目将评估三个备选假设的支持，为什么繁殖者会容忍非繁殖者，1）作为对合作伙伴损失的赌注对冲策略; 2）他们提供弱亲属选择的好处;和3）他们提供互利主义者（海葵）介导的好处。该项目将结合联合收割机的长期实地试验和实验室试验来评估这些替代品。总而言之，这项研究将调查为什么育种者容忍非育种者在社会中，育种者从非育种者那里获得的利益是隐藏的，为社会进化提供新的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Animal societies in which some individuals forgo their own reproduction and help others to reproduce have long puzzled evolutionary biologists. Such societies are found in a wide variety of animals including ants, bees, wasps, birds, and mammals (including traditional human societies). What is particularly poorly understood is why breeding individuals tolerate non-breeders in their social groups when they are not helpers. This project focuses on this question using clown anemonefish as a model. The project involves a combination of laboratory experiments, field experiments, and molecular genetics to test several hypotheses about the potential benefits to the breeding pair of living in a larger group. The clown anemonefish has become a model system for investigations of social systems due to its tractability in the laboratory and in the field thus this study will inform our understanding of similar social groups which are much less experimentally tractable. The research objectives are integrated with multiple broader impact activities. Undergraduates and graduate students will be trained in various transferable skills, such as experimental design, data collection, data management, statistical modeling, and scientific communication while also learning about animal behavior. High school students from groups underrepresented in STEM will be hosted as project interns and will participate in all aspects of the scientific process. In addition, a proposed book, targeted at a teenage audience, will present animal behavior research and profile animal behavior researchers to improve the general public’s understanding of this field. Animal societies are one of the most remarkable products of evolution, and they have been a focus for tests of evolutionary theory ever since Darwin pointed out the difficulties that some features of societies (e.g., non-breeding and helping strategies) posed for the theory of natural selection. To fully understand these societies, it must be understood both why non-breeders tolerate their situation and why breeders tolerate non-breeders. Frequently, breeders tolerate non-breeders because they help provision offspring or the breeders themselves, but in some canonical vertebrate societies the benefits that breeders accrue from non-breeders are not obvious. The overarching objective of this proposal is to resolve this paradox, investigating why breeders tolerate non-breeders in the clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula), which has emerged as a model system for marine science. The project will evaluate support for three alternative hypotheses for why breeders will tolerate non-breeders, 1) as a bet-hedging strategy against partner loss; 2) that they provide weak kin-selected benefits; and 3) that they provide mutualist (anemone)-mediated benefits. The project will combine long-term field experiments and laboratory experiments to evaluate these alternatives. In sum, the proposed research will investigate why breeders tolerate non-breeders in societies where the benefits that breeders accrue from non-breeders are hidden, providing new insights into social evolution.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.