Why Do Breeders Tolerate Non-breeders In Animal Societies?

为什么动物社会中的饲养者容忍非饲养者？

• 批准号: 2333286
• 负责人: Peter Buston
• 金额: $ 99.83万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2029-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2333286&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Why; Do; Breeders; Tolerate; Non

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.

某些人忘记自己的繁殖并帮助其他人繁殖的动物社会长期以来一直困扰着进化生物学家。这些社会是在包括蚂蚁，蜜蜂，黄蜂，鸟类和哺乳动物（包括传统人类社会）的各种动物中发现的。特别鲜为人知的是，为什么在不是助手的情况下，繁殖个体在社会群体中宽容非种植者的原因。该项目使用闭合的AnemoneFish作为模型，重点介绍了这个问题。该项目涉及实验室实验，现场实验和分子遗传学的结合，以检验几种关于较大群体中生活对的潜在益处的假设。由于其在实验室和领域的易用性，该研究将为我们对类似的社会群体的理解提供信息，而实验可以使我们的理解能够告知我们对实验实验性的相似社会群体的理解，因此该小丑的母羊已成为社会系统投资的模型系统。研究目标与多个更广泛的影响活动集成在一起。本科生和研究生将接受各种可转移技能的培训，例如实验设计，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中人数不足的小组的高中生将作为项目实习生主持，并将参与科学过程的各个方面。此外，针对青少年受众的一本建议的书将展示动物行为研究并介绍动物行为研究人员，以提高公众对这一领域的理解。动物社会是进化的最引人注目的产品之一，自从达尔文指出社会某些特征（例如，非繁殖和帮助策略）为自然选择理论带来的困难以来，它们一直是进化论测试的重点。为了充分理解这些社会，必须理解为什么非婚姻者容忍自己的处境，以及为什么潜水员容忍非养育者。通常，潜水员可以忍受非生产商，因为它们有助于提供后代或潜水员本身，但是在某些规范的脊椎动物社会中，非婚姻者所产生的好处并不明显。该提案的总体目的是解决这一悖论，研究为什么潜水员在小丑的母羊鱼（Amphiprion Percula）中忍受非生物的原因，后者已成为海洋科学的模型系统。该项目将评估对育种者为何容忍非婚姻的三个替代假设的支持，1）作为反对伴侣损失的贝特·避免策略； 2）他们提供薄弱的亲属选择的好处； 3）他们提供了共同的（天启）介导的好处。该项目将结合长期现场实验和实验室实验以评估这些替代方案。总而言之，拟议的研究将调查为什么育种者在社会上容忍非养殖者，在这种社会中，育种者从非生产者中造成的好处是隐藏的，从而为社会进化提供了新的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估来审查审查的审查标准，这被认为是珍贵的支持。