Assessing the impact of realized relatedness on primate sociality using whole genome sequencing

使用全基因组测序评估已实现的相关性对灵长类动物社会性的影响

• 批准号: 433163659
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Anja Widdig
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl Verhaltensökologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/433163659?language=en
• 关键词: Assessing; impact; realized; relatedness; primate

Rapid technological advances such as whole genome sequencing (WGS) have opened up exciting new avenues for genomic studies in a wide range of species. One of the topics that will be substantially impacted by this progress is the influence of kin-driven behaviour on social relationships, which are of crucial importance for health and fitness even in humans. As predicted by kin selection theory, individuals in many taxa frequently bias their social behaviour towards conspecifics depending upon the proportion of alleles shared. Yet the observed patterns are highly variable, which may be due to imprecise estimates of genetic relatedness.Measuring social preferences for (e.g. nepotism) and against kin (e.g. inbreeding avoidance) requires accurate estimates of relatedness (or identity-by-descent, IBD). Notably, the amount of the genome shared by relatives varies considerably due to stochastic processes during meiosis, resulting in a gradient of IBD values that is only poorly reflected by relatedness estimates from previously used methods. Pedigrees or Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers, for instance, provide either categorical averages or rather imprecise estimates based on parts of the genome. WGS, on the other hand, assays all single-nucleotide variants across the entire genome, thus providing the most authoritative relatedness estimates and unprecedented power for addressing questions on kin-driven behaviour. Primate relatedness has so far mainly been examined at the categorical level but not along a gradient in IBD. This leaves major gaps in our understanding of sociality and its evolution. WGS data on free-ranging primates remain scarce, but are imperative to fill these gaps. Here we will take advantage of an exceptional population of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) at Cayo Santiago (Puerto Rico), for which demographic, reproductive, behavioural, and other phenotypic data have been collected over decades. We will link these data with IBD from WGS in 800 animals to assess the impact of the gradient in IBD on social preferences for and against kin. With this integrative approach, we will pursue three main aims: 1. We will quantify variation in IBD within and between kin classes and will compare differences between IBD estimates from WGS data, pedigrees and STR markers. 2. We will determine whether social preferences are predicted by the gradient in IBD. To understand the mechanisms of kin bias, we will relate phenotypic similarities to variation in IBD and assess whether phenotypic cues are perceived according to shared IBD. 3. We will investigate whether inbreeding and inbreeding depression can be detected from WGS data, and whether shared IBD affects individual mating preferences and breeding. By combining IBD from WGS with extensive social data on a large set of individuals, the project will contribute significantly to unravelling the impact of realized relatedness on sociality in our evolutionary history.

整个基因组测序（WGS）等快速技术进步为广泛物种的基因组研究开辟了令人兴奋的新途径。这一进步将对这种进步产生重大影响的主题之一是亲属驱动行为对社会关系的影响，这对于即使在人类中也对健康和健身至关重要。正如亲属选择理论所预测的那样，许多分类单元中的个人经常将自己的社会行为偏向于特定的特定，这取决于等位基因的比例。然而，观察到的模式是高度可变的，这可能是由于对遗传相关性的不精确估计。对社会偏好（例如绿蛋白毒症）和反对亲属（例如，避免近交）的偏好需要准确的相关性估计（或by-Descentity-deScent，ibd，ibd）。值得注意的是，由于减数分裂过程中的随机过程，亲属共享的基因组量有很大差异，从而导致IBD值的梯度仅由先前使用方法的相关性估计值不大。例如，基于基因组部分的分类平均值或相当不精确的估计值，例如，谱系或短串联重复（STR）标记。另一方面，WGS分析了整个基因组中的所有单核苷酸变体，因此提供了最权威的相关性估计和前所未有的能力来解决有关亲属驱动行为的问题。到目前为止，灵长类动物的相关性主要是在分类级别进行了检查，但不在IBD中的梯度上进行检查。这留下了我们对社会性及其进化的理解。 WGS关于自由放映灵长类动物的数据仍然很少，但必须填补这些空白。在这里，我们将利用在Cayo Santiago（Puerto Rico）的特殊人群中的特殊人群，为此，已收集了数十年来的人口统计学，生殖，行为和其他表型数据。我们将将这些数据与800只动物的WGS的IBD联系起来，以评估IBD对亲属和反对亲属的社会偏好的影响。通过这种综合方法，我们将追求三个主要目的：1。我们将量化亲属类内和亲属之间的IBD变化，并将比较WGS数据，家谱和STR标记的IBD估计值之间的差异。 2。我们将确定IBD中的梯度是否预测了社会偏好。为了了解亲属偏见的机制，我们将将表型相似性与IBD的变异联系起来，并根据共享的IBD评估表型提示。 3。我们将研究是否可以从WGS数据中检测到近交和近交抑郁症，以及共享的IBD是否影响单个交配的偏好和育种。通过将WGS的IBD与大量个人的广泛社会数据相结合，该项目将在我们的进化史上对实现相关性对社会性的影响产生重大贡献。