The Molecular Underpinnings of Complex Social Behavior

人类是高度社会化的。我们的大脑已经进化到可以识别和解释 面部表情，产生和处理语言。我们的行为是由我们的社会 社会认知的缺陷表现在各种疾病中，包括 抑郁症和自闭症。然而，在这些条件下建模仍然具有挑战性， 经典的遗传系统，如啮齿动物和苍蝇，因为它们只显示基本的社会 行为。另一方面，像蚂蚁这样的社会性昆虫已经进化出了复杂的社会 和社会行为，包括巢友识别和复杂的通信，通过化学 线索他们的行为取决于社会环境，引起合作， 劳动分工。我们研究蚂蚁是为了了解 这些现象背后的机制。因为大多数调节社交的分子 行为，如神经肽，生物胺，DNA和组蛋白上的表观遗传标记 从昆虫到哺乳动物都是保守的，从蚂蚁身上获得的许多见解也将被 适用于人类。在过去的五年里，我们已经开发了克隆入侵蚁的工具， Ooceraea biroi，一个结合了复杂的社会昆虫生物学和前所未有的 实验对照我们现在可以用计算机视觉，测量， 映射，并操纵蚂蚁大脑中的候选神经调质， 稳定的基因敲除和使用CRISPR技术的转基因品系。我们会研究 蚂蚁触角叶的发育，组织和活动，大脑的一部分， 处理蚂蚁复杂的化学语言我们还将进行一次大规模的 筛选以确定影响社会行为的候选神经调质。然后我们将 操纵这些候选人的基因和遗传来描述他们的功能， 更多细节我们还将从基因上破坏DNA甲基化，一种常见的表观遗传标记 与行为个体性和可塑性有关。最后，我们将研究如何沟通 和社会行为影响社会群体在动态的、具有挑战性的外部环境中的表现 环境.这项工作将阐明，在分子水平上， 互动.这项工作是创新的，因为它使用了一种新的和独特的适合研究的物种， 对具有生物医学意义的重要生物学问题采取补充办法。它将 产生额外的工具和资源，以进一步建立克隆袭击者蚂蚁作为模型 行为遗传学的系统，它将揭示潜在的分子机制 社会行为，然后可以在包括人类在内的其他物种中进一步研究。

Humans are highly social. Our brains have evolved to recognize and interpret the expression of faces and to produce and process language. Our behavior is modulated by our social interactions, and defects in social cognition manifest themselves in various disorders, including depression and autism. However, it has remained challenging to model these conditions in classic genetic systems such as rodents and flies because they only display basic social behaviors. Social insects such as ants, on the other hand, have evolved sophisticated societies and social behaviors, including nestmate recognition and complex communication via chemical cues. Their behavior is contingent on the social environment, giving rise to cooperation and division of labor. We study ants to understand the basic genetic and neurobiological mechanisms underlying these phenomena. Because most of the molecules that modulate social behavior, such as neuropeptides, biogenic amines, and epigenetic marks on DNA and histones are conserved from insects to mammals, many of the insights gained from ants will also be applicable to humans. Over the past five years we have developed tools for the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi, a species that combines complex social insect biology with unprecedented experimental control. We can now monitor social behavior using computer vision, measure, map, and pharmacologically manipulate candidate neuromodulators in the ant brain, and create stable gene knockout and transgenic lines using CRISPR technology. We will study the development, organization and activity of the ant antennal lobe, the part of the brain that processes the ants' sophisticated chemical language. We will also conduct a large unbiased screen to identify candidate neuromodulators that affect social behavior. We will then manipulate these candidates pharmacologically and genetically to describe their function in more detail. We will also genetically disrupt DNA methylation, a common epigenetic mark implicated in behavioral individuality and plasticity. Finally, we will study how communication and social behavior affect the performance of social groups in dynamic and challenging external environments. This work will elucidate how, on a molecular level, the brains of social partners interact. This work is innovative because it uses a novel and uniquely suited study species to take a complementary approach to important biological questions of biomedical relevance. It will produce additional tools and resources to further establish the clonal raider ant as a model system for behavioral genetics, and it will shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying social behavior, which can then be studied further in other species including humans.