Species interactions and the evolution of biological diversity: visual signalling in antagonistic and mutalistic coevolution

物种相互作用和生物多样性的进化：对抗和互利共同进化中的视觉信号

• 批准号: BB/J014109/1
• 负责人: Claire Spottiswoode
• 金额: $ 116.14万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FJ014109%2F1
• 关键词: Species; interactions; evolution; biological; diversity

Much of the world's biological diversity was born of and crucially depends upon interactions between different species. They give us some of the most astonishing examples of adaptation seen in nature: a cuckoo egg perfectly mimicking that of its host, or a long-tongued fly pollinating a long-spurred orchid. These are products of coevolution, which is the process by which two or more species reciprocally influence one another's evolution. But coevolution is not only a potent force in generating biodiversity: it is crucial to human challenges such as conservation of ecosystems and the services they provide us, biocontrol, and the ever-changing threat of infectious disease and drug resistance. To address these challenges, we need a thorough understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms involved.This project aims better to understand coevolution and the processes generating biological diversity by studying the interactions between birds and the antagonists they battle against (their brood parasites), and the mutualists they cooperate with (the plants they pollinate). Interactions between species are at their most ancient in the tropics, where they might be most revealing of general evolutionary processes. My parasitic research will therefore exploit three independently evolved tropical brood parasitic systems studied in Zambia. Brood parasites such as cuckoos are the cheats of the bird world, that exploit the care of other species to raise their young. They can become locked in coevolutionary arms races with their hosts, as parasites evolve ever better manipulation of hosts (such as mimicry of host eggs), and hosts respond with ever more refined defences (such as rejecting mimetic eggs).In this project, I will first ask how interactions between species can generate diversity among individuals, and how this is shaped by visual perception. The Cuckoo Finch and African Cuckoo in Zambia are involved in biological arms races in bird egg appearance, whereby different host females are continually evolving new egg types to escape mimicry by their pursuing parasite. I will ask how hosts might make their eggs most difficult to mimic (just as the watermarks of banknotes deter forgers), how different hosts might affect one another's diversification, and how evolution proceeds when parasites achieve almost perfect egg forgeries. To do so I will carry out field experiments at hosts nests, together with computer modelling of vision in order to express egg appearance through a bird's eye, since birds vision is superior to our own. I will then ask whether similar processes might operate in mutualistic interactions: I will test whether visual discrimination by bird pollinators favours flower colour divergence or convergence between species flowering near one another, and thus cause plants of the same species to diversify between different local communities.Second, I will attempt to solve a centuries-old conundrum for host-parasite research: how do different female brood parasites of the same species lay eggs that mimic those of their chosen host, despite interbreeding with males raised by other hosts? An hypothesis is that these specialised adaptations are inherited in the female line alone, via the female-specific avian W chromosome. In Zambia we have discovered that lineages of parasitic females have stayed perfectly faithful to their chosen hosts for millions of years, which could allow such specialisation to evolve. I propose to test this by locating the genes involved in mimicry of different host species and different host signatures. I will do so by way of breeding experiments on captive Cuckoo Finches, in combination with advanced DNA sequencing and studies of gene expression in the oviduct where eggs are formed. Finally, I will locate the host genes involved in generating complex egg signatures, to reveal whether similar genetic mechanisms have convergently evolved both in hosts and their parasites that so beautifully mimic them.

世界生物多样性的大部分产生于并在很大程度上取决于不同物种之间的相互作用。它们给了我们一些自然界中最令人惊讶的适应性例子：一个杜鹃蛋完美地模仿了它的宿主，或者一个长舌头的苍蝇给长刺的兰花授粉。这些都是共同进化的产物，共同进化是两个或多个物种相互影响彼此进化的过程。但共同进化不仅是产生生物多样性的强大力量：它对人类面临的挑战至关重要，例如保护生态系统及其为我们提供的服务，生物控制以及不断变化的传染病和耐药性威胁。为了应对这些挑战，我们需要彻底了解其中的进化机制。本项目旨在通过研究鸟类与它们所对抗的对手（它们的育雏寄生虫）之间的相互作用，以及它们与之合作的互利主义者（它们授粉的植物）之间的相互作用，更好地理解共同进化和产生生物多样性的过程。物种之间的相互作用在热带地区最为古老，在那里它们可能最能揭示一般的进化过程。因此，我的寄生研究将利用三个独立进化的热带育雏寄生系统在赞比亚研究。像布谷鸟这样的寄生虫是鸟类世界的骗子，他们利用其他物种的照顾来抚养他们的后代。它们可能会陷入与宿主的共同进化军备竞赛，因为寄生虫进化出更好的宿主操纵（例如模仿宿主卵），而宿主则以更精细的防御（例如拒绝模仿卵）作为回应。在这个项目中，我将首先询问物种之间的相互作用如何在个体之间产生多样性，以及这是如何通过视觉感知形成的。赞比亚的布谷鸟雀和非洲布谷鸟参与了鸟蛋外观的生物军备竞赛，不同的宿主雌性不断进化新的卵类型，以逃避其追求的寄生虫的模仿。我会问宿主如何使它们的卵最难模仿（就像钞票上的水印阻止伪造者一样），不同的宿主如何影响彼此的多样化，以及当寄生虫实现几乎完美的卵复制时，进化是如何进行的。为了做到这一点，我将在寄主巢穴进行实地实验，并结合计算机视觉建模，以便通过鸟类的眼睛来表达蛋的外观，因为鸟类的视觉比我们自己的要上级。然后，我会问，在互利互惠的相互作用中，是否也存在类似的过程：我将测试鸟类传粉者的视觉辨别力是否有利于花的颜色分化，还是有利于花开得很近的物种之间的颜色趋同，从而导致同一物种的植物在不同的地方群落之间多样化。第二，我将试图解决一个存在了几个世纪的宿主-寄生虫研究难题：同一物种的不同雌性产卵寄生虫如何在与其他宿主饲养的雄性交配的情况下产卵，模仿它们所选择的宿主的卵？有一种假说认为，这些专门的适应性是通过雌性特有的鸟类W染色体在雌性品系中单独遗传的。在赞比亚，我们发现寄生雌性的血统对它们选择的宿主保持了数百万年的忠诚，这可能使这种专业化得以进化。我建议通过定位不同宿主物种和不同宿主特征的模仿所涉及的基因来测试这一点。我将通过对圈养杜鹃雀的繁殖实验，结合先进的DNA测序和对卵子形成的输卵管中基因表达的研究来做到这一点。最后，我将定位参与产生复杂卵子特征的宿主基因，以揭示相似的遗传机制是否在宿主和它们的寄生虫中趋同进化，从而完美地模仿它们。

项目成果

Compensatory Breeding in Years Following Drought in a Desert-Dwelling Cooperative Breeder

沙漠居住的合作育种者干旱后几年的补偿育种

• DOI: 10.17863/cam.57405
• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Bourne A

Dehydration risk is associated with reduced nest attendance and hatching success in a cooperatively breeding bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor.

脱水风险与合作繁殖的南方斑鹛鸟的巢穴出勤率和孵化成功率降低有关。

• DOI: 10.17863/cam.70286
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Bourne A

Direct and indirect effects of high temperatures on fledging in a cooperatively breeding bird

• DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arab087
• 发表时间: 2021-07-20
• 期刊: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 2.4
• 作者: Bourne, Amanda R.;Ridley, Amanda R.;Cunningham, Susan J.
• 通讯作者: Cunningham, Susan J.

High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1140
• 发表时间: 2020-07-29
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Bourne, Amanda R.;Cunningham, Susan J.;Ridley, Amanda R.
• 通讯作者: Ridley, Amanda R.

Aggressive hosts are undeterred by a cuckoo's hawk mimicry, but probably make good foster parents.

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1506
• 发表时间: 2023-01-11
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Attwood, Mairenn C.;Lund, Jess;Nwaogu, Chima J.;Moya, Collins;Spottiswoode, Claire N.
• 通讯作者: Spottiswoode, Claire N.