ReMCASA: Constraints on adaptation in social animals: kin recognition mechanisms and the fitness consequences of discrimination rules

ReMCASA：社会性动物适应的限制：亲属识别机制和歧视规则的适应性后果

• 批准号: EP/X023753/1
• 负责人: Ben Hatchwell
• 金额: $ 273.95万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX023753%2F1
• 关键词: ReMCASA; Constraints; adaptation; social; animals

The process of evolutionary adaptation is limited by the mechanistic constraints acting on phenotypic traits. We aim to investigate kin recognition mechanisms in a social bird to determine the extent to which they constrain adaptive decision-making, resulting in apparently maladaptive behaviours. Recognition systems are ubiquitous at every level of biological organisation from genes to complex societies, and discrimination in these diverse situations often has major fitness consequences. Therefore, selection should engineer effective recognition mechanisms. However, recognition systems are rarely error-free, so how is the frequency of errors optimised in order to maximise inclusive fitness? We will address this evolutionary puzzle by studying kin recognition mechanisms in a social bird, the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus, whose remarkable kin-selected cooperative breeding system makes them wonderfully well suited to investigation of kin discrimination and its fitness consequences. Long-tailed tits discriminate against close kin as mates and in favour of kin when helping, but make frequent, apparently maladaptive errors in both contexts. We will employ a range of state-of-the-art methods to quantify and analyse metrics of social affiliation and two putative phenotypic cues to kinship, acoustic and olfactory, determining how accurately they encode relatedness information. We will also address the persistent evolutionary problem of how variance in inherited recognition cues is maintained when they are subjected to positive frequency dependent selection (Crozier's paradox). Finally, we will determine the extent to which phenotypic cues and social familiarity are integrated to optimise behavioural decisions, conducting field experiments to directly test that understanding. The outcome will be a major advance in understanding of why maladaptive social behaviours occur, and how errors in a recognition system are optimised to maximise inclusive fitness.

进化适应的过程受到作用于表型性状的机械性约束的限制。我们的目标是研究群居鸟类的亲缘识别机制，以确定它们在多大程度上限制了适应性决策，导致明显的适应不良行为。从基因到复杂的社会，识别系统在生物组织的各个层面上无处不在，而在这些不同的情况下，歧视往往会产生重大的健康后果。因此，选择应该设计有效的识别机制。然而，识别系统很少是没有错误的，那么如何优化错误频率以最大化包容性适应度呢？我们将通过研究长尾山雀的亲缘识别机制来解决这个进化难题，长尾山雀非凡的亲缘选择合作繁殖系统使它们非常适合于研究亲缘歧视及其适合性后果。长尾山雀歧视近亲作为配偶，在帮助时偏袒亲人，但在这两种情况下，它们都会经常犯明显不适应的错误。我们将使用一系列最先进的方法来量化和分析社会联系和两个可能的亲属关系、声音和嗅觉的表型线索，以确定它们编码关联性信息的准确性。我们还将解决一个长期存在的进化问题，即当遗传识别线索受到正向频率依赖选择(Crozier悖论)时，如何保持它们的差异。最后，我们将确定表型线索和社会熟悉度在多大程度上结合起来，以优化行为决策，进行现场实验，直接测试这种理解。其结果将是理解为什么会出现不适应的社会行为，以及如何优化识别系统中的错误以最大化包容性适应度的重大进步。