Divergence and parallel evolution of boldness in guppies

孔雀鱼胆量的分歧与平行进化

• 批准号: NE/Y000234/1
• 负责人: Alastair Wilson
• 金额: $ 93.14万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FY000234%2F1
• 关键词: Divergence; parallel; evolution; boldness; guppies

The evolutionary origin of variation in animal behaviour continues to both fascinate and frustrate biologists. Despite decades of research, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that sometimes promote variation among individuals, populations and species, but can also limit diversity and constrain divergence. Here we propose a study of guppies, a small freshwater fish from Trinidad, to investigate how, when and why the structure of behavioural variation changes across populations.Our study is 'comparative' - we will investigate patterns of behavioural variation arising from evolutionary divergence among multiple wild populations of guppies. It will also be 'multi-level' - we seek to understand patterns of similarity and difference among populations, but because natural selection happens among individuals within populations, to achieve this requires studying variation among individuals and genotypes. How two populations that have become separated evolve ('microevolution') and diverge ('macroevolution') does not only depend on natural selection, but also on the way in which genetic factors contribute to behavioural differences among individuals. Moreover, gene frequencies change over time even in the absence of natural selection - so just how much microevolutionary change and macroevolutionary divergence is the result of 'neutral' evolution?We will focus on 'boldness', an aspect of behaviour that can be broadly understood as describing an individual's response to risky conditions in the environment. The set of populations we will study have evolved in environments differing in predation regime, which is thought to be an important source of selection on boldness. We will combine large scale behavioural data collection in the laboratory, with experiments to manipulate perceived predation risk, and both statistical genetic and genomic methods. Comparing the structure of behavioural variation across populations of known evolutionary relationships to each other (or 'phylogeny') will allow us to robustly test hypotheses for the evolutionary factors maintaining shy-bold variation within populations, and driving differences among populations. By combining uniquely comprehensive genomic and behavioural data, we will test the extent to which differences in behaviour between populations arise from selection versus 'neutral' evolution of the underlying genetics that is expected even if behaviours are not under selection. They will also let us probe the genetic 'building blocks' of behavioural variation, providing valuable new insights into the links between genotype and behaviour.

动物行为变异的进化起源继续使生物学家既着迷又沮丧。尽管经过数十年的研究，我们仍然缺乏对机制的全面了解，这些机制有时会促进个体，种群和物种之间的变异，但也会限制多样性和限制分歧。在这里，我们提出了一个研究的孔雀鱼，一个小淡水鱼从特立尼达岛，调查如何，何时以及为什么结构的行为变化的变化在人群中。我们的研究是“比较”-我们将调查行为变化的模式所产生的进化分歧之间的多个野生种群的孔雀鱼。它也将是“多层次的”-我们试图了解种群之间的相似性和差异的模式，但由于自然选择发生在种群内的个体之间，要实现这一目标，需要研究个体和基因型之间的变异。两个分离的种群如何进化（“微观进化”）和分化（“宏观进化”）不仅取决于自然选择，还取决于遗传因素对个体之间行为差异的影响。此外，即使在没有自然选择的情况下，基因频率也会随着时间的推移而变化--那么，究竟有多少微观进化变化和宏观进化分歧是“中性”进化的结果呢？我们将集中在“大胆”，行为的一个方面，可以广泛地理解为描述一个人的反应，在环境中的危险条件。我们将研究的一组种群在不同的环境中进化，捕食制度，这被认为是一个重要的来源选择大胆。我们将结合联合收割机在实验室中的大规模行为数据收集，实验来操纵感知捕食风险，以及统计遗传学和基因组学方法。比较已知进化关系的种群之间的行为变异结构（或“遗传性”）将使我们能够有力地检验进化因素的假设，这些进化因素维持种群内的害羞-大胆变异，并驱动种群之间的差异。通过结合独特全面的基因组和行为数据，我们将测试群体之间的行为差异在多大程度上是由选择与潜在遗传学的“中性”进化引起的，即使行为没有受到选择。它们还将让我们探索行为变异的遗传“基石”，为基因型和行为之间的联系提供有价值的新见解。