Male and female diet choice in response to the socio-sexual environment

从动物营养学研究的最新进展来看，现在清楚的是，对许多物种来说，影响生活史和健康的不仅是食物的量，而且是食物的蛋白质和碳水化合物含量。特别是，相对高蛋白和低碳水化合物的饮食可以促进生殖，而低蛋白质和高碳水化合物的饮食可以延长寿命。然而，目前对“理想”饮食的理解往往局限于简化的社会环境。特别是，我们对营养偏好和最佳值如何随着交配而变化，或者个体如何在与配偶和家人的营养方面存在利益冲突的情况下实现饮食最佳值，知之甚少。这项研究的目标是研究如何使健康、寿命和生殖最大化的饮食随着生态和社会环境的变化而变化。该项目将使用果蝇黑腹果蝇，因为它是一种实验上容易驯服的动物，具有良好的营养和行为规范。需要解决的研究问题包括：如何使雄性和雌性寿命和生殖最大化的饮食随着交配频率的变化而变化？进化上的利益冲突在多大程度上塑造了饮食偏好--例如，当母亲的最佳饮食与她们的子女不同时？男性可能通过什么机制影响其配偶的营养偏好？一种可能的机制是男性精液蛋白，众所周知，它会影响女性的行为和生理。这些问题将在实验室实验中得到解决，这些实验将操纵饮食结构和与异性的互动，随后将分析繁殖、寿命、摄食和交配行为。该项目将包括对在监督小组的实验室中经历低、中或高度雄性和雌性冲突的实验进化的果蝇的复制种群进行分析；以及使用基因操纵的果蝇(例如，在其中不表达候选精液蛋白)。学生还将有机会通过探索受初始实验结果启发的研究问题来独立开发该项目。拟议的研究与初级主管的NERC资助的奖学金研究密切相关。这项研究针对NERC职权范围的两个领域：生态学、生物多样性和系统学(行为生态学；觅食行为)；以及遗传学和发展(适应和生活史的进化)。

From recent advances in animal nutrition research, it is now clear that for many species, it is not only the amount of food eaten but also the protein and carbohydrate content of that food that influences life history and health1. In particular, diets that are relatively high in protein and low in carbohydrate enhance reproduction, whereas low protein and high carbohydrate diets prolong life. However, current understanding of the 'ideal' diet is often limited to simplified social environments. In particular, we know little about how nutritional preferences and optima shift in response to mating, or about how individuals can achieve their dietary optima despite conflicts of interest over nutrition with their mates and family members. The goal of this studentship is to examine how the diets that maximize health, lifespan and reproduction vary with the ecological and social setting. The project will use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster because it is an experimentally tractable animal with well-established nutritional and behavioural protocols. Research questions to be addressed include: How do the diets that maximize male and female lifespan and reproduction change with mating frequency? To what extent do evolutionary conflicts of interest - for example, when mothers have different optimal diets from their offspring - shape dietary preferences? By what mechanisms might males influence the nutritional preferences of their mates? A candidate mechanism is male seminal proteins, which are known to influence female behaviour and physiology4. These questions will be addressed in laboratory experiments that manipulate diet composition and interactions with the opposite sex, followed by assays of reproduction, lifespan, and feeding and mating behaviour. The project will include assays of replicated populations of flies that have undergone experimental evolution in the supervisory team's laboratories under low, moderate or high conflict between males and females; and the use of genetically manipulated flies (e.g., in which candidate seminal proteins are not expressed). There will also be the opportunity for the student to develop the project independently by exploring research questions inspired by results from the initial experiments. The proposed research is closely related to the primary supervisor's NERC-funded fellowship research. The research targets two areas of NERC remit: Ecology, Biodiversity and Systematics (behavioural ecology; foraging behaviour); and Genetics & Development (adaptation and the evolution of life histories).