Environmental and genetic components of a major evolutionary transition: social plasticity in halictine bees.

社会性的进化是进化生物学的主要转变之一。关于帮助起源的理论的关键试验场是原始的社会分类群，在这些分类群中，行为是高度可塑的。在这些物种中，社会表型在时间和空间上都有所不同，从非社会到完全社会。社会表型的差异与纬度、海拔和生境特征等因素有关。然而，差异在多大程度上是基于基因的，或代表条件敏感的表型表达，几乎是未知的。我们的研究将采用大规模操作现场实验和分子遗传学分析相结合的方法：(1)测试社会表型的种群间差异是代表遗传分化还是对环境条件的表型反应。(2)研究社会表型在环境梯度上的转变。(3)量化两种社会形态之间在过渡地带的生殖隔离程度。(4)检验社会种群在种内系统发育中是否形成了与非社会种群不同的群体。这项工作将涉及伦敦大学学院和贝尔法斯特女王大学的研究人员合作，聘请一名博士后研究员和一名75%的时间技术员。研究系统将是英国的蜜蜂种群。

The evolution of sociality is one of the major transitions in evolutionary biology. The key testing ground for theories concerning the origin of helping have been primitively eusocial taxa, in which behaviour is highly plastic. Social phenotype varies within these species, both temporally and spatially, from non-social to fully eusocial. Differences in social phenotype are correlated with factors such as latitude, altitude and habitat features. Yet the extent to which differences are genetically based, or represent condition-sensitive phenotypic expression, is almost unknown. Our research will use a combination of large-scale manipulative field experiments and molecular genetic analyses: (1) To test whether inter-population variation in social phenotype represents genetic differentiation or is a phenotypic response to environmental conditions. (2) To investigate the transition between social phenotypes along an environmental gradient. (3) To quantify the degree of reproductive isolation between the two social forms at a transition zone between them. (4) To test whether social populations form a grouping distinct from non-social populations in an intraspecific phylogeny. The work will involve a collaboration between researchers at University College London and Queen's University Belfast, employing a postdoctoral researcher and a 75% time technician. The study system will be British populations of sweat bees.