Trans-generational Effects of Social Learning?

 描述（由申请人提供）：公认的是，认知体验可能会产生生理后果，这已在多种动物物种中得到证实。在社会性动物中，一群个体分享关于环境和自身的信息。这种信息共享对那些能够学习他人经验的人是有益的。社会学习可以是一种非常有利的适应策略，因为它允许个人在没有直接经验的情况下预测环境的变化。虽然很明显，社会经验可以导致生理变化，但社会学习的长期生理影响如何在个体中持续存在还不清楚。有趣的是，由于社会互动的生理后果可能是持久的，这就提出了一种令人兴奋的可能性，即社会习得的行为可能导致跨代效应。社会经验如何或甚至是否表观遗传地重新编程生殖细胞以将信息传递给下一代是完全未探索的领域。该提案旨在阐明社会学习如何引发生理变化以及这些生理变化如何被后代遗传的分子遗传机制。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well accepted that cognitive experiences can have physiological consequences, and this has been shown in a variety of animal species. In social animals, groups of individuals share information about the environment and about themselves. This sharing of information is beneficial to those capable of learning from the experiences of others. Social learning can be a highly advantageous adaptive strategy since it allows individuals to anticipate changes in the environment without having direct prior experience of that change. Although it is clear that social experiences can lead to physiological changes, how long-term physiological effects of social learning persist in individuals is not understood. Interestingly, because the physiological consequences of social interactions can be long-lasting it raises the exciting possibility that socially learned behaviors could result in tras-generational effects. How or even if social experiences epigenetically reprogram germline cells in order to transmit information to subsequent generation is completely unexplored territory. This proposal seeks to elucidate molecular genetic mechanisms of how physiological changes are triggered by social learning and how these physiological changes can be inherited by future generations.