Molecular Neurogenetics of Olfactory Driven Aggression and Social Hierarchy in a Model Insect System

项目摘要 人类和许多其他动物表现出各种各样的社会行为。传统上，灵长类一直是 被用作研究人类行为的模型，因为它们与人类和它们的 高度社会化的行为。然而，使用灵长类动物进行此类研究具有显著的经济、实用和 道德缺陷，在这种情况下，寻找其他行为研究模型将是有用的 复杂的社会行为。符合这两个标准的一个潜在模型是广泛的昆虫家族 统称为蚂蚁，其中一些物种表现出高度复杂的“社会”行为，涉及 不孕不育工人和生殖女王之间的严格分工。在蚂蚁工蚁中，还有更多的 分工，在不同等级的工人之间分配不同的任务。 我们的假设是，种姓/殖民地特有的攻击性和社会等级反映并部分决定了 化学感觉程序主要是通过气味受体和神经肽谱的变化来决定的。 我们将在两个蚂蚁物种--Camponotus floridanus和Harpegnathos saltator--中研究这个问题 生活在只由几只雄性组成的大群体中，其余的是雌性，包括一只 (通常)女王和许多从事种姓/群体特定攻击性行为的工人，如 防守、治安和决斗。

Project Summary Humans and many other animals exhibit a wide variety of social behaviors. Traditionally, primates have been used as research models of human behavior due to their close evolutionary relationship to humans and their highly social behavior. However, the use of primates for such research has significant economic, practical, and ethical drawbacks, and, in that light, it would be useful to find other models for behavioral studies that exhibit complex social behaviors. One potential model that fits both criteria is the extensive family of insects collectively known as the ants, some species of which exhibit highly complex “eusocial” behaviors involving a strict division of labor between sterile workers and reproductive queens. Among ant workers, there is a further division of labor, with different tasks allocated among different castes of workers. Our hypothesis is that caste/colony-specific aggression and social hierarchy reflect and in-part are determined by chemosensory programs dictated largely through odorant receptors and shifts in neuropeptidomic profiles. We will investigate this question in two ant species—Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator—that exist in large colonies that are composed of just a few males, and the remainder are females, including one (typically) queen, and numerous workers that engage in caste/colony specific aggressive behaviors such as defense, policing and dueling.