The genetic basis for the evolution of altruism during the transition to multicellularity

向多细胞过渡过程中利他主义进化的遗传基础

• 批准号: 222935-2008
• 负责人: Nedelcu, Aurora
• 金额: $ 1.29万
• 依托单位: University of New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=454435
• 关键词: genetic; basis; evolution; altruism; during

Altruism - the capacity to perform acts costly to self but beneficial to others, is central to the evolution of various biological phenomena from social behavior to evolutionary transitions in individuality. Although the selective conditions favoring altruism are being increasingly understood, the evolutionary origins of the genetic basis for this behavior remain elusive. The most extreme forms of altruism are reproductive altruism and suicide. In multicellular organisms, they are typified by the differentiation of sterile somatic cells during development and the launch of the cell suicide program in damaged or mutated cells. The goal of this research program is to investigate the genetic basis for the evolution of reproductive altruism (i.e., soma) and cell suicide (programmed cell death, PCD) during the transition to multicellularity. Our general hypothesis is that the evolution of altruism involved the co-option of genes and modification of regulatory circuits implicated in the response to changing/stressful environments. The finding that the evolution of altruism during the evolution of multicellularity involved the co-option of a regulatory pathway conditioned on environmental cues will (i) complement and provide support to recent proposals that cast differentiation and social evolution involved the remodeling of regulatory circuits associated with the perception/processing of environmental stimuli by solitary organisms, and (ii) argue that general principles underlying the evolution of altruism at the molecular level can be identified. In addition, information on the evolution of PCD will facilitate our understanding of signaling pathways regulating PCD and cell proliferation and can improve our ability to predict the consequences of perturbations in these pathways in complex multicellular organisms, including humans.

利他主义--执行对自己代价高昂但对他人有益的行为的能力，是各种生物现象从社会行为到个性进化转变的核心。尽管人们越来越了解利他主义的选择性条件，但这种行为的遗传基础的进化起源仍然难以捉摸。最极端的利他主义形式是生殖利他主义和自杀。在多细胞生物体中，它们的典型特征是在发育过程中不育的体细胞分化，以及在受损或突变的细胞中启动细胞自杀计划。这项研究的目标是研究在向多细胞转变过程中生殖利他主义(即SOMA)和细胞自杀(程序性细胞死亡，PCD)进化的遗传基础。我们的一般假设是，利他主义的进化涉及基因的共同选择和调节电路的修改，这些基因和调节电路涉及对变化/压力环境的反应。在多细胞进化过程中利他主义的进化涉及以环境线索为条件的调控途径的共同选择，这一发现将(I)补充和支持最近提出的关于分化和社会进化涉及到与孤独生物对环境刺激的感知/处理相关的调控回路的重塑的观点，以及(Ii)可以从分子水平上确定利他主义进化的一般原理。此外，有关PCD进化的信息将有助于我们理解调控PCD和细胞增殖的信号通路，并可以提高我们预测包括人类在内的复杂多细胞生物体中这些通路扰动的后果的能力。