Conflicts of interest and reproductive skew in plural breeding joint nesting birds

多个繁殖的联合筑巢鸟类为理解合作与冲突提供了一个有用的模型。有些参与繁殖竞争，浪费群体资源。与学生一起，我研究了两个具有不同交配系统的物种。嘴巴光滑的Ani生活在不相关的一夫一妻制的群体中，预计会以牺牲其他群体成员的利益为代价偏爱自己的后代。事实上，在开始产卵之前，它们会拒绝别人的卵。一旦孵化开始，竞争行为就结束了，它们合作孵化鸡蛋和饲养雏鸟。Pukeko组成群体，在这个群体中，所有繁殖的雄性与所有繁殖的雌性交配。他们的利益更有共同点。这个系统中的男性不太可能识别自己的基因后代。雌性可以识别自己的卵，但我们的研究没有显示出识别卵的证据，也没有明显的冲突。我们将探索这两个物种之间的冲突与合作。我的学生将获得实地和实验室技能，检查个体角色和亲子关系，以及荷尔蒙分析，以确定交配系统对这些物种的竞争和合作程度的影响。这些技能是广泛适用的。 这是基础研究，有助于进化心理学领域的不断发展，从而有助于我们对人类行为的理解。除了基础研究的专门出版物外，这些物种非常迷人和不同寻常，为公共自然历史演示(自然展览的基础)提供了素材。我们还开发了实用的分子标记或工具，这将使其他科学家受益。例如，我们发表了一种通过擦拭蛋壳来对鸟类母亲进行基因分型的方法，这导致了在其他鸟类和濒临灭绝的斑鳖中的相关应用。早些时候，NSERC资助了我的团队对鲱鱼的研究，导致了另一系列研究，最终证明钢铁厂附近环境中可呼吸的空气颗粒物会导致暴露在空气中的小鼠遗传突变。因此，基础研究导致了实际和意想不到的衍生产品。

Plural breeding joint nesting birds provide a useful model for understanding cooperation and conflict. Some engage in reproductive competition that wastes group resources. With students, I study two species with different mating system. Smooth-billed anis live in groups of unrelated monogamous pairs, expected to favour their own young at the expense of other group members. Indeed, before starting to lay they reject others' eggs. Once incubation has begun, competitive behaviours end and the they cooperate to incubate eggs and raise chicks. Pukeko form groups in which all breeding males mate with all breeding females. Their interests are much more shared. Males in this system are unlikely to recognize their own genetic offspring. Females could recognize their own eggs, yet our work shows no evidence of egg recognition and a lack of apparent conflict. We will explore conflicts and cooperation in these two species. My students will gain field and lab skills, examining individual roles and parentage along with hormone profiling to determine the effect of mating system affects on the degree of competition and cooperation in these species. Such skills are widely applicable. This is basic research, which contributes to the growing field of evolutionary psychology, thus to our increasing understanding of human behaviour. Beyond the specialized publications from basic research, these species are extremely fascinating and unusual, providing fodder for public natural history presentations (basis for nature shows). We also develop practical molecular markers or tools that will benefit other scientists. For example, we published a method to genotype avian mothers by swabbing the eggshell, which led to related applications in other birds and endangered loggerhead turtles. Earlier NSERC funded research on herring gulls by my group led to another line of research that eventually proved that ambient breathable airborne particles near steel mills cause inherited mutations in exposed mice. Thus, basic research leads to practical and unanticipated spin-offs.