Understanding the genetic basis of social behaviour from honey bee and other insect models

我的社会生物学研究项目结合了基因组学和亲属理论，详细阐述了社会行为的遗传基础。我的研究基本原理很简单：50年来，亲属理论为社会性提供了一个基于基因的解释，但在大多数情况下，我们还没有确定这些基因。在过去的五年里，我利用基因组技术来识别强调一个典型社会特征的基因：工蜂的生殖利他主义。我已经确定，编码蛋黄、皇家浆和其他几十种蛋白质的基因可以调节生殖自私（女王）和利他（工人）种姓之间的差异，为理论和发现之间提供了一座清晰的桥梁。此外，我已经开始将这些基因组装成相互作用网络，从而首次在分子水平上描述不育性是如何协调的。因此，我之前的发现基金成功地使我和我的学生将我们对社会生物学的理解从基因理论推向了基因现实。在接下来的五年里，我建议以三种不同的方式进一步改变该领域。

My research program in sociobiology couples genomics and kin theory to detail the genetic basis of social behavior. My research rationale is straightforward: for 50 years kin theory has provided a gene-based explanation for sociality, but for the most part we have yet to identify those genes. Over the past five years, I have capitalized on genomic techniques to identify genes that underscore one quintessentially social trait: reproductive altruism in worker honeybees. I have established that genes encoding egg yolk, royal jelly and dozens of other proteins can mediate differences between reproductively selfish (queen) and altruistic (worker) castes, providing a clear bridge between theory and discovery. Moreover, I have begun to assemble these genes into interaction networks that provide a first description of how sterility is coordinated at the molecular level. My previous Discovery grant has therefore successfully enabled my students and I to push our understanding of sociobiology from gene theory to gene reality. In the next five years I propose to further transform the field in three distinct ways.