How we came to our senses: dietary ecology and primate sensory evolution

我们如何获得感官：饮食生态学和灵长类动物感官进化

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-03782
• 负责人: Melin, Amanda
• 金额: $ 2.77万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=659522
• 关键词: How; came; our; senses; dietary

My long-term research aim is to understand how primates use their senses to find and select foods, and how diet and habitat have shaped vision, olfaction, taste, touch and hearing over the course of primate evolution. All major hypotheses concerning primate origins and adaptive radiation hinge on the relationships among sensory systems, diet and activity pattern. To propel forward our understanding of primate foraging ecology, my research program over the next 5 years will integrate fieldwork with state-of-the-art methods in genomics and recent technology for measuring food properties on-site in primate habitats.******For the past 12 years I have studied the genetic basis of sensation in primates, their close relatives, and other mammals with diets and habitats similar to primates. Since 2011, I have co-directed longitudinal research on capuchin monkeys in Sector Santa Rosa, Costa Rica. My past research has revealed that colour vision variation impacts the feeding efficiency of monkeys for different foods. My collaborators and I have also shown that the genetic polymorphism underlying this colour vision variation is maintained through balancing selection. I now propose to advance this line of research by investigating whether colour vision variation leads to dietary niche divergence, thus lowering intragroup feeding competition. In addition, I will begin new investigations of the genomic basis of the senses of smell and taste in primates and their relatives, and how primates integrate vision with other senses to assess food edibility. In addition, using newly available technologies, I will measure the odours, colours, and mechanical properties of dietary foods. There is a growing recognition that non-visual senses are important to the foraging ecology of primates, including humans, yet little is known about the molecular evolution of these senses and how they are integrated during real-world tasks. By combining observations of wild monkeys for which I have detailed data on lifetime reproductive success, with comparative genomics, and portable equipment for measuring food properties, my research program is uniquely positioned to make major advancements in the field of mammalian sensory ecology. For decades, biological anthropologists have questioned whether primates “sacrificed” their sense of smell for better vision, what the earliest primates ate, when our ancestors shifted from a nocturnal to a diurnal niche, and the repercussions of this adaptive shift. By forging new transdisciplinary pathways, examining ecologically and phylogenetically relevant species, and conducting fieldwork at the longest-running primate field site in the neotropics, trainees and I will shed new light on these long-standing questions. This research will advance the fields of behavioural and molecular ecology in Canada by linking genotypes with phenotypes, foraging success, and fitness of wild animals.

我的长期研究目标是了解灵长类动物如何使用它们的感官来寻找和选择食物，以及饮食和栖息地如何在灵长类动物进化过程中塑造视觉，嗅觉，味觉，触觉和听觉。所有关于灵长类起源和适应性辐射的主要假说都取决于感觉系统、饮食和活动模式之间的关系。为了推进我们对灵长类觅食生态学的理解，我的研究计划在未来5年将整合实地考察与最先进的基因组学方法和最新技术，用于测量灵长类栖息地现场的食物特性。在过去的12年里，我研究了灵长类动物、它们的近亲以及其他饮食和栖息地与灵长类动物相似的哺乳动物的感觉的遗传基础。自2011年以来，我在哥斯达黎加的圣罗莎区共同指导了对卷尾猴的纵向研究。我过去的研究表明，色觉的差异会影响猴子对不同食物的摄食效率。我和我的合作者还表明，这种色觉变化背后的遗传多态性是通过平衡选择来维持的。我现在建议通过调查色觉的变化是否会导致饮食生态位的分歧，从而降低组内饲养竞争，以推进这一研究。此外，我将开始对灵长类及其亲属嗅觉和味觉的基因组基础进行新的研究，以及灵长类如何将视觉与其他感官结合起来评估食物的可食性。此外，我还将利用最新的技术，测量膳食食品的气味、颜色和机械特性。人们越来越认识到，非视觉感官对灵长类动物（包括人类）的觅食生态很重要，但人们对这些感官的分子进化以及它们在现实世界任务中如何整合知之甚少。通过结合野生猴子的观察，我有详细的数据，一生的繁殖成功，比较基因组学，和便携式设备测量食物的特性，我的研究计划是独一无二的，使哺乳动物感官生态学领域的重大进展。几十年来，生物人类学家一直在质疑灵长类动物是否为了更好的视力而“牺牲”了嗅觉，最早的灵长类动物吃什么，我们的祖先何时从夜间生态位转变为白天生态位，以及这种适应性转变的影响。通过建立新的跨学科途径，研究生态学和遗传学相关的物种，并在新热带地区运行时间最长的灵长类动物现场进行实地考察，学员和我将对这些长期存在的问题提供新的见解。这项研究将通过将基因型与表型，觅食成功和野生动物的健康联系起来，推进加拿大的行为和分子生态学领域。