PRF: Hormonal regulation of reproductive behavioral plasticity in burying beetles

通过应用内分泌学技术，行为生态学中的许多关键问题都可以得到有益的解决。本研究将探讨双亲埋伏甲虫生殖行为可塑性的生理基础。相关分析将用于两种方式，以揭示特定激素在生殖行为调控中的作用。首先，将为雄性和雌性在整个生殖周期内绘制保幼激素和蜕皮类固醇的效价曲线。其次，环境变量将被操纵来改变父亲照顾的质量和持续时间；这些行为反应将与同时发生的荷尔蒙反应相匹配。为了研究荷尔蒙和行为之间的随意关系，将进行荷尔蒙治疗，试图诱导行为模式的改变。随后，开发的内分泌技术将被用作灵敏的探针，以识别影响埋葬甲虫决策的特定环境刺激。荷尔蒙操作也将被用来改变雄性父母的行为，以检查对生殖成功、雌性父母行为、母亲护理的成本和共生磷螨类寄主选择的影响。这项研究将首次整合对一种表现出双亲照料、杀婴和遗弃配偶的无脊椎动物物种的激素和行为分析，从而为生殖行为的可塑性研究带来新的深度。

Many key questions in behavioral ecology can be profitably addressed by applying endocrinological techniques. This research will examine the physiological basis of plasticity of reproductive behavior in a biparental burying beetle (Nicrophorus orbicollis). Correlative analyses will be used in two ways to implicate specific hormones in the regulation of reproductive behavior. First, titer curves for juvenile hormone and ecdysteroids will be developed for both males and females across a complete reproductive cycle. Second, environmental variables will be manipulated to alter the quality and duration of paternal care; these behavioral responses will be matched to concurrent hormonal responses. To examine the casual relationship between hormones and behavior, hormone treatments will be made in an attempt to induce changes in behavioral patterns. The endocrine techniques that are developed will subsequently be utilized as sensitive probes to identify the particular environmental stimuli that influence decision-making in burying beetles. Hormonal manipulations will also be employed to alter male parental behavior in order to examine effects on reproductive success, female parental behavior, costs of maternal care and host selection by a symbiotic phoretic mite. For the first time, this study will integrate hormonal and behavioral analyses of an invertebrate species that exhibits biparental care, infanticide and mate desertion and thus will bring new depth to the study of plasticity of reproductive behavior.