RUI: Endocrinological Basis of Parental Behavior and Dominance in Burying Beetles

行为灵活性是将行为与生态和繁殖成功联系起来的关键。本文提出的研究将建立第一个双亲本生物的无脊椎动物模型，用于研究调节生殖行为的行为和激素机制。少年激素的血液水平将被确定，并与父母行为的详细变化相关联。局部应用幼鱼激素将被用来检验一个假设，即增加雄性亲代的努力会增加幼虫的发育速度，并导致雄性伴侣减少亲代的努力。在两只雌性之间的竞争性互动中，激素水平也将被测量，以检验对繁殖资源的争夺会导致幼崽激素水平升高的假设。此外，在资源竞争过程中，将给从属的雌性施用幼鱼激素，以研究激素对优势、生殖产出和亲本对杂交后代的贡献的影响。这项研究将基于对自然生态环境下动物行为变化的彻底了解。将行为和生理分析结合在一起的能力将有助于更广泛地理解生殖行为的灵活性。该项目有望推进我们对复杂的行为序列是如何组织的，以及行为灵活性如何有助于有效的亲代照顾的理解。

Trumbo, Stephen IBN-9420985 NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Behavioral flexibility is the key to relating behavior to ecology and to reproductive success. The research proposed here will develop the first invertebrate model of a biparental organism for studying the behavioral and hormonal mechanisms that regulate reproductive behavior. Blood levels of juvenile hormone will be determined and correlated with detailed changes in parental behavior. Topical application of juvenile hormone will be used to test the hypothesis that increased male parental effort will increase the rate of larval development and lead to a decrease in parental effort by the male's partner. Hormone levels will also be measured during competitive interactions between two females to test the hypothesis that contests for the breeding resource result in elevated levels of juvenile hormone. Furthermore, Juvenile hormone will be administered to subordinate females during competition for resources to examine hormonal influences on dominance, reproductive output and parental contributions to broods of mixed parentage. This study will be based on an already thorough understanding of behavioral variation in the animals in a natural ecological context. The ability to integrate behavioral and physiological analyses in a group amenable to experimental manipulation will contribute to a broader understanding of the flexibility of reproductive behavior. The proposed project promises to advance our understanding of how complex sequences of behavior are organized, and how behavioral flexibility contributes to effective parental care.