DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary Consequences of Direct and Indirect Contributions to Additive Genetic Variation in Wild Baboons.

进化生物学的一个主要目标是了解基因和环境是如何结合起来创造我们在自然界动物中看到的变异的。了解社会行为的变化尤其重要，因为我们知道动物的社会行为对其应对环境的效率有重大影响。然而，社会生活模糊了基因和环境之间的区别，因为社会环境（至少部分）是由其成员的基因决定的。因此，影响动物社会行为的基因包括其自身的基因（直接遗传效应，DGEs），也可能包括其父母、兄弟姐妹和社会伙伴的基因（间接遗传效应，IGEs）。理论表明，IGEs可以深刻地影响社会行为的演变。然而，在实验室之外，很少有研究调查IGEs如何促进社会行为的变化，或者IGEs是否影响自然动物种群的生活史特征和社会行为。本研究研究了直接和间接的遗传效应在高度社会化的非人类灵长类动物的生活史和社会行为进化中的作用，并将因此提供可以验证上述理论结果的数据。这将是少数研究野生动物表型变异的直接和间接遗传影响的研究之一，并有可能大大提高对生命史和社会行为进化的理解。pi将在定量遗传学方法中使用混合效应线性模型（特别是“动物模型”）来测量直接和间接的遗传变异对肯尼亚安博塞利国家公园的野生狒狒的生活史和社会行为的影响。我们还将测量直接和间接遗传效应之间的协方差，以了解这种遗传结构对这些性状的表型进化的影响。这些发现将通过会议报告和教育推广向科学界和公众传播。此外，这项工作将为来自代表性不足的少数民族的学生和研究人员提供重要的培训，并促进美国、肯尼亚和英国机构之间的全球合作。

A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand how genes and environments combine to create the variation we see among animals in nature. Variation in social behavior, in particular, is important to understand, because we know that an animal's social behavior has a major impact on how effectively it copes with its environment. However, social living blurs the distinction between genes and environments because the social environment is (at least partly) determined by the genes of its members. Accordingly, the genes that influence an animal's social behavior include its own genes (direct genetic effects, DGEs) and potentially also the genes of its parents, siblings and social partners (indirect genetic effects, IGEs). Theory has shown that IGEs can profoundly affect how social behavior evolves. However, remarkably few studies have investigated how IGEs contribute to variation in social behavior or whether IGEs affect life history traits and social behavior in natural animal populations, outside of the laboratory. This proposal investigates the role of direct and indirect genetic effects in the evolution of life history and social behavior in a natural population of highly social non-human primates and will thus provide data that can test the theoretical result described above. This will be one of only a handful of studies of both direct and indirect genetic effects on phenotypic variation in the wild, and has the potential to greatly enhance understanding of the evolution of life history and social behavior. The PIs will use mixed effects linear models (in particular, the 'animal model') in a quantitative genetics approach to measure the direct and indirect genetic variation contributing to life history and social behaviors in the well-studied wild baboons of Amboseli National Park, Kenya. We will also measure the covariance between direct and indirect genetic effects to understand the consequences of this genetic architecture on the phenotypic evolution of these traits. These findings will be communicated to the scientific community and general public through conference presentations and educational outreach. Additionally, this work will provide important training for students and researchers from underrepresented minorities and foster global collaborations between USA, Kenyan and UK institutions.