IRES: Maternal Effects on Ecology, Sociality, and Fitness in a Long-Lived Mammal

长寿哺乳动物的母体对生态、社会性和健康的影响非技术性摘要：这个项目为学生提供了一个出色的研究经验，在这个项目中，他们可以问和回答关于遗传、社会和生态因素如何相互作用来塑造进化过程和健康的重要问题。通过在澳大利亚鲨鱼湾的联合国教科文组织世界遗产中收集关于野生印度洋宽吻海豚(Tursiopaduncus)的数据，以及在澳大利亚昆士兰阳光海岸大学基因生态研究中心进行基因样本处理和分析，学生们将获得作为国际长期合作的一部分进行研究的经验。每个学生将通过3组中的1组参与，并专注于一个特定的主题，围绕着母亲对行为和健康的影响这一总体主题。第1组和第2组的学生将分别关注生态母性遗传及其适合性后果，以及社会性母性遗传及其适合性后果，而第3组的学生将研究这些母性影响及其适合性后果如何延伸到母体遗传线内的一代人之外。通过这个项目，学生们将在一个令人兴奋的智力、文化和物理环境中，对野生哺乳动物进行最全面和详细的长期研究。这个IRES将直接支持至少4名研究生和9名本科生。技术摘要：我们的主要目标是为学生提供出色的研究经验，使他们能够提出和回答重要的生物学问题。为此，学生们将与澳大利亚昆士兰阳光海岸大学基因生态学研究中心的科学家以及联合国教科文组织世界遗产--澳大利亚鲨鱼湾的实地研究人员合作，研究野生宽吻海豚遗传、生态和社会特征的健康后果。学生将在一个令人兴奋的智力、文化和物理环境中为野生哺乳动物最全面和最详细的长期研究之一做出贡献。这项工作的核心是试图了解遗传、社会和生态因素是如何影响进化过程和适应性的。通过关注著名的海豚，学生们可以广泛地研究遗传多样性如何映射到社会和生态模式的变异上。这种个体变异因其在生态和进化动力学中的重要性而日益被认识到。然而，到目前为止，关于这种社会行为和生态变异是如何传播的，以及它们如何与遗传背景相互作用的数据有限。了解这种关系是至关重要的，特别是对于像宽吻海豚这样表现出高度变异的物种来说。鲨鱼湾宽吻海豚有很好的社会和生态多样性；一些个体高度社会化，而另一些个体则过着相当孤独的生活；一些个体使用所有的栖息地，而另一些则专门从事一到两个栖息地，在栖息地大小和觅食策略上有类似的差异。一生的体能变化很大，24.3%的雌性不会生下存活的小牛。在这项研究中，学生将利用我们的纵向数据并收集新的数据来实证地解决他们自己关于社会性、生态学和遗传之间关系的研究问题。该项目由NSF国际科学与工程办公室(OISE)的IRES计划资助。

Maternal Effects on Ecology, Sociality, and Fitness in a Long-Lived MammalNon-technical Abstract:This project provides students with an outstanding research experience in which they can ask and answer significant questions concerning how genetic, social, and ecological factors interact to shape evolutionary processes and fitness. Through data collection on wild Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Shark Bay, Australia and genetic sample processing and analysis at the University of the Sunshine Coast's GenEcology Research Centre in Queensland, Australia, students will gain hands on experience performing research as part of an international, long-term collaboration. Each student will be involved through 1 of 3 cohorts and focus on a specific theme centered around the overall topic of maternal influence on behavior and fitness. Students in cohorts 1 and 2 will focus on ecological maternal inheritance and its fitness consequences, and social maternal inheritance and its fitness consequences, respectively, whereas those in cohort 3 will examine how these maternal influences and their fitness consequences extend beyond a single generation within the maternal genetic line. Through this project, students will be contributing to one of the most comprehensive and detailed long-term studies of a wild mammal in an exciting intellectual, cultural, and physical environment. This IRES will directly support at least 4 graduate and 9 undergraduate students.Technical Abstract:Our primary goal is to provide students with an outstanding research experience in which they can ask and answer significant questions in biology. To do this, students will examine the fitness consequences of inherited genetic, ecological and social traits in wild bottlenose dolphins in collaboration with scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast GenEcology Research Centre in Queensland, Australia and in the field at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shark Bay, Australia. Students will contribute to one of the most comprehensive and detailed long-term studies of a wild mammal in an exciting intellectual, cultural, and physical environment. At the core of this work is trying to understand how genetic, social and ecological factors shape evolutionary processes and fitness. By focusing on well-known dolphins, students can broadly investigate how genetic diversity maps onto variation in social and ecological patterns. Such individual variation is increasingly recognized for its importance in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. However, to date, data on how such variations in social behavior and ecology are transmitted, and how they interact with genetic background are limited. Understanding this relationship is crucial, particularly for species that show high levels of variation like bottlenose dolphins. Shark Bay bottlenose dolphins have well-documented social and ecological variation; some individuals are highly social while others live rather solitary lives; some use all habitats, while others specialize in one or two, with similar variation in home range size and foraging tactics. Lifetime fitness variation is substantial, where 24.3% of females do not produce surviving calves. In this study, students will draw on our longitudinal data and collect new data to empirically address their own research questions regarding the relationship between sociality, ecology, and genetic heritage.This project was funded by the IRES program of NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).