EAGER: Pace of Life as an emergent outcome of variation in metabolic rate at a lower level of organization

不同物种的个体，以及物种内的个体，在一个慢-快的连续体中可能会有不同的生活史，因此那些生长较慢、繁殖延迟但存活率较高的人被称为生活节奏较慢的人，而那些生长较快、繁殖较早、存活率较低的人被称为生活节奏较快的人。由于代谢率决定了动物获取和消耗能量的速度，它通常被认为是生活节奏的根本驱动因素。代谢率对生活节奏的影响可能是复杂的。更高的代谢率，通过允许更多的活动和资源获取，可以导致更快的生活节奏，但燃烧更多的能量也会导致生活节奏变慢。研究代谢率和生活节奏之间的关系的研究往往产生模棱两可的结果。这项研究的广泛目标是选择具有不同代谢率的蜜蜂的遗传系，并通过实验测试代谢率的差异如何与资源可用性相互作用，以确定生活节奏。使用蜜蜂群体作为实验模型，不仅可以理解代谢率如何在个体水平上决定生活节奏，而且还可以理解代谢率的个体间差异如何决定群体水平的生活节奏。了解代谢率和生命史之间的这种重要关系有助于生物医学科学，因为代谢率对各种健康参数有重要影响。建立和保持不同代谢率的蜜蜂遗传系也将是一种新的研究和养蜂业潜在的生物资源。代谢率通常被认为是驱动所有生物组织水平上所有生物过程的基本速率。因此，生物学中的一个中心问题是，任何组织级别的功能特性是如何由其组成部分的MR决定的。通过选择和培育具有不同MR的蜜蜂遗传系，并创建具有不同代谢率组成的蜂群，本研究将在个体和群体水平上提供MR与生活节奏(POL)关系的实验测试。该项目将使用基于遗传学、生理学和行为学的综合方法来询问个体的MR如何影响其POL及其社会贡献，群体水平的POL如何由其个体成员的MR和POL决定，以及MR如何与资源环境相互作用来调节个体和群体的POL。结合路径分析的综合实验方法将允许对MR和POL之间的联系进行因果测试，提供关于连接生理学和生活史进化的功能联系的答案。通过将MR的测量与对社会昆虫群体中个人工作贡献的经济分析相结合，这项研究将增加我们对MR和POL的个体间差异如何扩大到在生物组织的更高水平上推动POL在社会进化中的作用的理解。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Individuals of different species, as well as individuals within a species, can differ in their life history along a slow-fast continuum such that those showing slower growth and delayed reproduction but higher survival are said to have a slow pace of life while those with faster growth and early reproduction with lower survival are said to have a fast pace of life. Since metabolic rate determines the rate at which an animal acquires and spends energy, it has often been considered the fundamental driver of pace of life. The influence of metabolic rate on pace of life can be complex. A higher metabolic rate, by allowing more activity and resource acquisition, can lead to a faster pace of life, but, burning more energy can also lead to a slower pace of life. Studies investigating the relationship between metabolic rate and pace of life often produce ambiguous results. The broad objective of this research is to select genetic lines of honeybees with different metabolic rates and experimentally test how differences in metabolic rate interact with resource availability to determine pace of life. Using the honeybee colony as an experimental model allows an understanding of not only how metabolic rate determines pace of life at the individual level but also how interindividual variation in metabolic rate determines pace of life at the colony level. Understanding this important relationship between metabolic rate and life history can contribute to biomedical sciences as metabolic rate critically influences various health parameters. The development and maintenance of genetic lines of bees with different metabolic rate will also be a novel biological resource for research and potentially to the beekeeping industry.Metabolic rate (MR) is often considered the fundamental rate that drives all biological processes at all levels of biological organization. A central question in biology therefore is how the functional properties at any level of organization are determined by the MR of its constituent parts. By selecting and breeding genetic lines of honeybees with different MR and creating colonies with different metabolic (rate) compositions, this research will provide an experimental test of the relationship between MR and pace of life (POL) at the individual and the colony level. The project will use an integrative approach based in genetics, physiology and behavior to ask how MR of an individual impacts its POL and its social contribution, how the POL at a group level is determined by the MR and POL of its individual members, and how MR interacts with the resource environment to regulate individual and colony POL. The integrative experimental approach combined with path analysis will allow a causal test of the connection between MR and POL, providing answers regarding the functional links that connects physiology to life history evolution. By combining measurements of MR with economic analysis of individual work contribution in a social insect colony, the research will add to our understanding regarding how interindividual variation in MR and POL scale up to drive POL at a higher level of biological organization in the evolution of eusociality.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.