Aggression evolving: understanding how social interactions create evolutionary feedbacks at the behavioral and genomic levels

预测几代人的进化是现代生物学的中心目标之一，在农业、环境保护和人类健康方面都有应用。预测行为的进化面临着特殊的挑战，因为行为往往不仅取决于做出行为的个人(及其基因)，还取决于其他相互作用的个人(及其基因)。因此，这种复杂的社会行为可能会以独特的方式进化，称为进化反馈。尽管进化反馈被认为是普遍存在的，但人们仍然对它们如何随着时间的推移塑造进化知之甚少。在这个项目中，研究人员将利用一个强大的模型系统(果蝇，黑腹果蝇)，在实验室中直接观察攻击性行为发生多代时的进化反馈。研究小组将在允许或限制反馈的情况下进化出高度攻击性的果蝇。这将使团队能够确定反馈如何影响行为及其潜在基因的世代进化。本研究将为社区大学生提供科学机会。NSF的支持将允许有才华的社区大学学生第一次体验研究，并为教育更广泛的社区做出贡献。当一代人的行为演变导致后续几代人的选择压力发生变化时，就会出现进化反馈。尽管长期以来的假设认为反馈应该几乎无处不在，但关于反馈如何影响行为进化及其潜在的遗传基础，人们仍然知之甚少。这项研究将通过操纵攻击性行为的进化反馈来填补这一知识空白，复制果蝇种群在人工选择下进化，以增加攻击性。通过操纵发生人工选择的社会环境，复制种群将在允许正反馈、负反馈或无反馈的条件下与未选择的对照一起被人工选择。行为变化将在几代人之间进行跟踪，进化种群的全基因组序列将进行比较，以确定种群基因组的反馈签名。被认为是选择目标的单个基因将被转基因操纵，以确定它们对行为的影响(S)，允许直接测量不同的反馈是否针对在攻击性互动中具有不同角色的基因。总而言之，这些目标提供了对进化反馈改变行为进化的速度、轨迹和遗传基础的假说的首次直接测试。这些结果有可能调和之前不一致的研究，并将提供一个概念和方法框架，用于研究个体一生中的社会互动扩大到影响世代进化变化的方式。这项研究将支持不同社区的大学生在夏季体验进化遗传学的研究。这些科学丰富的机会将为不同的学生提供进入STEM领域的机会，同时了解进化。该奖项反映了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。

Predicting evolution over multiple generations is one of the central goals of modern biology, with applications in agriculture, conservation, and human health. Predicting the evolution of behavior presents special challenges, because behavior often depends not only on the individual doing the behavior (and its genes), but also on other interacting individuals (and their genes). Such complex social behaviors may thus evolve in unique ways, termed evolutionary feedbacks. Although evolutionary feedbacks are believed to be widespread, little is still known about how they work to shape evolution over time. In this project, the researcher will take advantage of a powerful model system (fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster), to directly observe evolutionary feedbacks for aggressive behavior as they are happening over multiple generations in the lab. The research team will evolve highly-aggressive fruit flies under circumstances in which feedbacks are allowed or restricted. This will allow the team to determine how feedbacks influence evolution across generations, for both behavior and its underlying genes. This research will provide scientific opportunities to community college students. NSF support will allow talented community college students to experience research for the first time, and contribute to educating the broader community.Evolutionary feedbacks occur when behavioral evolution in one generation results in altered selection pressures in subsequent generations. Despite longstanding hypotheses that feedbacks should be nearly ubiquitous, little is still known about how feedbacks influence behavioral evolution and its underlying genetic basis. This research will fill this gap in knowledge by manipulating evolutionary feedbacks for aggressive behavior in replicate fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) populations evolving under artificial selection for increased aggressiveness. By manipulating the social environment in which artificial selection occurs, replicate populations will be artificially selected under conditions that permit positive, negative, or no feedbacks, alongside unselected controls. Behavioral changes will be tracked across generations, and whole-genome sequences from evolved populations will be compared to identify population-genomic "signatures of feedbacks." Individual genes that are putative targets of selection will be transgenically manipulated to determine their effects on behavior(s), allowing direct measurement of whether different feedbacks target genes with different roles in aggressive interactions. Together, these Aims provide the first direct tests of the hypotheses that evolutionary feedbacks alter the rate, trajectory, and genetic basis of behavioral evolution. The results have the potential to reconcile previously-incongruent studies, and will provide a conceptual and methodological framework for studying the ways that social interactions during individuals' lifetimes scale up to influence evolutionary change across generations. The research will support diverse community college students to experience research in evolutionary genetics during the summer. These scientific enrichment opportunities will provide opportunities for diverse students to enter STEM fields while learning about evolution.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.