CAREER: Sterility inducing mechanisms in social insects

在社会昆虫社会中，繁殖由一只或几只雌性主导，并显示出社会行为中最迷人的现象之一；一些个体放弃繁殖，只抚养他们的兄弟姐妹。这种极端的生殖失衡是由复杂的行为和化学机制维持的，需要遗传特征的转移，这些特征编码的行为似乎破坏了它们自己的遗传。该项目试图通过研究单一物种大黄蜂不同尺度上的工蜂不育性的行为、化学和遗传调节因素，来了解昆虫群居繁殖是如何受到调控的。大黄蜂的生命周期跨越了社会组织的几个层面，这让我们有了独特的机会来研究随着蜂群的发展而发生的繁殖调控模式的变化。这些发现将为未来研究工作者不孕不育的机制、社会性的演变和社会交流奠定基础。这项研究的综合性创造了一个独特的平台，通过针对处于不同发展阶段的代表性不足的群体来增加多样性。这将通过(1)开发一个新颖的年度计划，以增加宾夕法尼亚州服务不足的本科生群体的网络和接触科学的机会；(2)为向上绑定计划开发一个昆虫交流模块，使有前途的低收入和第一代高中生接触到大学经历；以及(3)利用大黄蜂的品质作为关键的全球传粉者，提高对传粉者在K-8学生中重要性的认识。基金将支持学生和学者在行为学、化学生态学和基因组学方面的跨学科培训。在不育的社会昆虫工种中，信息素调节生殖的机制基础是社会进化中最大的谜题之一，因为辅助雌性不繁殖(似乎与她们的利益背道而驰)，维持生殖分工的信号系统很容易被欺骗。这个职业项目研究了调节昆虫繁殖的行为、化学和遗传机制，以及社会环境在塑造这些相互作用中所起的作用。该团队将：(1)表征调节生殖的行为和化学信号的协同效应；(2)检查社会背景对调节机制的重要性；(3)揭示工人大脑基因表达对调节生殖的线索的遗传调节。该项目的重点是一只蜂王、筑巢工蚁和大黄蜂幼崽使用的繁殖机制。这些努力将揭示控制生殖的显性行为和化学信号之间的相互作用，以及诱导不育的信息素的遗传基础。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。

Reproduction in social insect societies is dominated by one or a few females and exhibits one of the most fascinating phenomena in social behavior; some individuals forego reproduction and only raise their siblings. Such an extreme reproductive skew is maintained by sophisticated behavioral and chemical mechanisms and requires the transfer of genetic traits which encode behaviors that seemingly sabotage their own inheritance. This project seeks to understand how social insect reproduction is regulated by examining the behavioral, chemical and genetic regulators of worker sterility at different scales within a single species of bumblebee. Bumblebee life cycles span several levels of social organization, allowing the unique opportunity to study changes in regulatory patterns of reproduction as the colony develops. These discoveries will lay the groundwork for future studies of the mechanisms underlying worker sterility, the evolution of sociality and social communication. The integrative nature of this research creates a unique platform to increase diversity by targeting underrepresented groups at different stages of development. This will be accomplished by (1) developing a novel, yearly program to increase networking and exposure to science in underserved populations of undergraduate students in Pennsylvania; (2) developing an insect communication module for the Upward Bound Program that exposes promising low income and first-generation high school students to college experiences; and (3) using the qualities of bumblebees as key worldwide pollinators to increase awareness of the importance of pollinators in K-8 students. Funds will support an interdisciplinary training in behavior, chemical ecology, and genomics to students and scholars. The mechanistic basis of pheromones regulating reproduction in the sterile worker caste of social insects is one of the greatest puzzles in social evolution since helper females refrain from reproduction (seemingly against their interests), and the signaling systems maintaining reproductive division of labor are susceptible for cheating. This CAREER project examines the behavioral, chemical and genetic mechanisms regulating reproduction in insects and the role the social context plays in shaping these interactions. The team will: (1) Characterize the synergetic effects of behavioral and chemical signaling regulating reproduction; (2) Examine the importance of social context to the regulatory mechanisms; (3) Unveil the genetic regulation of workers’ brain gene expression responses to cues regulating reproduction. The project focuses on the reproductive mechanisms used by a sole queen, nestmate workers and the brood in the bumble bee Bombus impatiens. These efforts will uncover the interplay between dominance behavior and chemical signaling in regulating reproduction and the genetic basis of sterility-inducing pheromones.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.