Genetic polymorphism for chemical tags in leaf-cutting ants

虽然社会群体最明显地表现出合作，但它们也经常是冲突的场所。除非群体成员是克隆的，否则他们的生殖利益会有所不同，个体可能会通过利用其他群体成员的合作努力而受益。因此，作弊被预测会出现在所有的非克隆系统中，但不被认为会出现在合作的经典例子之一，即社会昆虫的育雏。成年工人将受益于优先饲养育雏，他们更相关的生殖皇后，而不是不育工人。虽然化学识别标签（表皮碳氢化合物）是众所周知的菌落之间的差异，他们不认为基因型之间的差异。因此，工人被认为缺乏必要的信息来区分幼虫的基因型，因此无法采取行动时，裙带关系饲养育雏。然而，只有两项研究验证了这一预测，其中一项发现了化学标签的遗传多态性，另一项则没有。该项目将在切叶蚁系统中测试预测，该系统有助于检测遗传多态性，并且在种姓倾向中具有有趣的基因型变化，某些“皇家”基因型倾向于发展成女王。通过比较不同基因型的成虫和幼虫的化学标记，该项目将检验进化理论，即裙带关系的发生并不需要遗传多态性。它还将比较皇家和正常基因型的标签，以确定前者是否有任何特殊的标签，告诉护理工作者他们是皇室成员。

Although social groups most obviously exhibit cooperation, they are also often the scene of conflict. Unless group members are clones, their reproductive interests will differ and individuals may benefit by exploiting the cooperative efforts of other group members. Cheating is therefore predicted to arise in all non-clonal systems, but is not thought to occur in one of the classic examples of cooperation, the rearing of brood by social insects. Adult workers would benefit by preferentially rearing brood to which they are more related into reproductive queens rather than sterile workers. Although the chemical recognition tags (cuticular hydrocarbons) are well known to differ between colonies, they are not thought to differ between genotypes. Workers are thus believed to lack the necessary information to distinguish larvae genotypically and so are unable to act nepotistically when rearing brood. Only two studies have tested this prediction, however, with one finding genetic polymorphism for chemical tags and the other not. The project will test the prediction in a leaf-cutting ant system that facilitates the detection of genetic polymorphism and which has an intriguing genotypic variation in caste propensity, with certain 'royal' genotypes that tend to develop into queens. By comparing the chemical tags of both adults and larvae of different genotypes, the project will test the evolutionary theory that there is not the necessary genetic polymorphism for nepotism to occur. It will also compare the tags of royal and normal genotypes to determine if the former have any special tag that tells nursing workers that they are royalty.