Conflicts of interest and reproductive skew in plural breeding joint nesting birds

多个繁殖联合筑巢的鸟类为理解合作与冲突提供了一个有用的模型。 有些参与生殖竞争，浪费群体资源。 我和学生们一起研究两种不同交配系统的物种。 光嘴茴香生活在一对不相关的一夫一妻制的群体中，期望以牺牲其他群体成员为代价来照顾自己的年轻人。 在开始下蛋之前，他们会拒绝别人的鸡蛋。 一旦孵化开始，竞争行为结束，它们合作孵化鸡蛋和抚养小鸡。 Pukeko形成群体，其中所有繁殖雄性与所有繁殖雌性交配。 他们的利益更加共同。 这个系统中的雄性不太可能认出自己的遗传后代。 雌性可以识别自己的卵，但我们的工作没有显示出卵识别的证据，也没有明显的冲突。 我们将探讨这两个物种的冲突与合作。 我的学生将获得现场和实验室技能，检查个人角色和父母沿着与激素分析，以确定交配系统的影响，在这些物种的竞争和合作的程度。 这些技能是广泛适用的。 这是基础研究，有助于进化心理学的发展，从而增加我们对人类行为的理解。 除了基础研究的专业出版物外，这些物种非常迷人和不寻常，为公共自然历史介绍提供了素材（自然节目的基础）。我们还开发实用的分子标记物或工具，使其他科学家受益。 例如，我们发表了一种通过擦拭蛋壳对鸟类母亲进行基因分型的方法，这导致了其他鸟类和濒危海龟的相关应用。 早些时候，NSERC资助了我的小组对银鸥的研究，导致了另一系列研究，最终证明了钢铁米尔斯附近的环境可呼吸空气颗粒会导致暴露小鼠的遗传突变。 因此，基础研究会带来实际的、意想不到的副产品。

Plural breeding joint nesting birds provide a useful model for understanding cooperation and conflict. Some engage in reproductive competition that wastes group resources. With students, I study two species with different mating system. Smooth-billed anis live in groups of unrelated monogamous pairs, expected to favour their own young at the expense of other group members. Indeed, before starting to lay they reject others' eggs. Once incubation has begun, competitive behaviours end and the they cooperate to incubate eggs and raise chicks. Pukeko form groups in which all breeding males mate with all breeding females. Their interests are much more shared. Males in this system are unlikely to recognize their own genetic offspring. Females could recognize their own eggs, yet our work shows no evidence of egg recognition and a lack of apparent conflict. We will explore conflicts and cooperation in these two species. My students will gain field and lab skills, examining individual roles and parentage along with hormone profiling to determine the effect of mating system affects on the degree of competition and cooperation in these species. Such skills are widely applicable. This is basic research, which contributes to the growing field of evolutionary psychology, thus to our increasing understanding of human behaviour. Beyond the specialized publications from basic research, these species are extremely fascinating and unusual, providing fodder for public natural history presentations (basis for nature shows). We also develop practical molecular markers or tools that will benefit other scientists. For example, we published a method to genotype avian mothers by swabbing the eggshell, which led to related applications in other birds and endangered loggerhead turtles. Earlier NSERC funded research on herring gulls by my group led to another line of research that eventually proved that ambient breathable airborne particles near steel mills cause inherited mutations in exposed mice. Thus, basic research leads to practical and unanticipated spin-offs.