Understanding the genetic basis of social behaviour from honey bee and other insect models

我的社会生物学研究项目结合了基因组学和亲属理论，详细阐述了社会行为的遗传基础。我的研究基本原理很简单：50年来，亲属理论为社会性提供了一个基于基因的解释，但在大多数情况下，我们还没有确定这些基因。在过去的五年里，我利用基因组技术来识别强调一个典型社会特征的基因：工蜂的生殖利他主义。我已经确定，编码蛋黄、皇家浆和其他几十种蛋白质的基因可以调节生殖自私（女王）和利他（工人）种姓之间的差异，为理论和发现之间提供了一座清晰的桥梁。此外，我已经开始将这些基因组装成相互作用网络，从而首次在分子水平上描述不育性是如何协调的。因此，我之前的发现基金成功地使我和我的学生将我们对社会生物学的理解从基因理论推向了基因现实。在接下来的五年里，我建议以三种不同的方式进一步改变该领域。** 首先，我们的工蜂不育多基因网络引起了社会生物学和养蜂界的极大兴趣。因此，我需要通过实验来验证这些网络的生殖功能，这一过程最好通过计算机支持的信息学来启动。我和我的学生将从网络拓扑结构和相关的基因组学数据中识别出哪些基因是最重要的，哪些功能最具代表性，以及支持哪些关于生殖调节的分子生物学的先前想法。其次，我们正在开发第二种昆虫模型，以补充蜜蜂的这些发现。果蝇并不是严格意义上的社会性动物，但我的实验室发现，我们可以利用蜂王信息素“诱骗”雌性果蝇进入蜜蜂般的不育状态。这一非凡的发现具有令人兴奋的实验意义。首先，我们可以在基于果蝇的靶向基因表达系统中敲低蜜蜂同源物。** 最后，我的实验室一直在将我们与蜜蜂有关的研究与一种与蜜蜂无关的社会昆虫并列。白蚁是完全社会性的，但很少被用作社会基因发现的工具。我的实验室正在开发东部地下白蚁作为一个模型，可与蜜蜂相媲美，我们可以挖掘与种姓和社会性相关的基因。我的实验室对二倍体白蚁转录组的构建和分析将首次测试白蚁的社会性是否涉及与单二倍体蜜蜂不同的基因。随着社会生物学的成熟，对社会进化有了更全面的理解，我的三模式研究计划也成熟了;它是很好的整合，是培养学生亲属理论和分子技术的理想选择，并参与了养蜂和害虫控制行业。

My research program in sociobiology couples genomics and kin theory to detail the genetic basis of social behavior. My research rationale is straightforward: for 50 years kin theory has provided a gene-based explanation for sociality, but for the most part we have yet to identify those genes. Over the past five years, I have capitalized on genomic techniques to identify genes that underscore one quintessentially social trait: reproductive altruism in worker honeybees. I have established that genes encoding egg yolk, royal jelly and dozens of other proteins can mediate differences between reproductively selfish (queen) and altruistic (worker) castes, providing a clear bridge between theory and discovery. Moreover, I have begun to assemble these genes into interaction networks that provide a first description of how sterility is coordinated at the molecular level. My previous Discovery grant has therefore successfully enabled my students and I to push our understanding of sociobiology from gene theory to gene reality. In the next five years I propose to further transform the field in three distinct ways. ******First, our multi-gene networks for worker sterility are of tremendous interest to the sociobiological and apicultural communities. I therefore need to experimentally verify these networks for reproductive function, a process that is best initiated through computer-supported informatics. My students and I will identify, from the network topologies and associated genomics data, what genes are of central importance, what functions are most represented, and what prior ideas regarding the molecular biology of reproductive regulation are supported, if any. Second, we are exploiting a second insect model that complements these findings from the bee. Drosophila is not strictly social, but my lab has discovered that we can use queen bee pheromone to `trick' female flies into a state of bee-like sterility. This remarkable discovery has exciting experimental implications. For one, we can knock-down bee homologues within a Drosophila-based targeted gene expression system. ******Finally, my lab has been juxtaposing our bee-related research against a social insect unrelated to bees. Termites are fully eusocial, yet are rarely used as a vehicle for social gene discovery. My lab is developing the Eastern subterranean termite as a model comparable to the honeybee that we can mine for genes associated with caste and sociality. My lab's construction and analysis of a diploid termite transcriptome will provide a first test of whether termite sociality involves genes different to those employed by haplo-diploid bees. As sociobiology matures towards a more general understanding of social evolution, my three-model research program has also matured; it is well integrated, is ideal for training students in kin theory and in molecular technique, and engages the apicultural and pest control sectors of industry.