Physical Aspects of Superorganism Physiology: Construction, Circulation, and Homeostasis in Fire Ant Colonies

超有机体生理学的物理方面：火蚁群的构建、循环和稳态

• 批准号: 1410971
• 负责人: Daniel Goldman
• 金额: $ 59.56万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1410971&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Physical; Aspects; Superorganism; Physiology; Construction

Major transitions in the history of life occurred when individual biological entities came together to form interdependent groups with emergent properties that differed from the individuals. The most recent of these transitions occurred when solitary organisms joined together to form cooperative societies. This transition to sociality has been particularly remarkable because many distinct individuals are able to behave as a single organism through the coordinated actions of society members. The best examples of such "superorganisms" are colonies of social insects. Social insect super-organisms breathe, feed, grow, breed and modify their environments. Although each life system is important on its own, the balance at the colony level arises from coordinated action of all systems. The purpose of this research program is to discover physical principles that play important roles in super-organism physiology. Super-organism regulatory principles will be of use in systems where information and physical networks coexist, such as in pedestrian and vehicle traffic, urban and disaster landscapes, and neural and artificial networks. The proposed studies could also help explain why the biological transition to sociality has been so successful.The proposed studies will probe physical aspects of super-organism physiology from a "top-down" approach to discover emergent behavioral, biomechanical, and social features. This will be complemented by a "bottom-up" approach that will discover how aspects of super-organism physiology (exoskeleton, organization of circulatory system, healing mechanisms) depend on soil properties, ant morphology, grain manipulation biomechanics, and genetics. This research will be conducted using the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, as a model super-organism system. Fire ants possess highly developed social systems and work together to complete complex tasks. The goal of this research is to elucidate principles governing the functioning of the super-organism and the processes responsible for super-organism stability and success. Specifically, this program will study super-organism features that are analogous to those in single organisms including: (1) Super-organism exoskeleton construction: this research will investigate processes by which the super-organism constructs a robust exoskeleton, its nest, from cohesive granular media. Such processes will include biomechanics of excavation in different media, social interactions upon nest formation (like communication, recruitment, workload distribution) and intelligent construction methods (e.g. can ants probe grain level stresses). (2) Super-organism circulation: This research will deduce traffic optimization strategies in confined spaces. Such strategies may include separation of work tasks in space and time, localization of movement in nest space, organization of information hubs, and modification of the carrier's behavior in response to heavy traffic. (3) Super-organism nervous system: This research will discover how information is transmitted through a patterned environment through tactile interactions of individuals. The approaches used will lead to an understanding of how the superorganism nervous and circulatory systems co-exist. (4) Super-organism homeostasis of physical properties of the nest: This research will determine the response of the super-organism to perturbations arising from flooding, mechanical insults to nest networks, invasion of competitive species, and genetic variation derived from hybridization of fire ant species. The research team will leverage the representation of female group members to attract female students to study of the interface between biology and physics, which should attract students who might be discouraged by the barriers in more established fields. The research team will also explore strategies of public involvement through hands-on and DIY initiatives, collaboration with public education clubs and integration of science with the entertainment industry.

生命史上的主要过渡发生在各个生物实体聚集在一起以与个人不同的新兴特性形成相互依存的群体。这些过渡中的最新发生是当孤立生物联合在一起形成合作社会时发生的。向社会性的过渡特别出色，因为许多不同的人能够通过社会成员的协调行动作为单一有机体。这种“超生物”的最佳例子是社会昆虫的殖民地。社交昆虫的超生物呼吸，喂养，成长，繁殖和修改其环境。尽管每个生命系统本身都很重要，但菌落层面的平衡源于所有系统的协调行动。该研究计划的目的是发现在超生理生理学中起重要作用的身体原理。超生物监管原理将用于系统中，信息和物理网络共存，例如行人和车辆交通，城市和灾难景观以及神经和人工网络。拟议的研究还可以帮助解释为什么生物学向社会性过渡如此成功。拟议的研究将从“自上而下”的方法中探索超生理学的物理方面，以发现新兴的行为，生物力学和社会特征。这将通过一种“自下而上”的方法来补充，该方法将发现超生理学的各个方面（外骨骼，循环系统组织，康复机制）如何取决于土壤特性，蚂蚁形态，谷物操纵生物力学和遗传学。这项研究将以红色进口的消防蚂蚁螺旋桨Invicta作为模型超级生物系统进行。消防蚂蚁拥有高度发达的社会系统，并共同努力完成复杂的任务。这项研究的目的是阐明管理超生物的功能以及负责超级生物稳定性和成功的过程。具体而言，该程序将研究类似于单个生物体的超生物特征，包括：（1）超生物外骨骼构建：这项研究将研究超生物从凝聚性粒状培养基中构建强大的外骨骨骼（其巢穴）的过程。此类过程将包括不同媒体发掘的生物力学，巢形成时的社交互动（例如交流，招聘，工作量分配）和智能的施工方法（例如，蚂蚁可以探测谷物水平的压力）。 （2）超生物循环：这项研究将推论狭窄空间中的交通优化策略。这些策略可能包括在时空中分离工作任务，巢空间中的运动的定位，信息中心的组织以及对货物的行为进行修改，以应对繁重的交通。 （3）超生物神经系统：这项研究将发现如何通过个人的触觉相互作用通过模式的环境传输信息。所使用的方法将导致对超生物的神经和循环系统如何共存的理解。 （4）巢的物理特性的超生物稳态：这项研究将确定超生物对洪水，机械损伤对巢网，侵入竞争物种的侵袭以及源自火蚂蚁物种杂交产生的遗传变异的反应。研究小组将利用女性群体成员的代表来吸引女学生研究生物学与物理学之间的界面，这应该吸引那些可能在更既定领域的障碍灰心的学生。研究团队还将通过动手和DIY计划，与公共教育俱乐部的合作以及与娱乐行业的融合一起探索公众参与的策略。