ReMCASA: Constraints on adaptation in social animals: kin recognition mechanisms and the fitness consequences of discrimination rules

ReMCASA：社会性动物适应的限制：亲属识别机制和歧视规则的适应性后果

• 批准号: EP/X023753/1
• 负责人: Ben Hatchwell
• 金额: $ 273.95万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX023753%2F1
• 关键词: ReMCASA; Constraints; adaptation; social; animals

The process of evolutionary adaptation is limited by the mechanistic constraints acting on phenotypic traits. We aim to investigate kin recognition mechanisms in a social bird to determine the extent to which they constrain adaptive decision-making, resulting in apparently maladaptive behaviours. Recognition systems are ubiquitous at every level of biological organisation from genes to complex societies, and discrimination in these diverse situations often has major fitness consequences. Therefore, selection should engineer effective recognition mechanisms. However, recognition systems are rarely error-free, so how is the frequency of errors optimised in order to maximise inclusive fitness? We will address this evolutionary puzzle by studying kin recognition mechanisms in a social bird, the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus, whose remarkable kin-selected cooperative breeding system makes them wonderfully well suited to investigation of kin discrimination and its fitness consequences. Long-tailed tits discriminate against close kin as mates and in favour of kin when helping, but make frequent, apparently maladaptive errors in both contexts. We will employ a range of state-of-the-art methods to quantify and analyse metrics of social affiliation and two putative phenotypic cues to kinship, acoustic and olfactory, determining how accurately they encode relatedness information. We will also address the persistent evolutionary problem of how variance in inherited recognition cues is maintained when they are subjected to positive frequency dependent selection (Crozier's paradox). Finally, we will determine the extent to which phenotypic cues and social familiarity are integrated to optimise behavioural decisions, conducting field experiments to directly test that understanding. The outcome will be a major advance in understanding of why maladaptive social behaviours occur, and how errors in a recognition system are optimised to maximise inclusive fitness.

进化适应的过程受到作用于表型特征的机械约束的限制。我们旨在研究社交鸟类中的亲属识别机制，以确定它们在限制自适应决策的程度，从而导致显然不良的适应性行为。从基因到复杂的社会，识别系统在生物组织的每个级别上都是无处不在的，在这些不同情况下，歧视通常会带来重大的适应性后果。因此，选择应设计有效的识别机制。但是，识别系统很少没有错误，那么如何优化错误的频率以最大化包容性适应性？我们将通过研究社交鸟中的亲属识别机制，即长尾tit tit aegithalos caudatus来解决这个进化的难题，其巨大的亲戚选择的合作育种系统使它们非常适合研究亲属歧视及其适应性后果。长尾山雀在帮助时会区分亲戚作为伴侣，并支持亲戚，但在这两种情况下都会频繁，显然是适应不良的错误。我们将采用一系列最先进的方法来量化和分析社会隶属关系的指标以及两个推定的表型提示与亲属关系，声学和嗅觉的提示，从而确定它们编码相关性信息的准确程度。我们还将解决持续的进化问题，即当遗传识别线索的差异在接受正频率依赖性选择时如何保持遗传识别线索的差异（Crozier的悖论）。最后，我们将确定表型提示和社会熟悉度的整合程度，以优化行为决策，进行现场实验以直接测试这种理解。结果将是理解为什么不良适应性社会行为以及如何优化识别系统中的错误以最大程度地提高包容性健身的主要进步。