The decision to cooperate: kin recognition mechanisms in female house mice

合作决定：雌性家鼠的亲属识别机制

• 批准号: NE/G018650/1
• 负责人: Jane Hurst
• 金额: $ 66.26万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FG018650%2F1
• 关键词: decision; cooperate; kin; recognition; mechanisms

This project addresses mechanisms underlying kin recognition, and the importance of kinship in cooperative breeding between females. Cooperative breeding occurs when animals assist in rearing offspring that are not their own. For example, female house mice frequently rear their offspring communally with another breeding female, providing milk to all pups in the communal nest. This decision is facultative - they can choose to cooperate with a particular partner or not. However, the factors that underlie social partner choice, and how this choice influences an individual female's investment in own and other pups, are poorly understood. It is generally assumed that kinship drives such cooperative behaviour by increasing the success of relatives that share genes. Implicitly, this requires reliable recognition of close kin in species where related and unrelated individuals mix, although we have surprisingly poor understanding of the abilities of animals to recognize kin and the mechanisms that might underlie this. Recently, we discovered a highly polymorphic genetic identity signal that is used to avoid inbreeding with close kin by house mice. This has provided clear evidence of a genetic recognition mechanism that is used to identify close kin sharing the same highly polymorphic genetic marker. We will use this proven genetic marker to test whether female house mice prefer known kin as cooperative partners. We will also use a novel non-invasive approach to label the milk of individual mothers and measure investment in each pup in communal nests for the first time. This will allow us to address whether those cooperating with known kin show more egalitarian investment in their own and other offspring than those cooperating with other females. This type of simple genetic kin recognition mechanism is limited, though, because it identifies only a small proportion of close kin. Through modeling, we have generated testable predictions concerning the proportion of sibs and unrelated animals that would be recognized using alternative genetic kin recognition mechanisms. Theoretically, behavioural imprinting on maternal alleles detected through a mother's phenotype during rearing could allow reliable recognition of a very high proportion of close kin. However, the key requirements for recognition of kin using this mechanism have yet to be tested. In this project, we will establish whether normal, genetically variable house mice can recognize maternal kin through behavioural imprinting on maternal alleles. We will determine whether they imprint specifically on three highly polymorphic gene clusters that encode established genetic identity signals in mouse scents, or on other genetic loci. We will also test whether a common maternal environment, which influences the scents of inbred genetically homozygous laboratory mice, contributes to any recognition of maternal sibs and half-sibs. Our findings will have general relevance for understanding the extent to which animals are able to recognize close kin in a broad range of social contexts. Kinship is unlikely to be the only factor influencing the decision to cooperate among breeding females. Mice can gain considerable information about female physiological status through urinary proteins and metabolites (steroid sulphates) detected through the vomeronasal olfactory subsystem. We will test whether individual partner preferences that are not determined by kinship correlate with expression of these physiologically-variable scent components. We will also test whether females avoid inbred partners (from sib matings) that would have significantly poorer success in raising offspring to weaning.

该项目解决了亲属识别的基础机制，以及亲属关系在女性之间合作育种中的重要性。当动物协助饲养不是自己的后代时，就会发生合作育种。例如，雌性房屋老鼠经常与另一个繁殖雌性在共同的后代，为公共巢中的所有幼犬提供牛奶。这个决定是兼职的 - 他们可以选择与特定伙伴合作。但是，对社会伙伴选择的基础的因素以及这种选择如何影响女性对自己和其他幼犬的投资，对此却了解不足。通常认为，亲属关系通过增加共享基因的亲戚的成功来驱动这种合作行为。隐含地，这需要在相关和无关个体混合的物种中可靠地认识亲近的亲属，尽管我们对动物识别亲属的能力的理解和可能是基于此基础的机制的能力的理解令人惊讶。最近，我们发现了一个高度多态性的遗传认同信号，用于避免与家用小鼠近亲近亲繁殖。这为遗传识别机制提供了明确的证据，该遗传识别机制用于识别相同高度多态遗传标记物的亲近亲属。我们将使用该验证的遗传标记来测试雌性家庭小鼠是否更喜欢称为合作伙伴的亲属。我们还将使用一种新颖的非侵入性方法来标记单个母亲的牛奶，并首次衡量每个幼犬的投资。这将使我们能够解决与知名亲戚合作的人是否比与其他女性合作的人表现出更多的平等投资。但是，这种简单的遗传识别机制受到限制，因为它仅识别了一小部分近亲。通过建模，我们产生了有关使用替代性遗传亲属识别机制识别的SIB和无关动物比例的可测试预测。从理论上讲，在饲养过程中通过母亲的表型检测到的母亲等位基因上的行为烙印可以可靠地识别很高的亲密亲属。但是，使用这种机制识别亲属的关键要求尚待测试。在这个项目中，我们将确定正常的，遗传上可变的房屋小鼠是否可以通过对母亲等位基因上的行为印记来识别母体亲属。我们将确定它们是在三个高度多态基因簇上烙印，这些基因簇编码在小鼠香气中建立的遗传身份信号，还是其他遗传基因座。我们还将测试一个普通的母体环境是否会影响近交遗传学实验室小鼠的气味，这有助于对产妇SIB和半b的任何认识。我们的发现将具有一般意义，以了解动物能够在广泛的社会环境中识别亲密亲戚的程度。亲属关系不太可能是影响育种女性合作决定的唯一因素。小鼠可以通过通过呕吐的蛋白质和代谢物（类固醇硫酸盐）获得有关女性生理状态的大量信息，这些信息可以通过呕吐嗅觉子系统检测到。我们将测试未通过亲属关系确定的单个伴侣偏好与这些生理变化的气味成分的表达相关。我们还将测试女性是否避免了近交伴侣（来自SIB Matings），这在提高后代断奶方面取得了明显差的成功。

项目成果

Individual odour signatures that mice learn are shaped by involatile major urinary proteins (MUPs).

• DOI: 10.1186/s12915-018-0512-9
• 发表时间: 2018-04-27
• 期刊: BMC biology
• 影响因子: 5.4
• 作者: Roberts SA;Prescott MC;Davidson AJ;McLean L;Beynon RJ;Hurst JL
• 通讯作者: Hurst JL

Molecular heterogeneity in major urinary proteins of Mus musculus subspecies: potential candidates involved in speciation.

• DOI: 10.1038/srep44992
• 发表时间: 2017-03-24
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Hurst JL;Beynon RJ;Armstrong SD;Davidson AJ;Roberts SA;Gómez-Baena G;Smadja CM;Ganem G
• 通讯作者: Ganem G

Female attraction to male scent and associative learning: the house mouse as a mammalian model

雌性对雄性气味的吸引力和联想学习：家鼠作为哺乳动物模型

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.08.010
• 发表时间: 2014
• 期刊: Animal Behaviour
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: Roberts S

Wake up and smell the conflict: odour signals in female competition.

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0082
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
• 作者: Stockley P;Bottell L;Hurst JL
• 通讯作者: Hurst JL

Making progress in genetic kin recognition among vertebrates.

• DOI: 10.1186/jbiol221
• 发表时间: 2010
• 期刊: Journal of biology
• 作者: Hurst JL;Beynon RJ
• 通讯作者: Beynon RJ