Soldiers and Medics: altruistic caste battles micro and macro enemies

士兵和医务人员：利他的种姓与微观和宏观的敌人作战

• 批准号: 355987-2013
• 负责人: Chapman, Thomas
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: Memorial University of Newfoundland
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572707
• 关键词: Soldiers; Medics; altruistic; caste; battles

Defenders of insect colonies lay down their lives, often in spectacular battles with enemies. But, they may also be involved in a less obvious role of fighting pathogenic microorganisms. Sharing quarters with close relatives comes with susceptibility to an array of parasites and pathogens. Consequently, social insects rely on a diverse set of individual and group-level defences to prevent and combat disease. For example, one route by which social insects might resist disease is through the defensive effects of microbial symbionts. Social insects are thus targets for a heterogeneous set of predators, pathogens and opportunists. Understanding the evolution and ecology of defence in social insects requires a broad conceptual perspective, one that gathers ideas and expertise from entomologists, microbiologists, and evolutionary biologists. The organization of individual insects into cooperatively complex groups, or colonies, represents one of the major transitions of life on earth. However, it also comprises one of the greatest challenges for Darwin's theory of evolution. I have proposed an integrated program, focusing on the dual role of insect defenders in the social lives of their groups, with the goal of providing a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the evolution of altruism in insects.

昆虫群落的捍卫者常常在与敌人的激烈战斗中献出生命。但是，它们也可能参与对抗病原微生物的不太明显的作用。与近亲共用宿舍会容易感染一系列寄生虫和病原体。因此，社会性昆虫依靠多种个体和群体层面的防御来预防和对抗疾病。例如，社会性昆虫抵抗疾病的一种途径是通过微生物共生体的防御作用。因此，群居昆虫是一系列异质捕食者、病原体和机会主义者的目标。了解社会性昆虫防御的进化和生态学需要广泛的概念视角，这一视角需要收集昆虫学家、微生物学家和进化生物学家的想法和专业知识。将个体昆虫组织成复杂的合作群体或群体，代表了地球上生命的主要转变之一。然而，它也构成了达尔文进化论面临的最大挑战之一。我提出了一个综合计划，重点关注昆虫保护者在其群体社会生活中的双重作用，目的是提供对昆虫利他主义进化的更复杂和细致的理解。