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

从蜜蜂和其他昆虫模型中了解社会行为的遗传基础

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-06220
• 负责人: Thompson, Graham
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=689161
• 关键词: Understanding; genetic; basis; social; behaviour

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.

我在社会生物学方面的研究计划伴侣基因组学和亲属理论详细介绍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种基于基因的解释，但是在大多数情况下，我们尚未识别这些基因。在过去的五年中，我利用了基因组技术来识别强调一种典型社会特征的基因：工人蜜蜂中的生殖利他主义。我已经确定编码蛋黄，皇家果冻和数十种其他蛋白质的基因可以介导生殖自私（女王）和利他主义（工人）种姓之间的差异，从而在理论和发现之间提供了清晰的桥梁。此外，我已经开始将这些基因组装到相互作用网络中，这些基因在分子水平上如何协调的无菌性提供了第一个描述。因此，我以前的发现赠款成功地使我和我的学生能够将我们对社会生物学的理解从基因理论转变为基因现实。在接下来的五年中，我建议以三种不同的方式进一步改变该领域。 ******首先，我们针对工人不育的多基因网络对社会生物学和昆虫文化社区引起了极大的兴趣。因此，我需要在实验中验证这些网络以获得生殖功能，这是通过计算机支持的信息学来启动的过程。我和我的学生将从网络拓扑和相关的基因组数据，哪些基因具有至关重要的基因，最重要的功能以及有关生殖调节的分子生物学的哪些想法得到支持（如果有的话）。其次，我们正在利用第二种昆虫模型，该模型补充了蜜蜂的这些发现。果蝇并不是严格的社交，但是我的实验室发现我们可以使用女王蜜蜂的信息素来将女性飞向蜜蜂般的不育状态。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，我的实验室一直将与蜜蜂相关的研究与与蜜蜂无关的社会昆虫并列。白蚁是完全真实的，但很少被用作社交基因发现的工具。我的实验室正在开发东部地下白蚁，作为与蜜蜂相当的模型，我们可以为与种姓和社会性相关的基因挖掘。我实验室对二倍体白蚁转录组的构建和分析将对白蚁社会性是否涉及与单倍二倍体蜜蜂使用的基因不同。随着社会生物学对社会进化的更一般的了解，我的三模型研究计划也已经成熟。它是良好的整合，非常适合培训KIN理论和分子技术的学生，并参与工业的宗教和有害生物控制领域。