Research in diverse organisms increasingly demonstrates that the behavior, physiology, development, and lifespan of individuals strongly depend on the social environment. However, conventional genetic analyses do not adequately consider how social interactions affect the genetic basis of traits. Furthermore, all well-developed model systems are solitary and no highly social system amenable to genetic analysis has been developed. This project will develop novel genomic approaches and a new highly social ant system to study the genetic and behavioral basis, and evolution of social traits. Because social interactions are ubiquitous, and humans are highly social, with behavior, health, and lifespan strongly dependent on the social environment, the project is expected to have widespread implications. The research components of the project are tightly integrated with several educational components targeted at the high school, undergraduate, PhD, and postdoctoral levels to increase education and training in the areas of genetics, genomics, behavior, and evolution.
Social interactions mean that socially-influenced traits are properties of the genomes of multiple interacting individuals. The project develops a novel social systems-level approach, building on the interacting phenotypes framework, to elucidate the genetic and behavioral mechanisms underlying the expression and evolution of socially-influenced traits. The project combines: 1). genome-wide studies of transcriptional and evolutionary patterns associated with social trait expression; 2). gene mapping studies to identify the subset of loci underlying social trait expression that are polymorphic and contribute to social trait variation and evolution; and 3). gene-level studies to verify the phenotypic effects of identified candidate genes in the ant Monomorium pharaonis and in the genetic model Drosophila melanogaster. The project develops M. pharaonis as a new ant model system for studying the genetic basis and evolution of social traits. The study trait, reproductive caste is a well-studied socially-influenced trait that is also the archetypal example of reproductive altruism. Because workers in the study species are obligately sterile, their genes with social effects on caste must evolve via kin selection. Thus, this research will provide genome-wide identification of sets of socially-acting genes shaped by kin selection and will identify evolutionary genetic signatures of kin selection. All data generated by the project will be made publicly available through online databases.
