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128 results for “Social evolution”
Impaired immune function accompanies social evolution in spiders
<p><span>An efficient immune system is essential to the survival of many animals. Sociality increases risk of pathogen transmission, which should select for enhanced immune function. However, two hypotheses instead predict a weakened immune function: relaxed selection caused by social immunity/protection, and reduced efficacy of selection due to inbreeding, reproductive skew, and female bias in social species that reduces effective population size and accelerate genetic drift. We assessed the effect of social evolution on immune function in a comparative study of two social spider species and their closely related subsocial sister species (genus <em>Stegodyphus</em>). The haemolymph of social species was less efficient in inhibiting the growth of potentially pathogenic bacteria than that of subsocial species. Reduced efficacy of selection in social species was supported by comparative genomic analysis of immune genes showing substantially elevated non-synonymous substitutions in one of the social species. We propose that this impaired immune function is likely to be a result of reduced efficacy of selection because the evolution of sociality in spiders is accompanied by demographic processes that elevate genetic drift. There may also be positive feedback between pathogen-induced local extinctions and the resulting elevation of genetic drift which further weakens responses to selection by pathogens.</span></p>
Eusocial evolution without a nest: kin structure of social aphids forming open colonies on bamboo
<p><span>Living in nests is an almost universal feature of eusocial animals. In some aphids, however, sterile soldier castes have evolved in open colonies without a nest. To clarify the factors promoting the evolution of eusociality in these colonies, we used newly developed microsatellite markers to compare the kin structure of the open colonies of two aphid species on bamboo: the non-eusocial colonies of <em>Astegopteryx bambucifoliae</em> and the eusocial colonies of <em>Pseudoregma alexanderi</em>on <em>Dendrocalamus latiflorus</em>. </span><br><br><span>Our samples, from over 1,000 hectares, contained 99 clones of <em>A. bambucifoliae</em> and 19 of <em>P. alexanderi</em>. Clonal mixing occurred in both species: average pairwise relatedness within a colony was 0.54 in <em>A. bambucifoliae</em> and 0.71 in <em>P. alexanderi</em>. Each clone of <em>A. bambucifoliae</em> occurred in a unique location, whereas those of <em>P. alexander</em>i occurred in multiple locations and more than 90% of individuals came from just four clones. There was significant genetic variation among different colonies in the same clu</span><span>mp (stem-cluster)</span><span> in <em>A. bambucifoliae</em> but not in <em>P. alexanderi</em>, indicating that <em>P. alexanderi</em> colonies in a</span><span> single</span><span> clump are genetically homogenized, functioning as a large colony. In <em>P. alexanderi</em>, the proportion of sterile soldiers to normal first-instar nymphs was significantly different across the four clones. </span><br><br><span>Our results indicate that the lack of input of migrants from the primary host and feeding on a large, stable host plant are important ecological factors that might favour the evolution of eusociality, enabling the production of genetically homogenised, large, and long-lived colonies. After eusociality evolves on the secondary host, the optimal strategy of soldier production might vary between different clones.</span></p>
Both diet and sociality affect primate brain-size evolution
<p>Increased brain size in humans and other primates is hypothesized to confer cognitive benefits but brings costs associated with growing and maintaining energetically expensive neural tissue. Previous studies have argued that changes in either diet or levels of sociality led to shifts in brain size, but results were equivocal. Here we test these hypotheses using phylogenetic comparative methods designed to jointly account for and estimate the effects of adaptation and phylogeny. Using the largest current sample of primate brain and body sizes with observation error, complemented by newly compiled diet and sociality data, we show that both diet and sociality have influenced the evolution of brain size. Shifting from simple to more complex levels of sociality resulted in relatively larger brains, while shifting to a more folivorous diet led to relatively smaller brains. While our results support the role of sociality, they modify a range of ecological hypotheses centered on the importance of frugivory and instead indicate that digestive costs associated with increased folivory may have resulted in relatively smaller brains.</p>
Data from: Recovery from infection is more likely to favor the evolution of migration than social escape from infection
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Within-generation and transgenerational social plasticity interact during rapid adaptive evolution
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Data from: Evolution of personal and social immunity in the context of parental care
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Impaired immune function accompanies social evolution in spiders
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Both diet and sociality affect primate brain-size evolution
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Eusocial evolution without a nest: kin structure of social aphids forming open colonies on bamboo
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Ecology drives the evolution of diverse social strategies in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
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Data from: Mechanisms for polyandry evolution in a complex social bee
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Data from: The evolution of sex roles: The importance of ecology and social environment
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Biogeography and evolution of social parasitism in Australian Myrmecia bulldog ants revealed by phylogenomics
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Social evolution of shared biofilm matrix components
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Data from: Gene expression correlates of social evolution in coral reef butterflyfishes
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Data from: Strict monandry in the ponerine army ant genus Simopelta suggests that colony size and complexity drive mating system evolution in social insects
Altruism in social insects has evolved between closely related full-siblings. It is therefore of considerable interest why some groups have secondarily evolved low within-colony relatedness, which in turn affects the relatedness incentives of within-colony cooperation and conflict. The highest queen mating frequencies, and therefore among the lowest degrees of colony relatedness, occur in Apis honeybees and army ants of the subfamilies Aenictinae, Ecitoninae, and Dorylinae, suggesting that common life-history features such as reproduction by colony fission and male biased numerical sex-ratios have convergently shaped these mating systems. Here we show that ponerine army ants of the genus Simopelta, which are distantly related but similar in general biology to other army ants, have strictly monandrous queens. Preliminary data suggest that workers reproduce in queenright colonies, which is in sharp contrast to other army ants. We hypothesize that differences in mature colony size and social complexity may explain these striking discrepancies.
Data from: Evolution of sociality in spiders leads to depleted genomic diversity at both population and species level
Across several animal taxa, the evolution of sociality involves a suite of characteristics, a 'social syndrome', that includes cooperative breeding, reproductive skew, primary female biased sex-ratio, and the transition from outcrossing to inbreeding mating system, factors that are expected to reduce effective population size (Ne). This social syndrome may be favoured by short-term benefits but come with long-term costs, because the reduction in Ne amplifies loss of genetic diversity by genetic drift, ultimately restricting the potential of populations to respond to environmental change. To investigate the consequences of this social life form on genetic diversity, we used a comparative RAD-sequencing approach to estimate genome-wide diversity in spider species that differ in level of sociality, reproductive skew, and mating system. We analysed multiple populations of three independent sister-species pairs of social inbreeding and subsocial outcrossing Stegodyphus spiders, and a subsocial outgroup. Heterozygosity and within population diversity were 6-10 fold lower in social compared to subsocial species, and demographic modelling revealed a tenfold reduction in Ne of social populations. Species-wide genetic diversity depends on population divergence and the viability of genetic lineages. Population genomic patterns were consistent with high lineage turnover, which homogenizes the genetic structure that builds up between inbreeding populations, ultimately depleting genetic diversity at the species level. Indeed, species-wide genetic diversity of social species was 5-8 times lower than that of subsocial species. The repeated evolution of species with this social syndrome is associated with severe loss of genome-wide diversity, likely to limit their evolutionary potential.
Data from: Workforce effects and the evolution of complex sociality in wild Damaraland mole rats
Explaining the evolution of eusocial and cooperatively breeding societies demands that we understand the effects of workforce size on the reproductive success of breeders. This challenge has yet to be addressed in the family that arguably exhibits the most extreme outcomes of vertebrate social evolution, the African mole rats (Bathyergidae), leaving the ultimate causes of their many unusual adaptations open to debate. Here we report—using a 14-year field study of wild Damaraland mole rats, Fukomys damarensis—that workers appear to have strong but unusual effects on offspring. Groups with larger workforces exhibited substantially higher rates of offspring recruitment while maintaining high juvenile survival rates, relationships that may have favored the evolution of the delayed dispersal, cooperation, morphological specialization, and unusual patterns of longevity that characterize such societies. Offspring reared by larger workforces also showed slower growth, however. That reduced offspring growth in larger groups has also been documented under ad lib. food conditions in the laboratory raises the possibility that this reflects socially induced growth restraint rather than simple constraints on resource availability. Our findings shed new light on the evolution of complex sociality in this enigmatic clade and highlight further departures from the norms reported for other cooperative vertebrates.
Data from: The geographic structure of selection on a coevolving interaction between social parasitic wasps and their hosts hampers social evolution
Social parasites exploit societies, rather than organisms, and rear their brood in social insect colonies at the expense of their hosts, triggering a coevolutionary process that may affect host social structure. The resulting coevolutionary trajectories may be further altered by selection imposed by predators, which exploit the abundant resources concentrated in these nests. Here, we show that geographic differences in selection imposed by predators affects the structure of selection on coevolving hosts and their social parasites. In a multi-year study, we monitored the fate of the annual breeding attempts of the solitary-founding females of Polistes biglumis social wasps in four geographically distinct populations that varied in levels of attack by the congeneric social parasite, P. atrimandibularis. Foundress fitness depended mostly on whether, during the long founding phase, a colony was invaded by social parasites or attacked by predators. Foundresses from each population differed in morphological traits and reproductive tactics that were consistent with selection imposed by their natural enemies and in ways that may affect host sociality. In turn, parasite traits were consistent with selection imposed locally by hosts, implying a geographic mosaic of coevolution in this brood parasitic interaction.
Pathogen defence is a potential driver of social evolution in ambrosia beetles
Social immunity – the collective behavioural defences against pathogens - is considered a crucial evolutionary force for the maintenance of insect societies. It has been described and investigated primarily in eusocial insects, but its role in the evolutionary trajectory from parental care to eusociality is little understood. Here, we report on the existence, plasticity, effectiveness and consequences of social pathogen defence in experimental nests of cooperatively breeding ambrosia beetles. After an Aspergillus-spore-buffer solution or a control buffer solution had been injected in laboratory nests, totipotent adult female workers increased their activity and hygienic behaviours like allogrooming and cannibalism. Such social immune responses had not been described for any non-eusocial, cooperatively breeding insect before. Removal of beetles from <i>Aspergillus</i>-treated nests in a paired experimental design revealed that the hygienic behaviours of beetles significantly reduced pathogen prevalence in the nest. Furthermore, in response to pathogen injections, female helpers delayed dispersal and thus prolonged their cooperative phase within their mother's nest. Our findings of appropriate social responses to an experimental immune challenge in a cooperatively breeding beetle corroborate the view that social immunity is not an exclusive attribute of eusocial insects, but rather a concomitant and presumably important feature in the evolutionary transitions towards complex social organization.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.