scholarly journals Evidence for a selective link between cooperation and individual recognition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Tumulty ◽  
Sara E. Miller ◽  
Steven M. Van Belleghem ◽  
Hannah I. Weller ◽  
Christopher M. Jernigan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Color Pattern ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Identity Signaling ◽  
Nest Founding ◽  
Key Driver

AbstractThe ability to recognize and discriminate among others is a frequent assumption of models of the evolution of cooperative behavior. At the same time, cooperative behavior has been proposed as a selective agent favoring the evolution of individual recognition abilities. While theory predicts that recognition and cooperation may co-evolve, data linking recognition abilities and cooperative behavior with fitness or evidence of selection are elusive. Here, we provide evidence of a fitness link between individual recognition and cooperation in the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus. Nest founding females in northern populations frequently form cooperative multiple foundress nests and possess highly variable facial patterns that mediate individual recognition. We describe a dearth of cooperative nesting, low phenotypic diversity, and a lack of individual recognition in southern populations. In a common garden experiment, northern co-foundress associations successfully reared offspring while all cooperative southern groups failed to rear any offspring, suggesting a fitness link between individual recognition and successful cooperation. Consistent with a selective link between individual recognition and cooperation, we find that rates of cooperative co-nesting correlate with identity-signaling color pattern diversity across the species’ range. Moreover, genomic evidence of recent positive selection on cognition loci likely to mediate individual recognition is substantially stronger in northern compared to southern P. fuscatus populations. Collectively, these data suggest that individual recognition and cooperative nesting behavior have co-evolved in P. fuscatus because recognition helps mediate conflict among co-nesting foundresses. This work provides evidence of a specific cognitive phenotype under selection because of social interactions, supporting the idea that social behavior can be a key driver of cognitive evolution.

scholarly journals Dynamic neurogenomic responses to social interactions and dominance outcomes in female paper wasps

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floria M.K. Uy ◽  
Christopher M. Jernigan ◽  
Natalie C. Zaba ◽  
Eshan Mehrotra ◽  
Sara E. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Optic Lobe ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Paper Wasps ◽  
Transcriptional Responses ◽  
Behavior Understanding ◽  
Transcriptional Dynamics ◽  
Central Brain ◽  
And Behavior

ABSTRACTSocial interactions have large effects on individual physiology and fitness. In the immediate sense, social stimuli are often highly salient and engaging. Over longer time scales, competitive interactions often lead to distinct social ranks and differences in physiology and behavior. Understanding how initial responses lead to longer-term effects of social interactions requires examining the changes in responses over time. Here we examined the effects of social interactions on transcriptomic signatures at two points, at the end of a 45-minute interaction and 4 hours later, in female Polistes fuscatus paper wasp foundresses. Female P. fuscatus have variable facial patterns that are used for visual individual recognition, so we separately examined the transcriptional dynamics in the optic lobe and the central brain. Results demonstrate much stronger transcriptional responses to social interactions in the central brain compared to the optic lobe. Differentially regulated genes in response to social interactions are enriched for memory-related transcripts. Comparisons between winners and losers of the encounters revealed similar overall transcriptional profiles at the end of an interaction, which significantly diverged over the course of 4 hours, with losers showing changes in expression levels of genes associated with aggression and reproduction in paper wasps. On nests, subordinate foundresses are less aggressive, do more foraging and lay fewer eggs compared to dominant foundresses and we find losers shift expression of many genes, including vitellogenin, related to aggression, worker behavior, and reproduction within hours of losing an encounter. These results highlight the early neurogenomic changes that likely contribute to behavioral and physiological effects of social status changes in a social insect.

scholarly journals Dynamic neurogenomic responses to social interactions and dominance outcomes in female paper wasps

PLoS Genetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. e1009474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floria M. K. Uy ◽  
Christopher M. Jernigan ◽  
Natalie C. Zaba ◽  
Eshan Mehrotra ◽  
Sara E. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Optic Lobe ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Paper Wasps ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Transcriptional Responses ◽  
Behavior Understanding ◽  
Transcriptional Dynamics ◽  
And Behavior

Social interactions have large effects on individual physiology and fitness. In the immediate sense, social stimuli are often highly salient and engaging. Over longer time scales, competitive interactions often lead to distinct social ranks and differences in physiology and behavior. Understanding how initial responses lead to longer-term effects of social interactions requires examining the changes in responses over time. Here we examined the effects of social interactions on transcriptomic signatures at two times, at the end of a 45-minute interaction and 4 hours later, in female Polistes fuscatus paper wasp foundresses. Female P. fuscatus have variable facial patterns that are used for visual individual recognition, so we separately examined the transcriptional dynamics in the optic lobe and the non-visual brain. Results demonstrate much stronger transcriptional responses to social interactions in the non-visual brain compared to the optic lobe. Differentially regulated genes in response to social interactions are enriched for memory-related transcripts. Comparisons between winners and losers of the encounters revealed similar overall transcriptional profiles at the end of an interaction, which significantly diverged over the course of 4 hours, with losers showing changes in expression levels of genes associated with aggression and reproduction in paper wasps. On nests, subordinate foundresses are less aggressive, do more foraging and lay fewer eggs compared to dominant foundresses and we find losers shift expression of many genes in the non-visual brain, including vitellogenin, related to aggression, worker behavior, and reproduction within hours of losing an encounter. These results highlight the early neurogenomic changes that likely contribute to behavioral and physiological effects of social status changes in a social insect.

Social interactions in traffic: The effect of external factors

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Stoll ◽  
Nadine-Rebecca Strelau ◽  
Martin Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Lane Change ◽  
Lane Changing ◽  
Vehicle To Vehicle ◽  
Driving Task ◽  
Vehicle To Infrastructure ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Intention To Change ◽  
Vehicle To Infrastructure Communication

Social interactions were always part of the driving task, but the introduction of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication opens up new possibilities for cooperative interactive driving. It enables drivers to coordinate their maneuvers cooperatively with other involved traffic users. To ensure drivers’ acceptance of such automated systems it is necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms of human cooperation in traffic. In this experiment, we investigate potential influencing factors on the willingness to behave cooperatively in a lane change situation on a highway. In a video-based study, we manipulated the costs of cooperation, the situation’s criticality for the lane-changing vehicle and the way in which the intention to change the lane was indicated. Cooperative behavior is influenced by lower costs, a higher situation’s criticality and by signaling the intention to lane change. These results offer insights that may be used in the developing process of Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for cooperatively interacting vehicles

scholarly journals Coevolution of cognitive abilities and identity signals in individual recognition systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1802) ◽  
pp. 20190467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara E. Miller ◽  
Michael J. Sheehan ◽  
H. Kern Reeve
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Selection Gradients ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Signal Production ◽  
Recognition Systems ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Evolving Models

Social interactions are mediated by recognition systems, meaning that the cognitive abilities or phenotypic diversity that facilitate recognition may be common targets of social selection. Recognition occurs when a receiver compares the phenotypes produced by a sender with a template. Coevolution between sender and receiver traits has been empirically reported in multiple species and sensory modalities, though the dynamics and relative exaggeration of traits from senders versus receivers have received little attention. Here, we present a coevolutionary dynamic model that examines the conditions under which senders and receivers should invest effort in facilitating individual recognition. The model predicts coevolution of sender and receiver traits, with the equilibrium investment dependent on the relative costs of signal production versus cognition. In order for recognition to evolve, initial sender and receiver trait values must be above a threshold, suggesting that recognition requires some degree of pre-existing diversity and cognitive abilities. The analysis of selection gradients demonstrates that the strength of selection on sender signals and receiver cognition is strongest when the trait values are furthest from the optima. The model provides new insights into the expected strength and dynamics of selection during the origin and elaboration of individual recognition, an important feature of social cognition in many taxa. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Signal detection theory in recognition systems: from evolving models to experimental tests’.

scholarly journals Heritable variation in colour patterns mediating individual recognition

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 161008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Sheehan ◽  
Juanita Choo ◽  
Elizabeth A. Tibbetts
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Colour Pattern ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Pattern Diversity ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Colour Patterns

Understanding the developmental and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain variation in natural populations remains a major challenge for modern biology. Populations of Polistes fuscatus paper wasps have highly variable colour patterns that mediate individual recognition. Previous experimental and comparative studies have provided evidence that colour pattern diversity is the result of selection for individuals to advertise their identity. Distinctive identity-signalling phenotypes facilitate recognition, which reduces aggression between familiar individuals in P. fuscatus wasps. Selection for identity signals may increase phenotypic diversity via two distinct modes of selection that have different effects on genetic diversity. Directional selection for increased plasticity would greatly increase phenotypic diversity but decrease genetic diversity at associated loci. Alternatively, heritable identity signals under balancing selection would maintain genetic diversity at associated loci. Here, we assess whether there is heritable variation underlying colour pattern diversity used for facial recognition in a wild population of P. fuscatus wasps. We find that colour patterns are heritable and not Mendelian, suggesting that multiple loci are involved. Additionally, patterns of genetic correlations among traits indicated that many of the loci underlying colour pattern variation are unlinked and independently segregating. Our results support a model where the benefits of being recognizable maintain genetic variation at multiple unlinked loci that code for phenotypic diversity used for recognition.

scholarly journals Variability in group size and the evolution of collective action

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Peña ◽  
Georg Nöldeke
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Replicator Dynamics ◽  
Cooperative Behavior ◽  
Biased Sampling ◽  
Multiplayer Games ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Payoff Structure ◽  
Group Size Distribution

AbstractModels of the evolution of collective action typically assume that interactions occur in groups of identical size. In contrast, social interactions between animals occur in groups of widely dispersed size. This article models collective action problems as two-strategy multiplayer games and studies the effect of variability in group size on the evolution of cooperative behavior under the replicator dynamics. The analysis identifies elementary conditions on the payoff structure of the game implying that the evolution of cooperative behavior is promoted or inhibited when the group size experienced by a focal player is more or less variable. Similar but more stringent conditions are applicable when the confounding effect of size-biased sampling, which causes the group-size distribution experienced by a focal player to differ from the statistical distribution of group sizes, is taken into account.

Evolution of miRNA binding sites and regulatory networks in cichlids

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarang K Mehta ◽  
Luca Penso-Dolfin ◽  
Will K Nash ◽  
Sushmita Roy ◽  
Federica Di Palma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Binding Site ◽  
Binding Sites ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Regulatory Regions ◽  
Adaptive Trait ◽  
Regulatory Variants ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Species Specific

The divergence of regulatory regions and gene regulatory network (GRN) rewiring is a key driver of cichlid phenotypic diversity. However, the contribution of miRNA binding site turnover has yet to be linked to GRN evolution across cichlids. Here, we extend our previous studies by analysing the selective constraints driving evolution of miRNA and transcription factor (TF) binding sites of target genes, to infer instances of cichlid GRN rewiring associated with regulatory binding site turnover. Comparative analyses identified increased species-specific networks that are functionally associated to traits of cichlid phenotypic diversity. The evolutionary rewiring is associated with differential models of miRNA snd TF binding site turnover, driven by a high proportion of fast-evolving polymorphic sites in adaptive trait genes compared to subsets of random genes. Positive selection acting upon discrete mutations in these regulatory regions is likely to be an important mechanism in rewiring GRNs in rapidly radiating cichlids. Regulatory variants of functionally associated miRNA and TF binding sites of visual opsin genes differentially segregate according to phylogeny and ecology of Lake Malawi species, identifying both rewired e.g. clade-specific and conserved network motifs of adaptive trait associated GRNs. Our approach revealed several novel candidate regulators, regulatory regions and three-node motifs across cichlid genomes with previously reported associations to known adaptive evolutionary traits.

scholarly journals Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs

Science ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 358 (6365) ◽  
pp. 925-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Bradley ◽  
Ping Xu ◽  
Irina-Ioana Mohorianu ◽  
Annabel Whibley ◽  
David Field ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Rnas ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Flower Color ◽  
Color Pattern ◽  
Natural Hybrid ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Regulatory Interactions ◽  
Inverted Duplication ◽  
Biosynthesis Gene ◽  
Pigment Biosynthesis

Small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate genes in plants and animals. Here, we show that population-wide differences in color patterns in snapdragon flowers are caused by an inverted duplication that generates sRNAs. The complexity and size of the transcripts indicate that the duplication represents an intermediate on the pathway to microRNA evolution. The sRNAs repress a pigment biosynthesis gene, creating a yellow highlight at the site of pollinator entry. The inverted duplication exhibits steep clines in allele frequency in a natural hybrid zone, showing that the allele is under selection. Thus, regulatory interactions of evolutionarily recent sRNAs can be acted upon by selection and contribute to the evolution of phenotypic diversity.

scholarly journals Neural responses in songbird forebrain reflect learning rates, acquired salience, and stimulus novelty after auditory discrimination training

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1480-1492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany A. Bell ◽  
Mimi L. Phan ◽  
David S. Vicario
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Complex Signals ◽  
Specific Adaptation ◽  
Slow Learners ◽  
Auditory Responses ◽  
Learning Rates ◽  
Caudomedial Nidopallium

How do social interactions form and modulate the neural representations of specific complex signals? This question can be addressed in the songbird auditory system. Like humans, songbirds learn to vocalize by imitating tutors heard during development. These learned vocalizations are important in reproductive and social interactions and in individual recognition. As a model for the social reinforcement of particular songs, male zebra finches were trained to peck for a food reward in response to one song stimulus (GO) and to withhold responding for another (NoGO). After performance reached criterion, single and multiunit neural responses to both trained and novel stimuli were obtained from multiple electrodes inserted bilaterally into two songbird auditory processing areas [caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) and caudomedial nidopallium (NCM)] of awake, restrained birds. Neurons in these areas undergo stimulus-specific adaptation to repeated song stimuli, and responses to familiar stimuli adapt more slowly than to novel stimuli. The results show that auditory responses differed in NCM and CMM for trained (GO and NoGO) stimuli vs. novel song stimuli. When subjects were grouped by the number of training days required to reach criterion, fast learners showed larger neural responses and faster stimulus-specific adaptation to all stimuli than slow learners in both areas. Furthermore, responses in NCM of fast learners were more strongly left-lateralized than in slow learners. Thus auditory responses in these sensory areas not only encode stimulus familiarity, but also reflect behavioral reinforcement in our paradigm, and can potentially be modulated by social interactions.

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