UMR 1099, BiO 3P, Biology of Organisms and Populations Applied to Plant Protection, University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
Anim Cogn. 2010 Jan;13(1):189-94. doi: 10.1007/s10071-009-0247-7. Epub 2009 Jun 13.
Kin recognition is a complex cognitive process, where an individual should detect a phenotypic cue and compare it to an internal template, which might be genetically determined (i.e., innate or acquired). Kin recognition mechanisms will depend on whether previous encounters with kin are possible or not to form the individual internal template. When relatives have never met before, kin recognition is supposed to rely on recognition alleles (which allows the innate recognition of relatives bearing them), or on self-referent phenotype matching (the individual has formed a template using its own phenotype and recognizes as kin individuals which match it closely enough). Although self-referent phenotype matching is in theory the more likely explanation, it has not been possible so far to exclude experimentally the recognition alleles' hypothesis. Here, we report that kin recognition in the solitary parasitoid larvae of Aleochara bilineata (Coleoptera; Staphylinidae) is suppressed following carbon dioxide anesthesia or chill-coma, both treatments known to cause a temporary amnesia. Treated larvae superparasitize indifferently hosts parasitized either by siblings or by non-kin larvae, while untreated larvae avoid hosts occupied by siblings. The two types of anesthesia thus suppress kin recognition, but their global effect on larvae is different. Chill-coma suppresses the ability to distinguish parasitized from unparasitized hosts and reduces parasitism rate, suggesting an aspecific impairment of sensory receptors or cognition. However, carbon dioxide narcosis only impairs kin recognition, strongly suggesting that an intact memory is necessary for kin recognition to take place. Although this study does not address the recognition alleles' hypothesis per se, our results strongly support a self-referent phenotype matching mechanism. On the whole, kin recognition in A. bilineata larvae is effective through short-term memory, because it is affected by amnesic treatments.
亲缘识别是一个复杂的认知过程，个体应该检测表型线索，并将其与内部模板进行比较，内部模板可能是由遗传决定的（即先天的或后天获得的）。亲缘识别机制将取决于是否有可能以前遇到过亲属来形成个体内部模板。当亲属以前从未见过面时，亲缘识别应该依赖于识别等位基因（允许带有它们的亲属的先天识别），或者依赖于自我参照表型匹配（个体使用自己的表型形成模板，并识别与其匹配足够紧密的亲属）。尽管从理论上讲，自我参照表型匹配是更可能的解释，但迄今为止，还无法通过实验排除识别等位基因假说。在这里，我们报告说，在独居寄生蜂 Aleochara bilineata 的幼虫（鞘翅目；隐翅虫科）中，亲缘识别在二氧化碳麻醉或冷休克后受到抑制，这两种处理都会导致暂时失忆。接受处理的幼虫会超寄生宿主，而这些宿主要么被兄弟姐妹寄生，要么被非亲属幼虫寄生，而未接受处理的幼虫则会避免被兄弟姐妹寄生的宿主。因此，这两种类型的麻醉都会抑制亲缘识别，但它们对幼虫的整体影响是不同的。冷休克抑制了区分寄生和未寄生宿主的能力，并降低了寄生率，这表明感觉受体或认知出现了非特异性损伤。然而，二氧化碳麻醉仅损害了亲缘识别能力，强烈表明完整的记忆对于亲缘识别的发生是必要的。尽管这项研究本身并没有涉及识别等位基因假说，但我们的结果强烈支持自我参照表型匹配机制。总的来说，由于受失忆处理的影响，A. bilineata 幼虫的亲缘识别是通过短期记忆起作用的。
