Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Behav Genet. 2012 Mar;42(2):323-31. doi: 10.1007/s10519-011-9503-0. Epub 2011 Sep 18.
Five possible mechanisms might underlie kin recognition in social groups: spatial location, familiarity through prior association, phenotype matching, recognition alleles, or rejecting unfamiliar cues. Kin recognition by phenotype matching relies on a strong correlation between genotype and phenotype. Aggression bioassays are the standard method for investigating recognition in animals, particularly social insect interactions among nestmates and non-nestmates. These bioassays typically pay little regard to how outcomes are determined by differences in chemical recognition cues of the test subjects, because the system of signal coding was unknown until recently. We exploited the known nestmate recognition system of the ant Formica exsecta to investigate aggression between 24 pairs of colonies across a range of chemical (Z9-alkene & n-alkanes), genetic, and spatial distances. The whole Z9-alkene chemical profile was the only significant (p < 0.001) predictor of aggression levels. Aggression was a nonlinear step function of Z9-alkene chemical distance, where a small change in chemical profile resulted in a rapid behavioural transition from non-aggression to overt aggression. These findings raise questions surrounding our current understanding of recognition systems, because they support phenotype matching to a colony chemical profile without a significant genetic or spatial component.
空间位置、先前关联的熟悉程度、表型匹配、识别等位基因或拒绝不熟悉的线索。通过表型匹配进行亲缘识别依赖于基因型和表型之间的强相关性。在动物中，特别是在巢内和非巢内的社会性昆虫相互作用中，生物测定法是研究识别的标准方法。这些生物测定法通常不太关注测试对象的化学识别线索差异如何决定结果，因为直到最近才知道信号编码系统。我们利用蚂蚁 Formica exsecta 的已知巢内识别系统，研究了 24 对殖民地之间的侵略行为，涉及一系列化学物质（Z9-烯烃和正烷烃）、遗传和空间距离。整个 Z9-烯烃化学图谱是唯一显著的（p<0.001）侵略水平预测因子。侵略是 Z9-烯烃化学距离的非线性阶跃函数，化学图谱的微小变化导致行为从非侵略性到明显侵略性的快速转变。这些发现引发了对我们当前识别系统理解的质疑，因为它们支持没有显著遗传或空间成分的基于群体化学图谱的表型匹配。
