Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Washington Singer Labs, University of Exeter, Perry Road, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK.
Oecologia. 2012 Dec;170(4):955-63. doi: 10.1007/s00442-012-2379-8. Epub 2012 Jun 30.
The role of relatedness in structuring animal societies has attracted considerable interest. Whilst a significant number of studies have documented kin recognition in shoaling fish under laboratory conditions, there is little evidence that relatedness plays a significant role in structuring social interactions in wild populations that are characterised by fission-fusion dynamics. Previous work has tended to compare relatedness within and among entire shoals. Such an approach however, does not have the ability to detect social sub-structuring within groups, which appears to be a major factor driving the social organisation of fission-fusion animal societies. Here, we use social network analysis combined with DNA microsatellite genotyping to examine the role of relatedness in structuring social relationships in a wild population of guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Consistent with previous findings, female-female dyads formed the strongest social relationships, which were stable over time. Interestingly, we also observed significant co-occurrence of male-male interactions, which is in contrast to previous work. Although we observed social sub-structuring in the population, we found no evidence for relatedness playing a significant role in underpinning this structure. Indeed, only seven first-degree relative dyads were identified among the 180 fish genotyped, indicating that the majority of individuals do not have a first-degree relative in the population. The high genetic diversity observed in this population is indicative of a large effective population size typical of lowland guppy populations. We discuss our findings in the context of the evolution of social organisation and the mechanisms and constraints that may drive the observed patterns in wild populations.
亲属关系在动物社会结构中的作用引起了广泛关注。虽然有大量研究记录了在实验室条件下群体鱼类的亲缘识别，但很少有证据表明亲缘关系在以裂变-融合动态为特征的野生种群中对社会互动结构有重要作用。以前的工作往往比较整个鱼群内和鱼群之间的亲缘关系。然而，这种方法没有能力检测群体内的社会亚结构，而这似乎是推动裂变-融合动物社会组织的一个主要因素。在这里，我们使用社会网络分析结合 DNA 微卫星基因分型来研究亲缘关系在构建野生孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）社会关系中的作用。与之前的发现一致，雌性-雌性对偶形成了最强的社会关系，并且随着时间的推移保持稳定。有趣的是，我们还观察到雄性-雄性相互作用的显著共现，这与之前的工作相反。尽管我们观察到群体中存在社会亚结构，但我们没有发现亲缘关系在支撑这种结构中起重要作用的证据。事实上，在 180 个被基因分型的鱼类中只鉴定出了 7 对一级亲属对，这表明大多数个体在群体中没有一级亲属。在该群体中观察到的高遗传多样性表明存在典型的低地孔雀鱼种群的大有效种群大小。我们在社会组织进化的背景下讨论我们的发现，以及可能推动野生种群中观察到的模式的机制和限制。
