Project description
Animal-microbe interactions in animals’ social life and early evolution
Animal social behaviours are multifaceted, widespread and essential to the diversity of life on Earth. However, the role of microbes in shaping animal social life is poorly understood, despite recent research suggesting that microbes can influence many social behaviours, from collective defences to communication and social nutrition. The ERC-funded project AniMicroSocial will examine the role of animal-microbe interactions in the social life of Nicrophorus burying beetles. Using methods from behavioural ecology, microbiology and metagenomics, the project will investigate how social behaviours help animals manage their microbial interaction partners and explore the co-evolution of animal-microbe symbiosis and animal social behaviours. This research will offer foundational insights into animal-microbe interactions and their role in the evolution of animal social life.
Objective
Animal social life is widespread and highly diverse, and has been heavily scrutinized due to its crucial impact on the diversity and complexity of life on earth. However, a key ecological driver of social life remains poorly understood: interactions with microbes. Traditionally viewed as an obstacle to social life, microbes are increasingly recognized for the benefits they can provide to their host, and a growing number of studies shows that interactions with microbes can shape key aspects of animal social life, from collective defenses to communication and social nutrition. However, this research mostly focuses on advanced social systems and typically examines effects of and on specific microbes with limited detail. As a result, major questions regarding the interplay of animal-microbe interactions and animal social behaviors and its role in the origin and early evolution of animal social life remain unresolved.
The research proposed here tackles these knowledge gaps by studying the role of animal-microbe interactions during the social life of Nicrophorus burying beetles. These beetles breed on carcasses of small vertebrates and are uniquely suited to take on this challenge: they exhibit a facultative (‘ancestral’) form of family life that heavily depends on interactions with symbiotic and environmental microbes, and parental care – the core social behavior of family life – is crucial to managing those interactions. Using methods from behavioral ecology, microbiology and metagenomics, the proposed research will (i) investigate the reciprocal relationship between animal social life and animal-microbe interactions, (ii) examine how interactions with microbes shape the early evolution of social life, and (iii) study the interplay of social evolution and the evolution of animal-microbe symbiosis. This research agenda will provide foundational insights into animal-microbe interactions and their role in the as yet poorly understood early evolution of animal social life.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyevolutionary ecology
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
95447 Bayreuth
Germany