The role of animal-microbe interactions in the early evolution of animal social life

Descripción del proyecto

Interacciones entre animales y microbios en la vida social de los animales y su evolución temprana

Los comportamientos sociales de los animales son polifacéticos, están muy extendidos y son fundamentales para la diversidad de la vida en la Tierra. Sin embargo, el papel de los microbios en la conformación de la vida social de los animales es poco conocido, pese a que recientes investigaciones sugieren que los microbios pueden influir en muchos comportamientos sociales, desde las defensas colectivas hasta la comunicación y la nutrición social. El proyecto AniMicroSocial, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, examinará el papel de las interacciones entre animales y microbios en la vida social de los escarabajos enterradores «Nicrophorus». Gracias a métodos de la ecología del comportamiento, la microbiología y la metagenómica, el proyecto investigará cómo los comportamientos sociales ayudan a los animales a gestionar a sus compañeros de interacción microbiana y explorará la coevolución de la simbiosis entre animales y microbios, así como los comportamientos sociales de los animales. La investigación ofrecerá conocimientos fundamentales sobre las interacciones entre animales y microbios, así como su papel en la evolución de la vida social animal.

Objetivo

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.