@article {pmid37251589,
year = {2023},
author = {Choi, J and Lee, S and Kim, H and Park, J},
title = {The role of recognition error in the stability of green-beard genes.},
journal = {Evolution letters},
volume = {7},
number = {3},
pages = {157-167},
pmid = {37251589},
issn = {2056-3744},
abstract = {The empirical examples of the green-beard genes, once a conundrum of evolutionary biology, are accumulating, while theoretical analyses of this topic are occasional compared to those concerning (narrow-sense) kin selection. In particular, the recognition error of the green-beard effect that the cooperator fails to accurately recognize the other cooperators or defectors is readily found in numerous green-beard genes. To our knowledge, however, no model up to date has taken that effect into account. In this article, we investigated the effect of recognition error on the fitness of the green-beard gene. By employing theories of evolutionary games, our mathematical model predicts that the fitness of the green-beard gene is frequency dependent (frequency of the green-beard gene), which was corroborated by experiments performed with yeast FLO1. The experiment also shows that the cells with the green-beard gene (FLO1) are sturdier under severe stress. We conclude that the low recognition error among the cooperators, the higher reward of cooperation, and the higher cost of defection confer an advantage to the green-beard gene under certain conditions, confirmed by numerical simulation as well. Interestingly, we expect that the recognition error to the defectors may promote the cooperator fitness if the cooperator frequency is low and mutual defection is detrimental. Our ternary approach of mathematical analysis, experiments, and simulation lays the groundwork of the standard model for the green-beard gene that can be generalized to other species.},
}

@article {pmid37198896,
year = {2023},
author = {Antfolk, J and Marklund, E and Nylund, I and Gunst, A},
title = {No Signs of Inclusive Fitness or Reciprocal Altruism in Advantageous Inequity Aversion.},
journal = {Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior},
volume = {21},
number = {2},
pages = {14747049231173401},
doi = {10.1177/14747049231173401},
pmid = {37198896},
issn = {1474-7049},
abstract = {Advantageous inequity aversion (i.e., the tendency to respond negatively to unfairness that benefits oneself) usually develops in 6-8-year-olds. However, little is known about the selection pressures that might have shaped this phenomenon. Using data collected from 120 4-8-year-old Finnish children, we tested two evolutionary explanations for the development of advantageous inequity aversion: reciprocal altruism (i.e., benefiting from sharing when the roles are likely reversed in the future) and inclusive fitness (i.e., benefiting from sharing with biological relatives that carry the same alleles). We first successfully replicated a previous experiment, showing that 6-8-year-olds display advantageous inequity aversion by preferring to throw away a resource rather than keep it for themselves. Here, this behavior was also displayed in 5-year-olds. Using a novel experiment, we then asked children to distribute five erasers between themselves, a sibling, a peer, and a stranger. That is, an equal distribution was only possible if throwing away one eraser. We found no support for advantageous inequity aversion being shaped by either inclusive fitness or reciprocal altruism. Future studies could investigate costly signaling and adherence to social norms to avoid negative consequences as ultimate explanations for advantageous inequity aversion.},
}

@article {pmid37192926,
year = {2023},
author = {Helanterä, H and Ozan, M and Sundström, L},
title = {Relatedness modulates reproductive competition among queens in ant societies with multiple queens.},
journal = {Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology},
volume = {34},
number = {3},
pages = {340-345},
doi = {10.1093/beheco/arad004},
pmid = {37192926},
issn = {1045-2249},
abstract = {Reproductive sharing in animal groups with multiple breeders, insects and vertebrates alike, contains elements of both conflict and cooperation, and depends on both relatedness between co-breeders, as well as their internal and external conditions. We studied how queens of the ant Formica fusca adjust their reproductive efforts in response to experimental manipulations of the kin competition regime in their nest. Queens respond to the presence of competitors by increasing their egg laying efforts, but only if the competitors are highly fecund and distantly related. Such a mechanism is likely to decrease harmful competition among close relatives. We demonstrate that queens of Formica fusca fine-tune their cooperative breeding behaviors in response to kinship and fecundity of others in a remarkably precise and flexible manner.},
}

@article {pmid37186853,
year = {2023},
author = {Riehl, C and LaPergola, JB},
title = {Inclusive fitness explains behavioral diversity in a social bird.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {120},
number = {21},
pages = {e2305610120},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2305610120},
pmid = {37186853},
issn = {1091-6490},
}

@article {pmid37161292,
year = {2023},
author = {Tanskanen, AO and Helle, S and Danielsbacka, M},
title = {Differential grandparental investment when maternal grandmothers are living versus deceased.},
journal = {Biology letters},
volume = {19},
number = {5},
pages = {20230061},
doi = {10.1098/rsbl.2023.0061},
pmid = {37161292},
issn = {1744-957X},
abstract = {Grandparents can increase their inclusive fitness by investing time and resources in their grandchildren. However, not all grandparents make such investments equally, and between-grandparent differences in this regard can be predicted based on paternity uncertainty, lineage and grandparents' sex. Using population-based data for English and Welsh adolescents (n = 1430), we examined whether the death of the most important grandparent (in terms of investment), the maternal grandmother (MGM), changes relative support for existing hypotheses predicting differential grandparental-investment patterns. To contrast the predictions of the grandparental investment hypotheses, we used generalized order-restricted information criterion approximation. We consequently found that, when MGMs are alive, the most-supported hypothesis is 'discriminative grandparental solicitude', which ranks grandparental investment as MGMs > maternal grandfathers (MGFs) > paternal grandmothers (PGMs) > paternal grandfathers (PGFs). However, when MGMs are deceased, the paternity uncertainty hypothesis (MGFs = PGMs > PGFs) receives the most support; this is due to increased investment by PGMs. Thus, when the heaviest investors (i.e. MGMs) are deceased, PGM investments are closer to-but do not exceed-MGF investments.},
}

@article {pmid37140644,
year = {2023},
author = {Gussone, L and Hüllen, A and Vitt, S and Scherer, U and Thünken, T},
title = {Impact of genetic relatedness on reproductive behavior in Pelvicachromis pulcher, a biparental cichlid fish with mutual mate choice and ornamentation.},
journal = {Die Naturwissenschaften},
volume = {110},
number = {3},
pages = {17},
pmid = {37140644},
issn = {1432-1904},
abstract = {Inbreeding can result in inbreeding depression. Therefore, many species seek to avoid inbreeding. However, theory predicts that inbreeding can be beneficial. Accordingly, some species tolerate inbreeding or even prefer mating with close relatives. Evidence for active inbreeding, i.e., kin-mating preference was reported in the biparental African cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus. Related mating partners revealed better parental cooperation due to kin selection, a potential benefit of inbreeding. In this study, we investigated kin-mating preference in a genetically diverse, outbred F2-lab population of Pelvicachromis pulcher, a closely related species to P. taeniatus. Like P. taeniatus, this species shows mutual ornamentation and mate choice as well as intense biparental brood care. The F1 P. pulcher generation had revealed signs of inbreeding depression but no inbreeding avoidance. We studied mating behavior and aggression in trios consisting of a male P. pulcher, an unfamiliar sister, and an unfamiliar, unrelated female. Because the study focused on kin-mating patterns, female pairs were matched for body size and coloration. The results provide no evidence for inbreeding avoidance but rather suggest inbreeding preference. We also found no significant impact of inbreeding on offspring survival. The results suggest no inbreeding avoidance in P. pulcher; however, the strength of inbreeding preference and inbreeding depression seems to be variable. We discuss possible causes for this variation like context-dependent inbreeding depression. The number of eggs positively correlated with female body size and coloration. Furthermore, the female aggressiveness was positively correlated with female coloration indicating that coloration signal female dominance and quality.},
}

@article {pmid37126712,
year = {2023},
author = {Koenig, WD and Barve, S and Haydock, J and Dugdale, HL and Oli, MK and Walters, EL},
title = {Lifetime inclusive fitness effects of cooperative polygamy in the acorn woodpecker.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {120},
number = {19},
pages = {e2219345120},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2219345120},
pmid = {37126712},
issn = {1091-6490},
abstract = {Although over 50 y have passed since W. D. Hamilton articulated kin selection and inclusive fitness as evolutionary explanations for altruistic behavior, quantifying inclusive fitness continues to be challenging. Here, using 30 y of data and two alternative methods, we outline an approach to measure lifetime inclusive fitness effects of cooperative polygamy (mate-sharing or cobreeding) in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus. For both sexes, the number of offspring (observed direct fitness) declined while the number of young parented by related cobreeders (observed indirect fitness effect) increased with cobreeding coalition size. Combining these two factors, the observed inclusive fitness effect of cobreeding was greater than breeding singly for males, while the pattern for females depended on whether fitness was age-weighted, as females breeding singly accrued greater fitness at younger ages than cobreeding females. Accounting for the fitness birds would have obtained by breeding singly, however, lifetime inclusive fitness effects declined with coalition size for males, but were greater for females breeding as duos compared to breeding singly, due largely to indirect fitness effects of kin. Our analyses provide a road map for, and demonstrate the importance of, quantifying indirect fitness as a powerful evolutionary force contributing to the costs and benefits of social behaviors.},
}

@article {pmid37094171,
year = {2023},
author = {Shah, SS and Rubenstein, DR},
title = {Group augmentation underlies the evolution of complex sociality in the face of environmental instability.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {120},
number = {18},
pages = {e2212211120},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2212211120},
pmid = {37094171},
issn = {1091-6490},
abstract = {Although kin selection is assumed to underlie the evolution of sociality, many vertebrates-including nearly half of all cooperatively breeding birds-form groups that also include unrelated individuals. Theory predicts that despite reducing kin structure, immigration of unrelated individuals into groups can provide direct, group augmentation benefits, particularly when offspring recruitment is insufficient for group persistence. Using population dynamic modeling and analysis of long-term data, we provide clear empirical evidence of group augmentation benefits favoring the evolution and maintenance of complex societies with low kin structure and multiple reproductives. We show that in the superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus)-a plural cooperative breeder that forms large groups with multiple breeding pairs, and related and unrelated nonbreeders of both sexes-offspring recruitment alone cannot prevent group extinction, especially in smaller groups. Further, smaller groups, which stand to benefit more from immigration, exhibit lower reproductive skew for immigrants, suggesting that reproductive opportunities as joining incentives lead to plural breeding. Yet, despite a greater likelihood of becoming a breeder in smaller groups, immigrants are more likely to join larger groups where they experience increased survivorship and greater reproductive success as breeders. Moreover, immigrants form additional breeding pairs, increasing future offspring recruitment into the group and guarding against complete reproductive failure in the face of environmental instability and high nest predation. Thus, plural breeding likely evolves because the benefits of group augmentation by immigrants generate a positive feedback loop that maintains societies with low and mixed kinship, large group sizes, and multiple reproductives.},
}

@article {pmid37092004,
year = {2023},
author = {Guo, Y and Grueter, CC and Lu, J},
title = {Allomaternal care and 'adoption' in an edge-of-range population of Taihangshan macaques in Northern China.},
journal = {Current zoology},
volume = {69},
number = {2},
pages = {215-218},
pmid = {37092004},
issn = {1674-5507},
}

@article {pmid37075326,
year = {2023},
author = {van Dokkum, NH and Fagan, LJ and Cullen, M and Loewy, JV},
title = {Assessing HeartSong as a Neonatal Music Therapy Intervention: A Qualitative Study on Personal and Professional Caregivers' Perspectives.},
journal = {Advances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1097/ANC.0000000000001068},
pmid = {37075326},
issn = {1536-0911},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: The music therapy HeartSong intervention pairs newborn infant heartbeats with parents' Song of Kin. Formal evidence on professional and personal caregiver perspectives of this intervention is lacking.

PURPOSE: This survey study evaluates the HeartSong music therapy intervention from parent and staff perspectives.

METHODS: A qualitative study assessing inclusion of HeartSong for family neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) care surveyed 10 professional caregivers comprising medical and psychosocial NICU teams anonymously reflecting their impressions of the intervention. Digital survey of parents/guardians contacted through semistructured phone interviews relayed impressions of recordings: subsequent setup, Song of Kin selection, and use of HeartSong, including thoughts/feelings about it as an intervention.

RESULTS: Professional and personal caregivers valued the HeartSong intervention for bereavement support, family support, including parental, extended family/infant support, and to enhance bonding. Emergent themes: memory-making, connectedness/closeness, support of parent role, processing mental health needs of stressful NICU days, and subsequent plans for lifelong HeartSong use. Therapeutic experience was named as a crucial intervention aspect and participants recommended the HeartSong as a viable, accessible NICU intervention.

HeartSong's use showed efficacy as a clinical NICU music therapy intervention for families of critically ill and extremely preterm infants, when provided by trained, specialized, board-certified music therapists. Future research focusing on HeartSong in other NICU populations might benefit infants with cardiac disease, parental stress, and anxiety attending to parent-infant bonding. Costs and time benefits related to investment are needed before implementation is considered.},
}

@article {pmid37072037,
year = {2023},
author = {Fuirst, M and Strickland, D and Freeman, NE and Sutton, AO and Ryan Norris, D},
title = {Early-life sibling conflict in Canada jays has lifetime fitness consequences.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {290},
number = {1997},
pages = {20221863},
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2022.1863},
pmid = {37072037},
issn = {1471-2954},
abstract = {While delaying natal dispersal can provide short-term benefits for juveniles, lifetime fitness consequences are rarely assessed. Furthermore, competition for limited positions on a natal territory could impose an indirect fitness cost on the winner if the outcome has negative effects on its siblings. We use radio-tracking and 58 years of nesting data in Ontario, Canada to examine the lifetime fitness consequences of sibling expulsion in the Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis). Six weeks after fledging, intra-brood dominance struggles result in one 'dominant juvenile' (DJ) remaining on the natal territory after expelling its subordinate siblings, the 'ejectees' (EJs). Despite an older age-at-first-reproduction, DJs produced more recruits over their lifetime and had higher first-year survival than EJs, leading to substantially higher direct fitness. Even though DJs incurred an indirect fitness cost by expelling their siblings and there was no evidence that their presence on the natal territory increased their parents' reproductive output the following year, they still had substantially higher inclusive fitness than EJs. Our results demonstrate how early-life sibling conflict can have lifetime consequences and that such fitness differences in Canada jays are driven by the enhanced first-year survival of DJs pursuant to the early-summer expulsion of their sibling competitors.},
}

@article {pmid37065817,
year = {2023},
author = {Knorr, DA and Fox, M},
title = {An evolutionary perspective on the association between grandmother-mother relationships and maternal mental health among a cohort of pregnant Latina women.},
journal = {Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society},
volume = {44},
number = {1},
pages = {30-38},
pmid = {37065817},
issn = {1090-5138},
abstract = {Grandmothers are often critical helpers during a mother's reproductive career. Studies on the developmental origins of health and disease demonstrate how maternal psychological distress can negatively influence fetal development and birth outcomes, highlighting an area in which soon-to-be grandmothers (henceforth "grandmothers") can invest to improve both mother and offspring well-being. Here, we examine if and how a pregnant woman's mental health- specifically, depression, state-anxiety, and pregnancy-related anxiety- is influenced by her relationship with her fetus' maternal and paternal grandmother, controlling for relationship characteristics with her fetus' father. In a cohort of pregnant Latina women in Southern California (N = 216), we assessed social support, geographic proximity, and communication between the fetus' grandmothers and pregnant mother. We assessed maternal mental health with validated questionnaire-based instruments. We find that both social support from and communication with the maternal grandmother were statistically associated with less depression, while no paternal grandmother relationship characteristics were statistically significant in association with any mental health variable. These results align with the idea that maternal grandmothers are more adaptively incentivized to invest in their daughters' well-being during pregnancy than paternal grandmothers are for their daughters-in-law. Results suggest that the positive association of maternal grandmothers with mothers' mental health may not hinge on geographic proximity, but rather, potentially function through emotional support. This work represents a novel perspective describing a psychological and prenatal grandmaternal effect.},
}

@article {pmid37046187,
year = {2023},
author = {Jones, CT and Meynell, L and Neto, C and Susko, E and Bielawski, JP},
title = {The role of the ecological scaffold in the origin and maintenance of whole-group trait altruism in microbial populations.},
journal = {BMC ecology and evolution},
volume = {23},
number = {1},
pages = {11},
pmid = {37046187},
issn = {2730-7182},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Kin and multilevel selection provide explanations for the existence of altruism based on traits or processes that enhance the inclusive fitness of an altruist individual. Kin selection is often based on individual-level traits, such as the ability to recognize other altruists, whereas multilevel selection requires a metapopulation structure and dispersal process. These theories are unified by the general principle that altruism can be fixed by positive selection provided the benefit of altruism is preferentially conferred to other altruists. Here we take a different explanatory approach based on the recently proposed concept of an "ecological scaffold". We demonstrate that ecological conditions consisting of a patchy nutrient supply that generates a metapopulation structure, episodic mixing of groups, and severe nutrient limitation, can support or "scaffold" the evolution of altruism in a population of microbes by amplifying drift. This contrasts with recent papers in which the ecological scaffold was shown to support selective processes and demonstrates the power of scaffolding even in the absence of selection.

RESULTS: Using computer simulations motivated by a simple theoretical model, we show that, although an altruistic mutant can be fixed within a single population of non-altruists by drift when nutrients are severely limited, the resulting altruistic population remains vulnerable to non-altruistic mutants. We then show how the imposition of the "ecological scaffold" onto a population of non-altruists alters the balance between selection and drift in a way that supports the fixation and subsequent persistence of altruism despite the possibility of invasion by non-altruists.

CONCLUSIONS: The fixation of an altruistic mutant by drift is possible when supported by ecological conditions that impose a metapopulation structure, episodic mixing of groups, and severe nutrient limitation. This is significant because it offers an alternative explanation for the evolution of altruism based on drift rather than selection. Given the ubiquity of low-nutrient "oligotrophic" environments in which microbes exist (e.g., the open ocean, deep subsurface soils, or under the polar ice caps) our results suggest that altruistic and cooperative behaviors may be highly prevalent among microbial populations.},
}

@article {pmid37027070,
year = {2023},
author = {Nautiyal, H and Tanaka, H and Huffman, MA},
title = {Anti-predator strategies of adult male Central Himalayan Langurs (Semnopithecus schistaceus) in response to domestic dogs in a human-dominated landscape.},
journal = {Primates; journal of primatology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {37027070},
issn = {1610-7365},
abstract = {The evolution of predator-prey relationships is an important topic in primatology. Many aspects of primate society have been explained as a response to predation pressure. While predation has been discussed in broad theoretical terms, few systematically collected data exist on the subject. Furthermore, little information exists regarding the inter-male variation in responses to predators. To address this data gap, predatory dog-primate interactions were studied in a 78-member group of habituated, individually recognized Central Himalayan Langurs (CHL) (Semnopithecus schistaceus) living in a high-altitude subsistence agricultural landscape of northern India. We recorded 312 langur-dog interactions over 2 years. These predation events resulted in 15 serious attacks on adult females, infants, juveniles and sub-adults, in eight of which the prey was killed and consumed on the spot. In response to dog predation, adult males performed three types of anti-predator response behaviors: direct fighting with a predator, emitting alarm calls, fleeing and/or freezing. Differences were noted in each male's response to village dogs. The results showed that the likelihood of CHL adult males engaging in more costly counterattacks or attention getting alarm calls were better predicted by the level of investment in the group (genetic relatedness, duration of residency, social relationships), but not rank and mating rate. Long-duration resident adult males performed high and/or intermediate cost behaviors to protect vulnerable members of the group; their potential offspring, maternal siblings or cousins, and adult female social partners. Short-term residents or recent immigrant males exhibited two less energetically costly, more self-preserving behaviors, depending on their rank: (1) high-ranking short-tenure duration males, with high mating frequencies, performed flee and freeze responses; (2) low-ranking, low-mating-frequency males performed more alarm calls. Counterattacks and alarm calls were performed by adult males with relatively more experience with village dogs and were directed towards dogs with predatory histories significantly more often than dogs with non-predatory histories. Natural selection and kin selection have both contributed to the evolution of CHL anti-predator tactics.},
}

@article {pmid36974150,
year = {2023},
author = {Li, Z and Da, X and Lu, X},
title = {Complementary interactions between indirect and direct fitness in a cooperatively breeding bird.},
journal = {Current zoology},
volume = {69},
number = {1},
pages = {76-81},
pmid = {36974150},
issn = {1674-5507},
abstract = {Altruism is difficult to explain evolutionarily and to understand it, there is a need to quantify the benefits and costs to altruists. Hamilton's theory of kin selection argues that altruism can persist if the costs to altruists are offset by indirect fitness payoffs from helping related recipients. Nevertheless, helping nonkin is also common and in such situations, the costs must be compensated for by direct benefits. While previous researchers tended to evaluate the indirect and direct fitness in isolation, we expect that they have a complementary interaction where altruists are associated with recipients of different relatedness within a population. The prediction is tested with 12 years of data on lifetime reproductive success for a cooperatively breeding bird, Tibetan ground tits Pseudopodoces humilis. Helpers who helped distantly related recipients gained significantly lower indirect benefits than those who helped closely related recipients, but the opposite was true for direct fitness, thereby making these helpers have an equal inclusive fitness. Helping efforts were independent of helpers' relatedness to recipients, but those helping distantly related recipients were more likely to inherit the resident territory, which could be responsible for their high direct reproductive success. Our findings provide an explanatory model for the widespread coexistence of altruists and recipients with varying relatedness within a single population.},
}

@article {pmid36972783,
year = {2023},
author = {Wild, G and Flear, VJ and Thompson, GJ},
title = {A kin-selection model of fairness in heterogeneous populations.},
journal = {Journal of theoretical biology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {111469},
doi = {10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111469},
pmid = {36972783},
issn = {1095-8541},
abstract = {Humans and other primates exhibit pro-social preferences for fairness. These preferences are thought to be reinforced by strong reciprocity, a policy that rewards fair actors and punishes unfair ones. Theories of fairness based on strong reciprocity have been criticized for overlooking the importance of individual differences in socially heterogeneous populations. Here, we explore the evolution of fairness in a heterogeneous population. We analyse the Ultimatum Game in cases where players' roles in the game are determined by their status. Importantly, our model allows for non-random pairing of players, and so we also explore the role played by kin selection in shaping fairness. Our kin-selection model shows that, when individuals condition their behaviour on their role in the game, fairness can be understood as either altruistic or spiteful. Altruistic fairness directs resources from less valuable members of a genetic lineage to more valuable members of the same lineage, whereas spiteful fairness keeps resources away from the competitors of the actor's high-value relatives. When individuals express fairness unconditionally it can be understood as altruistic or selfish. When it is altruistic, unconditional fairness again serves to direct resources to high-value members of genetic lineages. When it is selfish, unconditional fairness simply improves an individual's own standing. Overall, we expand kin-selection based explanations for fairness to include motivations other than spite. We show, therefore, that one need not invoke strong reciprocity to explain the advantage of fairness in heterogeneous populations.},
}

@article {pmid36934761,
year = {2023},
author = {Lehtonen, J and Otsuka, J},
title = {Evolutionary game theory of continuous traits from a causal perspective.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {378},
number = {1876},
pages = {20210507},
doi = {10.1098/rstb.2021.0507},
pmid = {36934761},
issn = {1471-2970},
abstract = {Modern evolutionary game theory typically deals with the evolution of continuous, quantitative traits under weak selection, allowing the incorporation of rich biological detail and complicated nonlinear interactions. While these models are commonly used to find candidates for evolutionary endpoints and to approximate evolutionary trajectories, a less appreciated property is their potential to expose and clarify the causal structure of evolutionary processes. The mathematical step of differentiation breaks a nonlinear model into additive components which are more intuitive to interpret, and when combined with a proper causal hypothesis, partial derivatives in such models have a causal meaning. Such an approach has been used in the causal analysis of game-theoretical models in an informal manner. Here we formalize this approach by linking evolutionary game theory to concepts developed in causal modelling over the past century, from path coefficients to the recently proposed causal derivative. There is a direct correspondence between the causal derivative and the derivative used in evolutionary game theory. Some game theoretical models (e.g. kin selection) consist of multiple causal derivatives. Components of these derivatives correspond to components of the causal derivative, to path coefficients, and to edges on a causal graph, formally linking evolutionary game theory to causal modelling. This article is part of the theme issue 'Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions'.},
}

@article {pmid36934754,
year = {2023},
author = {Van Cleve, J},
title = {Evolutionarily stable strategy analysis and its links to demography and genetics through invasion fitness.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {378},
number = {1876},
pages = {20210496},
doi = {10.1098/rstb.2021.0496},
pmid = {36934754},
issn = {1471-2970},
abstract = {Evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) analysis pioneered by Maynard Smith and Price took off in part because it often does not require explicit assumptions about the genetics and demography of a population in contrast to population genetic models. Though this simplicity is useful, it obscures the degree to which ESS analysis applies to populations with more realistic genetics and demography: for example, how does ESS analysis handle complexities such as kin selection, group selection and variable environments when phenotypes are affected by multiple genes? In this paper, I review the history of the ESS concept and show how early uncertainty about the method lead to important mathematical theory linking ESS analysis to general population genetic models. I use this theory to emphasize the link between ESS analysis and the concept of invasion fitness. I give examples of how invasion fitness can measure kin selection, group selection and the evolution of linked modifier genes in response to variable environments. The ESSs in these examples depend crucially on demographic and genetic parameters, which highlights how ESS analysis will continue to be an important tool in understanding evolutionary patterns as new models address the increasing abundance of genetic and long-term demographic data in natural populations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions'.},
}

@article {pmid36916702,
year = {2023},
author = {Mazal, L and Fajardo, A and Till-Bottraud, I and Corenblit, D and Fumanal, B},
title = {Kin selection, kin recognition and kin discrimination in plants revisited: a claim for considering environmental and genetic variability.},
journal = {Plant, cell & environment},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/pce.14584},
pmid = {36916702},
issn = {1365-3040},
abstract = {Considering kin selection in the study of interacting conspecific plants broadens our vision of plant behaviour and brings arguments to explain plant-plant positive interactions. These interactions are the subject of abundant research in community ecology and the role of relatedness in interactions between individuals has become a hot topic. Indeed, the past decade has seen a steady accumulation of exciting but also controversial results regarding the behaviour of plants in the presence of genetically related neighbours, i.e., kin discrimination. In addition to the existence of some methodological and semantic aspects that should be strengthened to accurately reveal the occurrence of kin recognition or selection, we claim here that some key aspects must be considered to increase our ability to detect kin recognition and selection in plants. These aspects include intraspecific variability, the fact that plant-plant interactions are context-dependent, and the lifespan of species (particularly long-lived ones). Additionally, we note that the study of the population spatial genetic structure (SGS) could be a useful tool to identify candidate settings for the study of kin recognition and selection in plants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.},
}

@article {pmid36862026,
year = {2023},
author = {Fox, MM and Knorr, DA and Kwon, D and Wiley, KS and Parrish, MH},
title = {How prenatal cortisol levels relate to grandmother-mother relationships among a cohort of Latina women.},
journal = {American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {e23883},
doi = {10.1002/ajhb.23883},
pmid = {36862026},
issn = {1520-6300},
support = {/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; /MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: As part of the human reproductive strategy, mothers receive childcare assistance from others. For kin, allomothers are adaptively incentivized to provide assistance due to inclusive fitness benefits. Previous studies across a broad range of populations identify grandmothers as particularly consistent allomothers. Minimal attention has been paid to the possibility that allomothers may begin investing in offspring quality during the prenatal stage of life. Here, we innovate within the area of grandmother allocare research by examining the prenatal stage of life and biopsychosocial mechanisms by which prenatal grandmother effects may be enacted.

METHODS: Data derive from the Mothers' Cultural Experiences study, a cohort of 107 pregnant Latina women in Southern California. At <16 weeks' gestation, we administered questionnaires, collected morning urine samples, and measured cortisol by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, correcting for specific gravity. We measured the soon-to-be maternal and paternal grandmothers' relationship quality, social support, frequency of seeing each other, communicating, and geographic proximity to pregnant mothers, that is, their daughters and daughters-in-law. These measures were self-reported by the pregnant mothers. We assessed how grandmother constructs related to the pregnant women's depression, stress, anxiety, and cortisol levels.

RESULTS: We observed benefits conferred by maternal grandmothers for mothers' prenatal mental health and lower cortisol levels. Paternal grandmothers also conferred mental health benefits to pregnant daughters-in-law, but higher cortisol levels.

CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that grandmothers, especially maternal grandmothers, are able to improve their inclusive fitness by caring for pregnant daughters, and allomother support may positively impact prenatal health. This work extends the traditional cooperative breeding model by identifying a prenatal grandmother effect, and, by examining a maternal biomarker.},
}

@article {pmid36802776,
year = {2023},
author = {Rodrigues, AMM and Barker, JL and Robinson, EJH},
title = {The evolution of intergroup cooperation.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {378},
number = {1874},
pages = {20220074},
doi = {10.1098/rstb.2022.0074},
pmid = {36802776},
issn = {1471-2970},
abstract = {Sociality is widespread among animals, and involves complex relationships within and between social groups. While intragroup interactions are often cooperative, intergroup interactions typically involve conflict, or at best tolerance. Active cooperation between members of distinct, separate groups occurs very rarely, predominantly in some primate and ant species. Here, we ask why intergroup cooperation is so rare, and what conditions favour its evolution. We present a model incorporating intra- and intergroup relationships and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that dispersal modes play a pivotal role in the evolution of intergroup interactions. Both long-distance and local dispersal processes drive population social structure, and the costs and benefits of intergroup conflict, tolerance and cooperation. Overall, the evolution of multi-group interaction patterns, including both intergroup aggression and intergroup tolerance, or even altruism, is more likely with mostly localized dispersal. However, the evolution of these intergroup relationships may have significant ecological impacts, and this feedback may alter the ecological conditions that favour its own evolution. These results show that the evolution of intergroup cooperation is favoured by a specific set of conditions, and may not be evolutionarily stable. We discuss how our results relate to empirical evidence of intergroup cooperation in ants and primates. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.},
}

@article {pmid36792870,
year = {2023},
author = {Santoriello, F and Pukatzki, S},
title = {Type VI Secretion Systems: Environmental and Intra-host Competition of Vibrio cholerae.},
journal = {Advances in experimental medicine and biology},
volume = {1404},
number = {},
pages = {41-63},
pmid = {36792870},
issn = {0065-2598},
abstract = {The Vibrio Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) is a harpoon-like nanomachine that serves as a defense system and is encoded by approximately 25% of all gram-negative bacteria. In this chapter, we describe the structure of the T6SS in different Vibrio species and outline how the use of different T6SS effector and immunity proteins control kin selection. We summarize the genetic loci that encode the structural elements that make up the Vibrio T6SSs and how these gene clusters are regulated. Finally, we provide insights into T6SS-based competitive dynamics, the role of T6SS genetic exchange in those competitive dynamics, and roles for the Vibrio T6SS in virulence.},
}

@article {pmid36724459,
year = {2023},
author = {Fischer, S and Duffield, C and Davidson, AJ and Bolton, R and Hurst, JL and Stockley, P},
title = {Fitness Costs of Female Competition Linked to Resource Defense and Relatedness of Competitors.},
journal = {The American naturalist},
volume = {201},
number = {2},
pages = {256-268},
doi = {10.1086/722513},
pmid = {36724459},
issn = {1537-5323},
mesh = {Animals ; Mice ; Female ; Humans ; *Social Behavior ; *Cooperative Behavior ; Social Environment ; Siblings ; Reproduction ; },
abstract = {AbstractFemale reproductive success is often limited by access to resources, and this can lead to social competition both within and between kin groups. Theory predicts that both resource availability and relatedness should influence the fitness consequences of social competition. However, testing key predictions requires differentiating the effects of these two factors. Here, we achieve this experimentally by manipulating the social environment of house mice, a facultative communal breeding species with known kin discrimination ability. This allows us to investigate (1) the reproductive costs of defending a limited resource in response to cues of social competition and (2) whether such costs, or their potential mitigation via cooperative behavior, are influenced by the relatedness of competitors. Our results support the hypothesis that resource defense can be costly for females, potentially trading off against maternal investment. When the availability of protected nest sites was limited, subjects (1) were more active, (2) responded more strongly to simulated territory intrusions via competitive signaling, and (3) produced smaller weaned offspring. However, we found no evidence that the propensity for kin to cooperate was influenced by the relatedness of rivals. Communal breeding between sisters occurred independently of the relatedness of competitors and communally breeding sisters weaned fewer offspring when competing with unrelated females, despite our study being designed to prevent infanticide between kin groups. Our findings thus demonstrate that female competition has fitness costs and that associating with kin is beneficial to avoid negative fitness consequences of competing with nonkin, in addition to more widely recognized kin-selected benefits.},
}

Animals
Mice
Female
Humans
*Social Behavior
*Cooperative Behavior
Social Environment
Siblings
Reproduction

@article {pmid36717460,
year = {2022},
author = {Leake, DW},
title = {Tracing Slow Phenoptosis to the Prenatal Stage in Social Vertebrates.},
journal = {Biochemistry. Biokhimiia},
volume = {87},
number = {12},
pages = {1512-1527},
doi = {10.1134/S0006297922120094},
pmid = {36717460},
issn = {1608-3040},
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; Aged ; *Aging/genetics ; *Vertebrates ; },
abstract = {Vladimir Skulachev's coining of the term "phenoptosis" 25 years ago (Skulachev, V. P., Biochemistry (Moscow), 62, 1997) highlighted the theoretical possibility that aging is a programmed process to speed the exit of individuals posing some danger to their social group. While rapid "acute phenoptosis" might occur at any age (e.g., to prevent spread of deadly infections), "slow phenoptosis" is generally considered to occur later in life in the form of chronic age-related disorders. However, recent research indicates that risks for such chronic disorders can be greatly raised by early life adversity, especially during the prenatal stage. Much of this research uses indicators of biological aging, the speeding or slowing of natural physiological deterioration in response to environmental inputs, leading to divergence from chronological age. Studies using biological aging indicators commonly find it is accelerated not only in older individuals with chronic disorders, but also in very young individuals with health problems. This review will explain how accelerated biological aging equates to slow phenoptosis. Its occurrence even in the prenatal stage is theoretically supported by W. D. Hamilton's proposal that offsprings detecting they have dangerous mutations should then automatically speed their demise, in order to improve their inclusive fitness by giving their parents the chance to produce other fitter siblings.},
}

Animals
Humans
Aged
*Aging/genetics
*Vertebrates

@article {pmid36717459,
year = {2022},
author = {Pandey, T and Ma, DK},
title = {Stress-Induced Phenoptosis: Mechanistic Insights and Evolutionary Implications.},
journal = {Biochemistry. Biokhimiia},
volume = {87},
number = {12},
pages = {1504-1511},
doi = {10.1134/S0006297922120082},
pmid = {36717459},
issn = {1608-3040},
mesh = {Animals ; Humans ; *Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics ; *Apoptosis ; Aging/genetics ; Bacteria ; Signal Transduction ; Biological Evolution ; Mammals ; },
abstract = {Evolution by natural selection results in biological traits that enable organismic adaptation and survival under various stressful environments. External stresses can be sometimes too severe to overcome, leading to organismic death either because of failure in adapting to such stress, or alternatively, through a regulated form of organismic death (phenoptosis). While regulated cell deaths, including apoptosis, have been extensively studied, little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying phenoptosis and its evolutionary significance for multicellular organisms. In this article, we review documented phenomena and mechanistic evidence emerging from studies of stress-induced phenoptosis in the multicellular organism C. elegans and stress-induced deaths at cellular levels in organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals, focusing on abiotic and pathogen stresses. Genes and signaling pathways involved in phenoptosis appear to promote organismic death during severe stress and aging, while conferring fitness and immune defense during mild stress and early life, consistent with their antagonistic pleiotropy actions. As cell apoptosis during development can shape tissues and organs, stress-induced phenoptosis may also contribute to possible benefits at the population level, through mechanisms including kin selection, abortive infection, and soma-to-germline resource allocation. Current models can generate experimentally testable predictions and conceptual frameworks with implications for understanding both stress-induced phenoptosis and natural aging.},
}

Animals
Humans
*Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics
*Apoptosis
Aging/genetics
Bacteria
Signal Transduction
Biological Evolution
Mammals

@article {pmid36717438,
year = {2022},
author = {Lidsky, PV and Yuan, J and Rulison, JM and Andino-Pavlovsky, R},
title = {Is Aging an Inevitable Characteristic of Organic Life or an Evolutionary Adaptation?.},
journal = {Biochemistry. Biokhimiia},
volume = {87},
number = {12},
pages = {1413-1445},
pmid = {36717438},
issn = {1608-3040},
mesh = {Humans ; Aged ; *Biological Evolution ; *Aging ; Longevity ; Adaptation, Physiological ; },
abstract = {Aging is an evolutionary paradox. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain it, but none fully explains all the biochemical and ecologic data accumulated over decades of research. We suggest that senescence is a primitive immune strategy which acts to protect an individual's kin from chronic infections. Older organisms are exposed to pathogens for a longer period of time and have a higher likelihood of acquiring infectious diseases. Accordingly, the parasitic load in aged individuals is higher than in younger ones. Given that the probability of pathogen transmission is higher within the kin, the inclusive fitness cost of infection might exceed the benefit of living longer. In this case, programmed lifespan termination might be an evolutionarily stable strategy. Here, we discuss the classical evolutionary hypotheses of aging and compare them with the pathogen control hypothesis, discuss the consistency of these hypotheses with existing empirical data, and present a revised conceptual framework to understand the evolution of aging.},
}

Humans
Aged
*Biological Evolution
*Aging
Longevity
Adaptation, Physiological

@article {pmid36652244,
year = {2023},
author = {Wild, G},
title = {Technical comment on "sex ratios when helpers stay at the nest".},
journal = {Evolution; international journal of organic evolution},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1093/evolut/qpad007},
pmid = {36652244},
issn = {1558-5646},
abstract = {I contributed a paper to volume 60 of the journal. The paper reported on my study of sex-ratio evolution when one sex (females) is helpful but the other sex (males) suffers less from kin competition. I had based my study on a kin-selection model, and so I was dismayed to discover an error in the relatedness calculations therein. Specifically, relatedness coefficients that should have been calculated using a sampling-without-replacement scheme were instead calculated using sampling with replacement. Here, I correct my error and show how it impacts my original findings. I argue that my main conclusions are unchanged. Furthermore, only two new findings contrast with those I presented earlier. First, changing those model details unrelated to the marginal fitness benefits of help does not, in turn, impact substantially the conflict that occurs between mates over the brood sex ratio (I had previously reported some noteworthy impact was possible). Second, help can reduce sex-ratio conflict between mates more effectively when breeders occur in smaller groups (previously, I had said this occurred in larger groups).},
}

@article {pmid36621654,
year = {2023},
author = {Schradin, C},
title = {Traits don't evolve for the benefit of the species but because they increase individuals' inclusive fitness.},
journal = {Brain, behavior, and immunity},
volume = {109},
number = {},
pages = {89},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbi.2023.01.002},
pmid = {36621654},
issn = {1090-2139},
}

@article {pmid36617555,
year = {2023},
author = {Robinson, SD and Schendel, V and Schroeder, CI and Moen, S and Mueller, A and Walker, AA and McKinnon, N and Neely, GG and Vetter, I and King, GF and Undheim, EAB},
title = {Intra-colony venom diversity contributes to maintaining eusociality in a cooperatively breeding ant.},
journal = {BMC biology},
volume = {21},
number = {1},
pages = {5},
pmid = {36617555},
issn = {1741-7007},
mesh = {Animals ; *Ants/genetics ; Venoms ; Australia ; Reproduction ; Social Behavior ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Eusociality is widely considered to evolve through kin selection, where the reproductive success of an individual's close relative is favored at the expense of its own. High genetic relatedness is thus considered a prerequisite for eusociality. While ants are textbook examples of eusocial animals, not all ants form colonies of closely related individuals. One such example is the ectatommine ant Rhytidoponera metallica, which predominantly forms queen-less colonies that have such a low intra-colony relatedness that they have been proposed to represent a transient, unstable form of eusociality. However, R. metallica is among the most abundant and widespread ants on the Australian continent. This apparent contradiction provides an example of how inclusive fitness may not by itself explain the maintenance of eusociality and raises the question of what other selective advantages maintain the eusocial lifestyle of this species.

RESULTS: We provide a comprehensive portrait of the venom of R. metallica and show that the colony-wide venom consists of an exceptionally high diversity of functionally distinct toxins for an ant. These toxins have evolved under strong positive selection, which is normally expected to reduce genetic variance. Yet, R. metallica exhibits remarkable intra-colony variation, with workers sharing only a relatively small proportion of toxins in their venoms. This variation is not due to the presence of chemical castes, but has a genetic foundation that is at least in part explained by toxin allelic diversity.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results suggest that the toxin diversity contained in R. metallica colonies may be maintained by a form of group selection that selects for colonies that can exploit more resources and defend against a wider range of predators. We propose that increased intra-colony genetic variance resulting from low kinship may itself provide a selective advantage in the form of an expanded pharmacological venom repertoire. These findings provide an example of how group selection on adaptive phenotypes may contribute to maintaining eusociality where a prerequisite for kin selection is diminished.},
}

Animals
*Ants/genetics
Venoms
Australia
Reproduction
Social Behavior

@article {pmid36579168,
year = {2022},
author = {Kreider, JJ and Kramer, BH and Komdeur, J and Pen, I},
title = {The evolution of ageing in cooperative breeders.},
journal = {Evolution letters},
volume = {6},
number = {6},
pages = {450-459},
pmid = {36579168},
issn = {2056-3744},
abstract = {Cooperatively breeding animals live longer than their solitary counterparts. This has been suggested for birds, mole rats, and social insects. A common explanation for these long lifespans is that cooperative breeding evolves more readily in long-lived species because lower mortality reduces the rate of territory turnover and thus leads to a limitation of breeding territories. Here, we reverse this argument and show that-rather than being a cause for its evolution-long lifespans are an evolutionary consequence of cooperative breeding. In evolutionary individual-based simulations, we show that natural selection favors a delayed onset of senescence in cooperative breeders, relative to solitary breeders, because cooperative breeders have a delayed age of first reproduction as helpers wait in a reproductive queue to obtain breeder status. Especially long lifespans evolve in cooperative breeders in which queue positions depend on the helpers' age rank among the helpers within the breeding territory. Furthermore, we show that lower genetic relatedness among group members leads to the evolution of longer lifespans. This is because selection against higher mortality is weaker when mortality reduces competition for breeding between relatives. Our results link the evolutionary theory of ageing with kin selection theory, demonstrating that the evolution of ageing in cooperative breeders is driven by the timing of reproduction and kin structure within breeding territories.},
}

@article {pmid36521752,
year = {2023},
author = {Bruckner, S and Straub, L and Neumann, P and Williams, GR},
title = {Negative but antagonistic effects of neonicotinoid insecticides and ectoparasitic mites Varroa destructor on Apis mellifera honey bee food glands.},
journal = {Chemosphere},
volume = {313},
number = {},
pages = {137535},
doi = {10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137535},
pmid = {36521752},
issn = {1879-1298},
mesh = {Bees ; Animals ; *Mites ; *Varroidae ; *Insecticides/toxicity ; *Honey ; Host-Parasite Interactions ; Neonicotinoids/toxicity ; },
abstract = {Collaborative brood care by workers is essential for the functionality of eusocial Apis mellifera honey bee colonies. The hypopharyngeal food glands of workers play a crucial role in this context. Even though there is consensus that ubiquitous ectoparasitic mites Varroa destructor and widespread insecticides, such as neonicotinoids, are major stressors for honey bee health, their impact alone and in combination on the feeding glands of workers is poorly understood. Here, we show that combined exposure to V. destructor and neonicotinoids antagonistically interacted on hypopharyngeal gland size, yet they did not interact on emergence body mass or survival. While the observed effects of the antagonistic interaction were less negative than expected based on the sum of the individual effects, hypopharyngeal gland size was still significantly reduced. Alone, V. destructor parasitism negatively affected emergence body mass, survival, and hypopharyngeal gland size, whereas neonicotinoid exposure reduced hypopharyngeal gland size only. Since size is associated with hypopharyngeal gland functionality, a reduction could result in inadequate brood care. As cooperative brood care is a cornerstone of eusociality, smaller glands could have adverse down-stream effects on inclusive fitness of honey bee colonies. Therefore, our findings highlight the need to further study how ubiquitous stressors like V. destructor and neonicotinoids interact to affect honey bees.},
}

Bees
Animals
*Mites
*Varroidae
*Insecticides/toxicity
*Honey
Host-Parasite Interactions
Neonicotinoids/toxicity

@article {pmid36514956,
year = {2022},
author = {Davidian, E and Höner, OP},
title = {Kinship and similarity drive coordination of breeding-group choice in male spotted hyenas.},
journal = {Biology letters},
volume = {18},
number = {12},
pages = {20220402},
pmid = {36514956},
issn = {1744-957X},
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Male ; *Hyaenidae/genetics ; },
abstract = {When and where animals reproduce influences the social, demographic and genetic properties of the groups and populations they live in. We examined the extent to which male spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) coordinate their breeding-group choice. We tested whether their propensity to settle in the same group is shaped by passive processes driven by similarities in their socio-ecological background and genotype or by an adaptive process driven by kin selection. We compared the choices of 148 pairs of same-cohort males that varied in similarity and kinship. We found strong support for both processes. Coordination was highest (70% of pairs) for littermates, who share most cumulative similarity, lower (36%) among peers born in the same group to different mothers, and lowest (7%) among strangers originating from different groups and mothers. Consistent with the kin selection hypothesis, the propensity to choose the same group was density dependent for full siblings and close kin, but not distant kin. Coordination increased as the number of breeding females and male competitors in social groups increased, i.e. when costs of kin competition over mates decreased and benefits of kin cooperation increased. Our results contrast with the traditional view that breeding-group choice and dispersal are predominantly solitary processes.},
}

Animals
Female
Male
*Hyaenidae/genetics

@article {pmid36502806,
year = {2022},
author = {Wu, R and Pang, J and Xu, Z and Wu, X and Wang, W and Zheng, Y and Yang, S and Wei, W},
title = {Adolescence predatory risk alters social behaviors and cognitive ability and central oxytocin and vasopressin expression in adult Brandt's voles.},
journal = {Neuroendocrinology},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1159/000528608},
pmid = {36502806},
issn = {1423-0194},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Stress during adolescence causes long-term behavioral changes in adulthood. We previously found that adolescent exposure to predatory risk augments adolescent social contact and adult parental behavior in Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii).

METHODS: Here we determined whether this experience alters sexual behavior, pair-bond formation, and recognition ability, as well as basal HPA axis activity, central oxytocin (OT), and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) expression in adulthood.

RESULTS: In the social interaction test, repeated cat odor (CO) exposure enhanced the frequency of lordosis by female voles toward an unfamiliar opposite-sex conspecific. CO voles preferred to engage with their partners after 48 h cohabitation whereas the control groups did not, which may reflect stable pair bonds in the CO treatment group. Furthermore, adolescent exposure to CO inhibited novel object and place recognition ability, while it influenced social recognition only among adult males. No effect of adolescent CO exposure was observed for basal HPA axis activity, showing a habituation effect. Finally, we found that CO exposure increased OT and decreased AVP expression in the hypothalamus, including the paraventricular nucleus and anterior hypothalamus. The levels of OT in the medial amygdala were lower, and AVP in the lateral septum was higher in CO voles compared with the control.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that adolescent exposure to predator risk promotes adult reproductive behavior of Brandt's voles. Deficits in recognition ability may necessitate alterations in reproductive strategies to enhance inclusive fitness. OT and AVP systems may play a modulatory role in the alteration of social behaviors elicited by adolescent predatory risk.},
}

@article {pmid36483755,
year = {2022},
author = {Boon-Falleur, M and Dormont, B and Chevallier, C},
title = {Does higher perceived risk of morbidity and mortality decrease risk-taking?.},
journal = {Royal Society open science},
volume = {9},
number = {12},
pages = {220486},
pmid = {36483755},
issn = {2054-5703},
abstract = {Previous studies have shown that people change their behaviour in response to negative shocks such as economic downturns or natural catastrophes. Indeed, the optimal behaviour in terms of inclusive fitness often varies according to a number of parameters, such as the level of mortality risk in the environment. Beyond unprecedented restrictions in everyday life, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people's environment. In this study, we investigated how people form their perception of morbidity and mortality risk associated with COVID-19 and how this perception in turn affects psychological traits, such as risk-taking and patience. We analysed data from a large survey conducted during the first wave in France on 3353 nationally representative people. We found that people use public information on COVID-19 deaths in the area where they live to form their perceived morbidity and mortality risk. Using a structural model approach to lift endogeneity concerns, we found that higher perceived morbidity and mortality risk increases risk aversion. We also found that higher perceived morbidity and mortality risk leads to less patience, although this was only observed for high levels of perceived risk. Our results suggest that people adapt their behaviour to anticipated negative health shocks, namely the risk of becoming sick or dying of COVID-19.},
}

@article {pmid36457233,
year = {2022},
author = {da Silva, J},
title = {The kin selection theory of genomic imprinting and modes of reproduction in the eusocial Hymenoptera.},
journal = {Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
doi = {10.1111/brv.12925},
pmid = {36457233},
issn = {1469-185X},
abstract = {Genomic imprinting is known from flowering plants and mammals but has not been confirmed for the Hymenoptera even though the eusocial Hymenoptera are prime candidates for this peculiar form of gene expression. Here, the kin selection theory of genomic imprinting is reviewed and applied to the eusocial Hymenoptera. The evidence for imprinting in eusocial Hymenoptera with the typical mode of reproduction, involving the sexual production of diploid female offspring, which develop into workers or gynes, and the arrhenotokous parthenogenesis of haploid males, is also reviewed briefly. However, the focus of this review is how atypical modes of reproduction, involving thelytokous parthenogenesis, hybridisation and androgenesis, may also select for imprinting. In particular, naturally occurring hybridisation in several genera of ants may provide useful tests of the role of kin selection in the evolution of imprinting. Hybridisation is expected to disrupt the coadaptation of antagonistically imprinted loci, and thus affect the phenotypes of hybrids. Some of the limited data available on hybrid worker reproduction and on colony sex ratios support predictions about patterns of imprinting derived from kin selection theory.},
}

@article {pmid36425073,
year = {2022},
author = {Card, DC and Van Camp, AG and Santonastaso, T and Jensen-Seaman, MI and Anthony, NM and Edwards, SV},
title = {Structure and evolution of the squamate major histocompatibility complex as revealed by two Anolis lizard genomes.},
journal = {Frontiers in genetics},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {979746},
pmid = {36425073},
issn = {1664-8021},
abstract = {The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is an important genomic region for adaptive immunity and has long been studied in ecological and evolutionary contexts, such as disease resistance and mate and kin selection. The MHC has been investigated extensively in mammals and birds but far less so in squamate reptiles, the third major radiation of amniotes. We localized the core MHC genomic region in two squamate species, the green anole (Anolis carolinensis) and brown anole (A. sagrei), and provide the first detailed characterization of the squamate MHC, including the presence and ordering of known MHC genes in these species and comparative assessments of genomic structure and composition in MHC regions. We find that the Anolis MHC, located on chromosome 2 in both species, contains homologs of many previously-identified mammalian MHC genes in a single core MHC region. The repetitive element composition in anole MHC regions was similar to those observed in mammals but had important distinctions, such as higher proportions of DNA transposons. Moreover, longer introns and intergenic regions result in a much larger squamate MHC region (11.7 Mb and 24.6 Mb in the green and brown anole, respectively). Evolutionary analyses of MHC homologs of anoles and other representative amniotes uncovered generally monophyletic relationships between species-specific homologs and a loss of the peptide-binding domain exon 2 in one of two mhc2β gene homologs of each anole species. Signals of diversifying selection in each anole species was evident across codons of mhc1, many of which appear functionally relevant given known structures of this protein from the green anole, chicken, and human. Altogether, our investigation fills a major gap in understanding of amniote MHC diversity and evolution and provides an important foundation for future squamate-specific or vertebrate-wide investigations of the MHC.},
}

@article {pmid36424400,
year = {2022},
author = {Kristensen, NP and Ohtsuki, H and Chisholm, RA},
title = {Ancestral social environments plus nonlinear benefits can explain cooperation in human societies.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {20252},
pmid = {36424400},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Humans ; *Game Theory ; *Cooperative Behavior ; Biological Evolution ; Social Environment ; },
abstract = {Human cooperation (paying a cost to benefit others) is puzzling from a Darwinian perspective, particularly in groups with strangers who cannot repay nor are family members. The beneficial effects of cooperation typically increase nonlinearly with the number of cooperators, e.g., increasing returns when cooperation is low and diminishing returns when cooperation is high. Such nonlinearity can allow cooperation between strangers to persist evolutionarily if a large enough proportion of the population are already cooperators. However, if a lone cooperator faces a conflict between the group's and its own interests (a social dilemma), that raises the question of how cooperation arose in the first place. We use a mathematically tractable evolutionary model to formalise a chronological narrative that has previously only been investigated verbally: given that ancient humans interacted mostly with family members (genetic homophily), cooperation evolved first by kin selection, and then persisted in situations with nonlinear benefits as homophily declined or even if interactions with strangers became the norm. The model also predicts the coexistence of cooperators and defectors observed in the human population (polymorphism), and may explain why cooperators in behavioural experiments prefer to condition their contribution on the contributions of others (conditional cooperation in public goods games).},
}

Humans
*Game Theory
*Cooperative Behavior
Biological Evolution
Social Environment

@article {pmid36421825,
year = {2022},
author = {Kyrgiafini, MA and Giannoulis, T and Moutou, KA and Mamuris, Z},
title = {Investigating the Impact of a Curse: Diseases, Population Isolation, Evolution and the Mother's Curse.},
journal = {Genes},
volume = {13},
number = {11},
pages = {},
pmid = {36421825},
issn = {2073-4425},
mesh = {Male ; Female ; Humans ; *Mothers ; DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics ; Maternal Inheritance/genetics ; *Genome, Mitochondrial/genetics ; Mitochondria/genetics ; },
abstract = {The mitochondrion was characterized for years as the energy factory of the cell, but now its role in many more cellular processes is recognized. The mitochondrion and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) also possess a set of distinct properties, including maternal inheritance, that creates the Mother's Curse phenomenon. As mtDNA is inherited from females to all offspring, mutations that are harmful to males tend to accumulate more easily. The Mother's Curse is associated with various diseases, and has a significant effect on males, in many cases even affecting their reproductive ability. Sometimes, it even leads to reproductive isolation, as in crosses between different populations, the mitochondrial genome cannot cooperate effectively with the nuclear one resulting in a mito-nuclear incompatibility and reduce the fitness of the hybrids. This phenomenon is observed both in the laboratory and in natural populations, and have the potential to influence their evolution and speciation. Therefore, it turns out that the study of mitochondria is an exciting field that finds many applications, including pest control, and it can shed light on the molecular mechanism of several diseases, improving successful diagnosis and therapeutics. Finally, mito-nuclear co-adaptation, paternal leakage, and kin selection are some mechanisms that can mitigate the impact of the Mother's Curse.},
}

Male
Female
Humans
*Mothers
DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics
Maternal Inheritance/genetics
*Genome, Mitochondrial/genetics
Mitochondria/genetics

@article {pmid36420711,
year = {2022},
author = {Higham, JP},
title = {Kin selection spreads.},
journal = {eLife},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36420711},
issn = {2050-084X},
mesh = {Humans ; Infant ; *Mother-Child Relations ; *Sibling Relations ; Female ; },
abstract = {By spending more time around infants which physically resemble their own, mandrill mothers may increase how frequently their offspring interact with their paternal half siblings.},
}

Humans
Infant
*Mother-Child Relations
*Sibling Relations
Female

@article {pmid36401071,
year = {2022},
author = {Whyte, S and Chan, HF and Ferguson, N and Godwin, M and Hammarberg, K and Torgler, B},
title = {Understanding the Reasons Why Men and Women Do Not Donate Gametes.},
journal = {Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36401071},
issn = {1933-7205},
abstract = {The global under-supply of sperm and oocyte donors is a serious concern for assisted reproductive medicine. Research has explored self-selected populations of gamete donors and their ex-post rationalisations of why they chose to donate. However, such studies may not provide the necessary insight into why the majority of people do not donate. Utilising the unique open form responses of a large sample (n = 1035) of online survey respondents, we examine the reasons participants cite when asked: "Why haven't you donated your sperm/eggs?." We categorise these responses into four core themes (conditional willingness, barriers, unconsidered, and conscientious objector) and eleven lower-order themes. We find that, on average, women are more conditionally willing (8.2% difference; p = 0.008) to participate in gamete donation than men. We also find that women are more likely than men to justify their non-donation based on their reproductive history (21.3% difference; p = 0.000) or kin selection and inclusive fitness (5.7% difference; p = 0.008). However, compared to women, men are more likely to validate their non-donation based on sociocultural or social norms (6% difference; p = 0.000) or religion (1.7% difference; p = 0.030). That so many of our study participants report in-principal willingness for future participation in gamete donation speaks to the need for increased research on understanding non-donor population preferences, motivations, and behaviours.},
}

@article {pmid36377479,
year = {2022},
author = {Charpentier, MJE and Poirotte, C and Roura-Torres, B and Amblard-Rambert, P and Willaume, E and Kappeler, PM and Rousset, F and Renoult, JP},
title = {Mandrill mothers associate with infants who look like their own offspring using phenotype matching.},
journal = {eLife},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36377479},
issn = {2050-084X},
mesh = {Humans ; Adult ; Female ; Animals ; *Mandrillus ; Social Behavior ; Phenotype ; Cooperative Behavior ; Maternal Behavior ; },
abstract = {Behavioral discrimination of kin is a key process structuring social relationships in animals. In this study, we provide evidence for discrimination towards non-kin by third-parties through a mechanism of phenotype matching. In mandrills, we recently demonstrated increased facial resemblance among paternally related juvenile and adult females indicating adaptive opportunities for paternal kin recognition. Here, we hypothesize that mandrill mothers use offspring's facial resemblance with other infants to guide offspring's social opportunities towards similar-looking ones. Using deep learning for face recognition in 80 wild mandrill infants, we first show that infants sired by the same father resemble each other the most, independently of their age, sex or maternal origin, extending previous results to the youngest age class. Using long-term behavioral observations on association patterns, and controlling for matrilineal origin, maternal relatedness and infant age and sex, we then show, as predicted, that mothers are spatially closer to infants that resemble their own offspring more, and that this maternal behavior leads to similar-looking infants being spatially associated. We then discuss the different scenarios explaining this result, arguing that an adaptive maternal behavior is a likely explanation. In support of this mechanism and using theoretical modeling, we finally describe a plausible evolutionary process whereby mothers gain fitness benefits by promoting nepotism among paternally related infants. This mechanism, that we call 'second-order kin selection', may extend beyond mother-infant interactions and has the potential to explain cooperative behaviors among non-kin in other social species, including humans.},
}

Humans
Adult
Female
Animals
*Mandrillus
Social Behavior
Phenotype
Cooperative Behavior
Maternal Behavior

@article {pmid36349451,
year = {2023},
author = {Penndorf, J and Ewart, KM and Klump, BC and Martin, JM and Aplin, LM},
title = {Social network analysis reveals context-dependent kin relationships in wild sulphur-crested cockatoos Cacatua galerita.},
journal = {The Journal of animal ecology},
volume = {92},
number = {1},
pages = {171-182},
doi = {10.1111/1365-2656.13839},
pmid = {36349451},
issn = {1365-2656},
mesh = {Female ; Animals ; *Cockatoos ; Social Network Analysis ; *Parrots ; Aggression ; Sulfur ; },
abstract = {A preference to associate with kin facilitates inclusive fitness benefits, and increased tolerance or cooperation between kin may be an added benefit of group living. Many species exhibit preferred associations with kin; however, it is often hard to disentangle active preferences from passive overlap, for example caused by limited dispersal or inheritance of social position. Many parrots exhibit social systems consisting of pair-bonded individuals foraging in variably sized fission-fusion flocks within larger communal roosts of hundreds of individuals. Previous work has shown that, despite these fission-fusion dynamics, individuals can exhibit long-term preferred foraging associations outside their pair bonds. Yet the underlying drivers of these social preferences remain largely unknown. In this study, we use a network approach to examine the influence of kinship on social associations and interactions in wild, communally roosting sulphur-crested cockatoos, Cacatua galerita. We recorded roost co-membership, social associations and interactions in 561 individually marked birds across three neighbouring roosts. We then collected genetic samples from 205 cockatoos, and conducted a relationship analysis to construct a kinship network. Finally, we tested correlations between kinship and four social networks: association, affiliative, low-intensity aggression and high-intensity aggression. Our result showed that while roosting groups were clearly defined, they showed little genetic differentiation or kin structuring. Between roost movement was high, with juveniles, especially females, repeatedly moving between roosts. Both within roosting communities, and when visiting different roosts, individuals preferentially associated with kin. Supporting this, individuals were also more likely to allopreen kin. However, contrary to expectation, individuals preferred to direct aggression towards kin, with this effect only observed when individuals shared roost membership. By measuring social networks within and between large roosting groups, we could remove potential effects of passive spatial overlap on kin structuring. Our study reveals that sulphur-crested cockatoos actively prefer to associate with kin, both within and between roosting groups. By examining this across different interaction types, we further demonstrate that sulphur-crested cockatoos exhibit behavioural and context-dependent interaction rules towards kin. Our results help reveal the drivers of social association in this species, while adding to the evidence for social complexity in parrots.},
}

Female
Animals
*Cockatoos
Social Network Analysis
*Parrots
Aggression
Sulfur

@article {pmid36346221,
year = {2022},
author = {Han, B and Wei, Q and Amiri, E and Hu, H and Meng, L and Strand, MK and Tarpy, DR and Xu, S and Li, J and Rueppell, O},
title = {The molecular basis of socially induced egg-size plasticity in honey bees.},
journal = {eLife},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36346221},
issn = {2050-084X},
mesh = {Female ; Bees ; Animals ; *Reproduction ; *Oviposition ; Ovary ; Eggs ; },
abstract = {Reproduction involves the investment of resources into offspring. Although variation in reproductive effort often affects the number of offspring, adjustments of propagule size are also found in numerous species, including the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera. However, the proximate causes of these adjustments are insufficiently understood, especially in oviparous species with complex social organization in which adaptive evolution is shaped by kin selection. Here, we show in a series of experiments that queens predictably and reversibly increase egg size in small colonies and decrease egg size in large colonies, while their ovary size changes in the opposite direction. Additional results suggest that these effects cannot be solely explained by egg-laying rate and are due to the queens' perception of colony size. Egg-size plasticity is associated with quantitative changes of 290 ovarian proteins, most of which relate to energy metabolism, protein transport, and cytoskeleton. Based on functional and network analyses, we further study the small GTPase Rho1 as a candidate regulator of egg size. Spatio-temporal expression analysis via RNAscope and qPCR supports an important role of Rho1 in egg-size determination, and subsequent RNAi-mediated gene knockdown confirmed that Rho1 has a major effect on egg size in honey bees. These results elucidate how the social environment of the honey bee colony may be translated into a specific cellular process to adjust maternal investment into eggs. It remains to be studied how widespread this mechanism is and whether it has consequences for population dynamics and epigenetic influences on offspring phenotype in honey bees and other species.},
}

Female
Bees
Animals
*Reproduction
*Oviposition
Ovary
Eggs

@article {pmid36344830,
year = {2022},
author = {Cordoni, G and Comin, M and Collarini, E and Robino, C and Chierto, E and Norscia, I},
title = {Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) engage in non-random post-conflict affiliation with third parties: cognitive and functional implications.},
journal = {Animal cognition},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36344830},
issn = {1435-9456},
abstract = {In social mammals, conflict resolution involves the reunion of former opponents (aggressor and victim) after an aggressive event (reconciliation) or post-conflict triadic contacts with a third party, started by either opponent (solicited-TSC) or spontaneously offered by the third party (unsolicited-TUC). These post-conflict strategies can serve different functions, including consolation (specifically when TUCs reduce the victim's anxiety). We investigated the possible presence and modulating factors of such strategies on semi-free ranging pigs (Sus scrofa; N = 104), housed at the ethical farm Parva Domus (Cavagnolo, Italy). Kinship was known. Reconciliation was present and mainly occurred between weakly related pigs to possibly improve tolerant cohabitation. Triadic contacts (all present except aggressor TSCs) mostly occurred between close kin. TSCs enacted by victims reduced neither their post-conflict anxiety behaviors nor further attacks by the previous aggressor, possibly because TSCs remained largely unreciprocated. TUCs towards aggressors did not reduce aggressor post-conflict anxiety but limited aggression redirection towards third parties. TUCs towards the victim reduced the victim but not the third-party's anxiety. However, TUCs may also provide inclusive fitness benefits to third parties by benefiting close kin. In sum, pigs engaged in non-random solicited/unsolicited triadic contacts, which suggests that pigs might possess socio-emotional regulation abilities to change their own or others' experience and elements of social appraisal, necessary to detect the emotional arousal of relevant others and (in case of TUCs) take the agency to restore homeostasis.},
}

@article {pmid36343483,
year = {2022},
author = {Wang, X and Harrison, A},
title = {Non-kin selection enhances complexity in cooperation: A unified quantitative law.},
journal = {Computational biology and chemistry},
volume = {101},
number = {},
pages = {107782},
doi = {10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2022.107782},
pmid = {36343483},
issn = {1476-928X},
support = {BB/E001742/1/BB_/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom ; },
mesh = {Humans ; *Biological Evolution ; Genotype ; },
abstract = {How cooperation evolves in the presence of selfishness is a core problem in evolutionary biology. Selfish individuals tend to benefit themselves, which makes it harder to maintain cooperation between unrelated individuals and for living systems to evolve towards complex organizations. The general evolutionary model presented here identifies that non-kin selection is the root cause for cooperation between unrelated individuals and can enable and maintain higher complexity of biological organizations (the coexistence of more individuals of different types). The maintained number of genotypes within a cooperation organization is shown to follow a universal exponential law as a quantitative function of the population size and non-kin selection strength, showing a gene-pool-size invariance. Our results highlight that non-kin selection may be a hallmark of biological evolution, and play an important role in shaping life's potentials.},
}

Humans
*Biological Evolution
Genotype

@article {pmid36333950,
year = {2023},
author = {Hammer, TJ and Easton-Calabria, A and Moran, NA},
title = {Microbiome assembly and maintenance across the lifespan of bumble bee workers.},
journal = {Molecular ecology},
volume = {32},
number = {3},
pages = {724-740},
pmid = {36333950},
issn = {1365-294X},
support = {R35 GM131738/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States ; R35GM131738/NH/NIH HHS/United States ; },
mesh = {Humans ; Bees/genetics ; Animals ; Longevity/genetics ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; *Microbiota/genetics ; *Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics ; Bacteria/genetics ; },
abstract = {How a host's microbiome changes over its lifespan can influence development and ageing. As these temporal patterns have only been described in detail for a handful of hosts, an important next step is to compare microbiome succession more broadly and investigate why it varies. Here we characterize the temporal dynamics and stability of the bumble bee worker gut microbiome. Bumble bees have simple and host-specific gut microbiomes, and their microbial dynamics may influence health and pollination services. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing, quantitative PCR and metagenomics to characterize gut microbiomes over the lifespan of Bombus impatiens workers. We also sequenced gut transcriptomes to examine host factors that may control the microbiome. At the community level, microbiome assembly is highly predictable and similar to patterns of primary succession observed in the human gut. However, at the strain level, partitioning of bacterial variants among colonies suggests stochastic colonization events similar to those observed in flies and nematodes. We also find strong differences in temporal dynamics among symbiont species, suggesting ecological differences among microbiome members in colonization and persistence. Finally, we show that both the gut microbiome and host transcriptome-including expression of key immunity genes-stabilize, as opposed to senesce, with age. We suggest that in highly social groups such as bumble bees, maintenance of both microbiomes and immunity contribute to inclusive fitness, and thus remain under selection even in old age. Our findings provide a foundation for exploring the mechanisms and functional outcomes of bee microbiome succession.},
}

Humans
Bees/genetics
Animals
Longevity/genetics
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
*Microbiota/genetics
*Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics
Bacteria/genetics

@article {pmid36330299,
year = {2022},
author = {Biernaskie, JM},
title = {Kin selection theory and the design of cooperative crops.},
journal = {Evolutionary applications},
volume = {15},
number = {10},
pages = {1555-1564},
pmid = {36330299},
issn = {1752-4571},
abstract = {In agriculture and plant breeding, plant traits may be favoured because they benefit neighbouring plants and ultimately increase total crop yield. This idea of promoting cooperation among crop plants has existed almost as long as W.D. Hamilton's inclusive fitness (kin selection) theory, the leading framework for explaining cooperation in biology. However, kin selection thinking has not been adequately applied to the idea of cooperative crops. Here, I give an overview of modern kin selection theory and consider how it explains three key strategies for designing cooperative crops: (1) selection for a less-competitive plant type (a 'communal ideotype'); (2) group-level selection for yield; and (3) exploiting naturally selected cooperation. The first two strategies, using artificial selection, have been successful in the past but suffer from limitations that could hinder future progress. Instead, I propose an alternative strategy and a new 'colonial ideotype' that exploits past natural selection for cooperation among the modules (e.g., branches or stems) of individual plants. More generally, I suggest that Hamiltonian agriculture-a kin selection view of agriculture and plant breeding-transforms our understanding of how to improve crops of the future.},
}

@article {pmid36259168,
year = {2022},
author = {Barreto Filho, MM and Vieira, HH and Morris, JJ and Bagatini, IL},
title = {Species-specific effects and the ecological role of programmed cell death in the microalgae Ankistrodesmus (Sphaeropleales, Selenastraceae).},
journal = {Biology letters},
volume = {18},
number = {10},
pages = {20220259},
pmid = {36259168},
issn = {1744-957X},
mesh = {*Microalgae ; Phytoplankton ; Apoptosis/physiology ; Species Specificity ; Nitrogen ; },
abstract = {Reports of programmed cell death (PCD) in phytoplankton raise questions about the ecological evolutionary role of cell death in these organisms. We induced PCD by nitrogen deprivation and unregulated cell death (non-PCD) in one strain of the green microalga Ankistrodesmus densus and investigated the effects of the cell death supernatants on phylogenetically related co-occurring organisms using growth rates and maximum biomass as proxies of fitness. PCD-released materials from A. densus CCMA-UFSCar-3 significantly increased growth rates of two conspecific strains compared to healthy culture (HC) supernatants and improved the maximum biomass of all A. densus strains compared to related species. Although growth rates of non-A. densus with PCD supernatants were not statistically different from HC treatment, biomass gain was significantly reduced. Thus, the organic substances released by PCD, possibly nitrogenous compounds, could promote conspecific growth. These results support the argument that PCD may differentiate species or subtypes and increases inclusive fitness in this model unicellular chlorophyte. Further research, however, is needed to identify the responsible molecules and how they interact with cells to provide the PCD benefits.},
}

*Microalgae
Phytoplankton
Apoptosis/physiology
Species Specificity
Nitrogen

@article {pmid36251655,
year = {2022},
author = {Khadraoui, M and Merritt, JR and Hoekstra, HE and Bendesky, A},
title = {Post-mating parental behavior trajectories differ across four species of deer mice.},
journal = {PloS one},
volume = {17},
number = {10},
pages = {e0276052},
pmid = {36251655},
issn = {1932-6203},
support = {/HHMI/Howard Hughes Medical Institute/United States ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Male ; Paternal Behavior ; *Peromyscus ; Pregnancy ; *Reproduction ; },
abstract = {Among species, parental behaviors vary in their magnitude, onset relative to reproduction, and sexual dimorphism. In deer mice (genus Peromyscus), while most species are promiscuous with low paternal care, monogamy and biparental care have evolved at least twice under different ecological conditions. Here, in a common laboratory setting, we monitored parental behaviors of males and females of two promiscuous (eastern deer mouse P. maniculatus and white-footed mouse P. leucopus) and two monogamous (oldfield mouse P. polionotus and California mouse P. californicus) species from before mating to after giving birth. In the promiscuous species, females showed parental behaviors largely after parturition, while males showed little parental care. In contrast, both sexes of monogamous species performed parental behaviors. However, while oldfield mice began to display parental behaviors before mating, California mice showed robust parental care behaviors only postpartum. These different parental-care trajectories in the two monogamous species align with their socioecology. Oldfield mice have overlapping home ranges with relatives, so infants they encounter, even if not their own, are likely to be closely related. By contrast, California mice disperse longer distances into exclusive territories with possibly unrelated neighbors, decreasing the inclusive fitness benefits of caring for unfamiliar pups before parenthood. Together, we find that patterns of parental behaviors in Peromyscus are consistent with predictions from inclusive fitness theory.},
}

Animals
Female
Male
Paternal Behavior
*Peromyscus
Pregnancy
*Reproduction

@article {pmid36218362,
year = {2022},
author = {Liu, Y and Huang, R and Chen, Y and Miao, Y and Štefanič, P and Mandic-Mulec, I and Zhang, R and Shen, Q and Xu, Z},
title = {Involvement of Flagellin in Kin Recognition between Bacillus velezensis Strains.},
journal = {mSystems},
volume = {7},
number = {6},
pages = {e0077822},
pmid = {36218362},
issn = {2379-5077},
mesh = {*Flagellin/genetics ; *Bacillus/genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Amino Acid Sequence ; },
abstract = {Kin discrimination in nature is an effective way for bacteria to stabilize population cooperation and maintain progeny benefits. However, so far, the research on kin discrimination for Bacillus still has concentrated on "attack and defense" between cells and diffusion-dependent molecular signals of quorum sensing, kin recognition in Bacillus, however, has not been reported. To determine whether flagellar is involve in the kin recognition of Bacillus, we constructed Bacillus velezensis SQR9 assembled with flagellin of its kin and non-kin strains, and performed a swarm boundary assay with SQR9, then analyzed sequence variation of flagellin and other flagellar structural proteins in B. velezensis genus. Our results showed that SQR9 assembled with flagellin of non-kin strains was more likely to form a border phenotype with wild-type strain SQR9 in swarm assay than that of kin strains, and that non-kin strains had greater variation in flagellin than kin strains. In B. velezensis, these variations in flagellin were prevalent and had evolved significantly faster than other flagellar structural proteins. Therefore, we proposed that flagellin is an effective tool partly involved in the kin recognition of B. velezensis strains. IMPORTANCE Kin selection plays an important role in stabilizing population cooperation and maintaining the progeny benefits for bacteria in nature. However, to date, the role of flagellin in kin recognition in Bacillus has not been reported. By using rhizospheric Bacillus velezensis SQR9, we accomplished flagellin region interchange among its related strains, and show that flagellin acts as a mediator to distinguish kin from non-kin in B. velezensis. We demonstrated the polymorphism of flagellin in B. velezensis through alignment analysis of flagellin protein sequences. Therefore, it was proposed that flagellin was likely to be an effective tool for mediating kin recognition in B. velezensis.},
}

*Flagellin/genetics
*Bacillus/genetics
Polymorphism, Genetic
Amino Acid Sequence

@article {pmid36196551,
year = {2022},
author = {García-Ruiz, I and Taborsky, M},
title = {Group augmentation on trial: helpers in small groups enhance antipredator defence of eggs.},
journal = {Biology letters},
volume = {18},
number = {10},
pages = {20220170},
pmid = {36196551},
issn = {1744-957X},
mesh = {Altruism ; Animals ; *Cichlids ; Cooperative Behavior ; *Helping Behavior ; Reproduction ; Sand ; },
abstract = {Mechanisms selecting for the evolution of cooperative breeding are hotly debated. While kin selection theory has been the central paradigm to explain the seemingly altruistic behaviour of non-reproducing helpers, it is increasingly recognized that direct fitness benefits may be highly relevant. The group augmentation hypothesis proposes that alloparental care may evolve to enhance group size when larger groups yield increased survival and/or reproductive success. However, there is a lack of empirical tests. Here we use the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher, in which group size predicts survival and group stability, to test this hypothesis experimentally by prompting two cooperative tasks: defence against an egg predator and digging out sand from the breeding shelter. We controlled for alternative mechanisms such as kin selection, load lightening and coercion. As predicted by the group augmentation hypothesis, helpers increased defence against an egg predator in small compared with large groups. This difference was only evident in large helpers owing to size-specific task specialization. Furthermore, helpers showed more digging effort in the breeding chamber compared with alternative personal shelters, indicating that digging is an altruistic service to the dominant breeders.},
}

Altruism
Animals
*Cichlids
Cooperative Behavior
*Helping Behavior
Reproduction
Sand

@article {pmid36191234,
year = {2022},
author = {Scott, TJ},
title = {Cooperation loci are more pleiotropic than private loci in the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {119},
number = {41},
pages = {e2214827119},
pmid = {36191234},
issn = {1091-6490},
mesh = {*Genetic Pleiotropy ; Mutation ; *Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Pleiotropy may affect the maintenance of cooperation by limiting cheater mutants if such mutants lose other important traits. If pleiotropy limits cheaters, selection may favor cooperation loci that are more pleiotropic. However, the same should not be true for private loci with functions unrelated to cooperation. Pleiotropy in cooperative loci has mostly been studied with single loci and has not been measured on a wide scale or compared to a suitable set of control loci with private functions. I remedy this gap by comparing genomic measures of pleiotropy in previously identified cooperative and private loci in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. I found that cooperative loci in P. aeruginosa tended to be more pleiotropic than private loci according to the number of protein-protein interactions, the number of gene ontology terms, and gene expression specificity. These results show that pleiotropy may be a general way to limit cheating and that cooperation may shape pleiotropy in the genome.},
}

*Genetic Pleiotropy
Mutation
*Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics/metabolism

@article {pmid36134889,
year = {2022},
author = {Grebe, NM and Hirwa, JP and Stoinski, TS and Vigilant, L and Rosenbaum, S},
title = {Mountain gorillas maintain strong affiliative biases for maternal siblings despite high male reproductive skew and extensive exposure to paternal kin.},
journal = {eLife},
volume = {11},
number = {},
pages = {},
pmid = {36134889},
issn = {2050-084X},
mesh = {Animals ; Bias ; Family ; *Gorilla gorilla ; Humans ; Male ; Mammals ; Primates ; *Reproduction ; Siblings ; },
abstract = {Evolutionary theories predict that sibling relationships will reflect a complex balance of cooperative and competitive dynamics. In most mammals, dispersal and death patterns mean that sibling relationships occur in a relatively narrow window during development and/or only with same-sex individuals. Besides humans, one notable exception is mountain gorillas, in which non-sex-biased dispersal, relatively stable group composition, and the long reproductive tenures of alpha males mean that animals routinely reside with both maternally and paternally related siblings, of the same and opposite sex, throughout their lives. Using nearly 40,000 hr of behavioral data collected over 14 years on 699 sibling and 1235 non-sibling pairs of wild mountain gorillas, we demonstrate that individuals have strong affiliative preferences for full and maternal siblings over paternal siblings or unrelated animals, consistent with an inability to discriminate paternal kin. Intriguingly, however, aggression data imply the opposite. Aggression rates were statistically indistinguishable among all types of dyads except one: in mixed-sex dyads, non-siblings engaged in substantially more aggression than siblings of any type. This pattern suggests mountain gorillas may be capable of distinguishing paternal kin but nonetheless choose not to affiliate with them over non-kin. We observe a preference for maternal kin in a species with a high reproductive skew (i.e. high relatedness certainty), even though low reproductive skew (i.e. low relatedness certainty) is believed to underlie such biases in other non-human primates. Our results call into question reasons for strong maternal kin biases when paternal kin are identifiable, familiar, and similarly likely to be long-term groupmates, and they may also suggest behavioral mismatches at play during a transitional period in mountain gorilla society.},
}

Animals
Bias
Family
*Gorilla gorilla
Humans
Male
Mammals
Primates
*Reproduction
Siblings

@article {pmid36129331,
year = {2022},
author = {Kulich, HR and Bass, SR and Piva, SR and Nindl, B and Koontz, AM},
title = {Preliminary feasibility and acute physiological effects of a single session of upper limb vibration training for persons with spinal cord injury.},
journal = {The journal of spinal cord medicine},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {1-11},
doi = {10.1080/10790268.2022.2122332},
pmid = {36129331},
issn = {2045-7723},
abstract = {CONTEXT: Strong upper limb musculature is essential for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) to operate a manual wheelchair and live independently. Targeted upper limb vibration may be a viable exercise modality to build muscle efficiently while eliminating some of the barriers associated with exercise for persons with SCI.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess preliminary feasibility of completing a single exercise session of upper limb vibration and compare the acute physiological effects to a single session of standard dumbbell resistance exercise.

METHODS: Individuals with SCI performed seven upper limb exercises (1) isometrically using a vibrating dumbbell at 30 Hz for 60 s (n = 22) and (2) using a standard isotonic resistance protocol (n = 15).

RESULTS: Nineteen (86.4%) of 22 participants were able to perform all vibration exercises at 30 Hz but hold time success rates varied from 33% (side flies and front raises) to 95% (internal rotation). No significant differences were found between vibration exercise and standard resistance protocol for blood lactate, power output, and heart rate (P > 0.05). Perceptions of the training were positive, with most participants (>70%) expressing interest to train with vibration in the future.

CONCLUSIONS: Vibration training was not feasible for all participants, suggesting an individualized approach to starting weight and progression may be necessary. Similar acute physiological changes were seen between vibration exercise and standard resistance protocol, suggesting they could have similar benefits. Additional research is needed to determine if vibration exercise is feasible and beneficial to incorporate into a long-term training program.},
}

@article {pmid36109560,
year = {2022},
author = {Simpson, CR},
title = {Social Support and Network Formation in a Small-Scale Horticulturalist Population.},
journal = {Scientific data},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {570},
pmid = {36109560},
issn = {2052-4463},
mesh = {Adult ; Altruism ; Biological Evolution ; Humans ; *Social Networking ; *Social Support ; },
abstract = {Evolutionary studies of cooperation in traditional human societies suggest that helping family and responding in kind when helped are the primary mechanisms for informally distributing resources vital to day-to-day survival (e.g., food, knowledge, money, childcare). However, these studies generally rely on forms of regression analysis that disregard complex interdependences between aid, resulting in the implicit assumption that kinship and reciprocity drive the emergence of entire networks of supportive social bonds. Here I evaluate this assumption using individual-oriented simulations of network formation (i.e., Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models). Specifically, I test standard predictions of cooperation derived from the evolutionary theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism alongside well-established sociological predictions around the self-organisation of asymmetric relationships. Simulations are calibrated to exceptional public data on genetic relatedness and the provision of tangible aid amongst all 108 adult residents of a village of indigenous horticulturalists in Nicaragua (11,556 ordered dyads). Results indicate that relatedness and reciprocity are markedly less important to whom one helps compared to the supra-dyadic arrangement of the tangible aid network itself.},
}

Adult
Altruism
Biological Evolution
Humans
*Social Networking
*Social Support

@article {pmid36097350,
year = {2022},
author = {Cenzer, M and M'Gonigle, LK},
title = {Co-evolution of dormancy and dispersal in spatially autocorrelated landscapes.},
journal = {Evolution; international journal of organic evolution},
volume = {76},
number = {11},
pages = {2769-2777},
pmid = {36097350},
issn = {1558-5646},
mesh = {*Biological Evolution ; Spatial Analysis ; },
abstract = {The evolution of dispersal can be driven by spatial processes, such as landscape structure, and temporal processes, such as disturbance. Dormancy, or dispersal in time, is generally thought to evolve in response to temporal processes. In spite of broad empirical and theoretical evidence of trade-offs between dispersal and dormancy, we lack evidence that spatial structure can drive the evolution of dormancy. Here, we develop a simulation-based model of the joint evolution of dispersal and dormancy in spatially heterogeneous landscapes. We show that dormancy and dispersal are each favored under different landscape conditions, but not simultaneously under any of the conditions we tested. We further show that, when dispersal distances are short, dormancy can evolve directly in response to landscape structure. In this case, selection is primarily driven by benefits associated with avoiding kin competition. Our results are similar in both highly simplified and realistically complex landscapes.},
}

*Biological Evolution
Spatial Analysis

@article {pmid36071078,
year = {2022},
author = {Ibrahim, AM},
title = {The conditional defector strategies can violate the most crucial supporting mechanisms of cooperation.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {15157},
pmid = {36071078},
issn = {2045-2322},
abstract = {Cooperation is essential for all domains of life. Yet, ironically, it is intrinsically vulnerable to exploitation by cheats. Hence, an explanatory necessity spurs many evolutionary biologists to search for mechanisms that could support cooperation. In general, cooperation can emerge and be maintained when cooperators are sufficiently interacting with themselves. This communication provides a kind of assortment and reciprocity. The most crucial and common mechanisms to achieve that task are kin selection, spatial structure, and enforcement (punishment). Here, we used agent-based simulation models to investigate these pivotal mechanisms against conditional defector strategies. We concluded that the latter could easily violate the former and take over the population. This surprising outcome may urge us to rethink the evolution of cooperation, as it illustrates that maintaining cooperation may be more difficult than previously thought. Moreover, empirical applications may support these theoretical findings, such as invading the cooperator population of pathogens by genetically engineered conditional defectors, which could be a potential therapy for many incurable diseases.},
}

@article {pmid36061780,
year = {2022},
author = {Fan, Y and Zhang, R and Zhang, Y and Yue, M},
title = {The effects of genetic distance, nutrient conditions, and recognition ways on outcomes of kin recognition in Glechoma longituba.},
journal = {Frontiers in plant science},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {950758},
pmid = {36061780},
issn = {1664-462X},
abstract = {Kin recognition might help plants decrease competitive cost and improve inclusive fitness with close genes; thus it might interact with environmental factors to affect communities. Whether and how various factors, such as the genetic distance of neighbors, environmental stressors, or the way a plant recognizes its neighbors, might modify plant growth strategies remains unclear. To answer these questions, we conducted experiments in which ramets of a clonal plant, Glechoma longituba, were grown adjacent to different genetically related neighbors (clone kin / close kin / distant kin) in different nutrient conditions (high / medium / low), or with only root exudates from pre-treatment in culture solution. By comparing competitive traits, we found that: (1) kin recognition in G. longituba was enhanced with closer genetic distance; (2) the outcomes of kin recognition were influenced by the extent of nutrient shortage; (3) kin recognition helped to alleviate the nutrient shortage effect; (4) kin recognition via root exudates affected only below-ground growth. Our results provide new insights on the potential for manipulating the outcome of kin recognition by altering neighbor genetic distance, nutrient conditions and recognition ways. Moreover, kin recognition can help plants mitigate the effects of nutrient shortage, with potential implications in agricultural research.},
}

@article {pmid36051883,
year = {2022},
author = {Li, H and Tan, Y and Zhang, D},
title = {Genomic discovery and structural dissection of a novel type of polymorphic toxin system in gram-positive bacteria.},
journal = {Computational and structural biotechnology journal},
volume = {20},
number = {},
pages = {4517-4531},
pmid = {36051883},
issn = {2001-0370},
abstract = {Bacteria have developed several molecular conflict systems to facilitate kin recognition and non-kin competition to gain advantages in the acquisition of growth niches and of limited resources. One such example is a large class of so-called polymorphic toxin systems (PTSs), which comprise a variety of the toxin proteins secreted via T2SS, T5SS, T6SS, T7SS and many others. These systems are highly divergent in terms of sequence/structure, domain architecture, toxin-immunity association, and organization of the toxin loci, which makes it difficult to identify and characterize novel systems using traditional experimental and bioinformatic strategies. In recent years, we have been developing and utilizing unique genome-mining strategies and pipelines, based on the organizational principles of both domain architectures and genomic loci of PTSs, for an effective and comprehensive discovery of novel PTSs, dissection of their components, and prediction of their structures and functions. In this study, we present our systematic discovery of a new type of PTS (S8-PTS) in several gram-positive bacteria. We show that the S8-PTS contains three components: a peptidase of the S8 family (subtilases), a polymorphic toxin, and an immunity protein. We delineated the typical organization of these polymorphic toxins, in which a N-terminal signal peptide is followed by a potential receptor binding domain, BetaH, and one of 16 toxin domains. We classified each toxin domain by the distinct superfamily to which it belongs, identifying nine BECR ribonucleases, one Restriction Endonuclease, one HNH nuclease, two novel toxin domains homologous to the VOC enzymes, one toxin domain with the Frataxin-like fold, and several other unique toxin families such as Ntox33 and HicA. Accordingly, we identified 20 immunity families and classified them into different classes of folds. Further, we show that the S8-PTS-associated peptidases are analogous to many other processing peptidases found in T5SS, T7SS, T9SS, and many proprotein-processing peptidases, indicating that they function to release the toxin domains during secretion. The S8-PTSs are mostly found in animal and plant-associated bacteria, including many pathogens. We propose S8-PTSs will facilitate the competition of these bacteria with other microbes or contribute to the pathogen-host interactions.},
}

@article {pmid36033028,
year = {2022},
author = {Salem, AAMS and Abdelsattar, M and Abu Al-Diyar, M and Al-Hwailah, AH and Derar, E and Al-Hamdan, NAH and Tilwani, SA},
title = {Altruistic behaviors and cooperation among gifted adolescents.},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
volume = {13},
number = {},
pages = {945766},
pmid = {36033028},
issn = {1664-1078},
abstract = {The present study is a differential study that describes the nature of the relationship between cooperation and altruistic behavior in a sample of gifted adolescents in three universities in Egypt and Kuwait University. It also identified the differences between males/females, and senior students/junior students in both cooperation and altruism. A total of 237 gifted adolescents-with average age 21.3 ± SD 2.6 years-from three Egyptian universities: Alexandria University, Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, and Suez University (in Egypt), and Kuwait University, were involved in this study. Measures used in the study include the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS), Generative Altruism Scale (GAlS), and The Cooperative/Competitive Strategy Scale (CCSS). Results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between altruism and cooperation among gifted adolescents. Also, findings show that there are statistically significant differences between males and females in both altruism and cooperation. In addition, there are differences statistically significant between senior students and junior students in both altruism and cooperation in favor of senior students. It is recommended that altruism and cooperation intervention-based programs should be designed to increase the adaptive behaviors of adolescents.},
}

@article {pmid35999250,
year = {2022},
author = {Helle, S and Tanskanen, AO and Pettay, JE and Danielsbacka, M},
title = {The interplay of grandparental investment according to the survival status of other grandparent types.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {14390},
pmid = {35999250},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Adolescent ; Bayes Theorem ; Child ; Child Health ; *Grandparents ; Humans ; Intergenerational Relations ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; },
abstract = {Inclusive fitness theory predicts that grandparental investment in grandchildren aims to maximise their inclusive fitness. Owing to an increasing overlap between successive generations in modern affluent populations, the importance of grandparental investment remains high. Despite the growing literature, there is limited knowledge regarding how the survival status of different grandparent types influences each other's investment in grandchildren. This question was studied by using the Involved Grandparenting and Child Well-Being Survey, which provided nationally representative data of English and Welsh adolescents aged 11-16-years. We applied Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) where grandparental investment in grandchildren was modelled using multi-indicator unobserved latent variable. Our results showed that maternal grandmothers' investment was increased by having a living maternal grandfather but not vice versa. Having a living maternal grandmother was also associated with decreased investment of paternal grandparents while the opposite was not found. These findings indicate that the association between the survival status of other grandparents and the focal grandparents' investment varies between grandparent types.},
}

Adolescent
Bayes Theorem
Child
Child Health
*Grandparents
Humans
Intergenerational Relations
Surveys and Questionnaires

@article {pmid35984547,
year = {2022},
author = {Grof-Tisza, P and Kruizenga, N and Tervahauta, AI and Blande, JD},
title = {Volatile-Mediated Induced and Passively Acquired Resistance in Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).},
journal = {Journal of chemical ecology},
volume = {48},
number = {9-10},
pages = {730-745},
pmid = {35984547},
issn = {1573-1561},
mesh = {Humans ; *Artemisia/physiology ; Herbivory/physiology ; *Volatile Organic Compounds/pharmacology/metabolism ; Plants/metabolism ; },
abstract = {Plants produce a diversity of secondary metabolites including volatile organic compounds. Some species show discrete variation in these volatile compounds such that individuals within a population can be grouped into distinct chemotypes. A few studies reported that volatile-mediated induced resistance is more effective between plants belonging to the same chemotype and that chemotypes are heritable. The authors concluded that the ability of plants to differentially respond to cues from related individuals that share the same chemotype is a form of kin recognition. These studies assumed plants were actively responding but did not test the mechanism of resistance. A similar result was possible through the passive adsorption and reemission of repellent or toxic VOCs by plants exposed to damage-induced plant volatiles (DIPVs). Here we conducted exposure experiments with five chemotypes of sagebrush in growth chambers; undamaged receiver plants were exposed to either filtered air or DIPVs from mechanically wounded branches. Receiver plants exposed to DIPVs experienced less herbivore damage, which was correlated with increased expression of genes involved in plant defense as well as increased emission of repellent VOCs. Plants belonging to two of the five chemotypes exhibited stronger resistance when exposed to DIPVs from plants of the same chemotypes compared to when DIPVs were from plants of a different chemotype. Moreover, some plants passively absorbed DIPVs and reemitted them, potentially conferring associational resistance. These findings support previous work demonstrating that sagebrush plants actively responded to alarm cues and that the strength of their response was dependent on the chemotypes of the plants involved. This study provides further support for kin recognition in plants but also identified volatile-mediated associational resistance as a passively acquired additional defense mechanism in sagebrush.},
}

Humans
*Artemisia/physiology
Herbivory/physiology
*Volatile Organic Compounds/pharmacology/metabolism
Plants/metabolism

@article {pmid35925423,
year = {2022},
author = {Berman, CM},
title = {Monkey business: A girl's once strange dream.},
journal = {Primates; journal of primatology},
volume = {63},
number = {5},
pages = {463-481},
pmid = {35925423},
issn = {1610-7365},
mesh = {Animals ; *Commerce ; Female ; Humans ; Macaca mulatta ; Male ; Social Behavior ; *Social Dominance ; },
abstract = {For close to 50 years, my research has focused on social relationships and social structure, particularly in macaques, and has been marked by a gradual broadening of scope. Supported by open-minded parents, I followed a once unconventional path into field primatology largely by ignoring distinct gender-based ideas about appropriate occupations for women that were prevalent when I was a child. Later, as Robert Hinde's PhD advisee, I benefited enormously from his mentoring and from the transformative experience he provided. I began by examining infant social development in free-ranging rhesus monkeys and the integration of infants into the kinship and dominance structures of their groups. I gradually branched out to look at (1) kinship and dominance in additional age classes and macaque species, (2) additional aspects of social structure (reciprocity, agonistic support, tolerance, cooperation, conflict management), (3) mechanisms and organizing principles (e.g., attraction to kin and high rank, intergenerational transmission, demography, reciprocity, social style, time constraints) and (4) evolutionary underpinnings of social relationships and structure (e.g., parental investment, kin selection, socioecology, phylogeny, biological markets). For much of this journey, I have been accompanied by talented PhD students who have enriched my experience and whom I am now proud to call colleagues and friends. It is gratifying to realize that my career choice is no longer considered as unconventional as it once was.},
}

Animals
*Commerce
Female
Humans
Macaca mulatta
Male
Social Behavior
*Social Dominance

@article {pmid35920026,
year = {2022},
author = {Chokechaipaisarn, C and Gardner, A},
title = {Density-dependent dispersal promotes female-biased sex allocation in viscous populations.},
journal = {Biology letters},
volume = {18},
number = {8},
pages = {20220205},
pmid = {35920026},
issn = {1744-957X},
support = {771387/ERC_/European Research Council/International ; },
mesh = {*Biological Evolution ; Female ; Humans ; Population Density ; *Sex Ratio ; Viscosity ; },
abstract = {A surprising result emerging from the theory of sex allocation is that the optimal sex ratio is predicted to be completely independent of the rate of dispersal. This striking invariance result has stimulated a huge amount of theoretical and empirical attention in the social evolution literature. However, this sex-allocation invariant has been derived under the assumption that an individual's dispersal behaviour is not modulated by population density. Here, we investigate how density-dependent dispersal shapes patterns of sex allocation in a viscous-population setting. Specifically, we find that if individuals are able to adjust their dispersal behaviour according to local population density, then they are favoured to do so, and this drives the evolution of female-biased sex allocation. This result obtains because, whereas under density-independent dispersal, population viscosity is associated not only with higher relatedness-which promotes female bias-but also with higher kin competition-which inhibits female bias-under density-dependent dispersal, the kin-competition consequences of a female-biased sex ratio are entirely abolished. We derive analytical results for the full range of group sizes and costs of dispersal, under haploid, diploid and haplodiploid modes of inheritance. These results show that population viscosity promotes female-biased sex ratios in the context of density-dependent dispersal.},
}

*Biological Evolution
Female
Humans
Population Density
*Sex Ratio
Viscosity

@article {pmid35902334,
year = {2022},
author = {Hitchcock, TJ and Gardner, A},
title = {Paternal genome elimination promotes altruism in viscous populations.},
journal = {Evolution; international journal of organic evolution},
volume = {76},
number = {9},
pages = {2191-2198},
pmid = {35902334},
issn = {1558-5646},
mesh = {Female ; Male ; *Altruism ; *Biological Evolution ; Haploidy ; Viscosity ; Animals ; },
abstract = {Population viscosity has long been thought to promote the evolution of altruism. However, in the simplest scenarios, the potential for altruism is invariant with respect to dispersal-a surprising result that holds for haploidy, diploidy, and haplodiploidy (arrhenotoky). Here, we develop a kin-selection model to investigate how population viscosity affects the potential for altruism in species with male paternal genome elimination (PGE), exploring altruism enacted by both females and males, and both juveniles and adults. We find that (1) PGE promotes altruistic behaviors relative to the other inheritance systems, and to a degree that depends on the extent of paternal genome expression. (2) Under PGE, dispersal increases the potential for altruism in juveniles and decreases it in adults. (3) The genetics of PGE can lead to striking differences in sex-specific potentials for altruism, even in the absence of any sex differences in ecology.},
}

Female
Male
*Altruism
*Biological Evolution
Haploidy
Viscosity
Animals

@article {pmid35782010,
year = {2022},
author = {Fréville, H and Montazeaud, G and Forst, E and David, J and Papa, R and Tenaillon, MI},
title = {Shift in beneficial interactions during crop evolution.},
journal = {Evolutionary applications},
volume = {15},
number = {6},
pages = {905-918},
pmid = {35782010},
issn = {1752-4571},
abstract = {Plant domestication can be viewed as a form of co-evolved interspecific mutualism between humans and crops for the benefit of the two partners. Here, we ask how this plant-human mutualism has, in turn, impacted beneficial interactions within crop species, between crop species, and between crops and their associated microbial partners. We focus on beneficial interactions resulting from three main mechanisms that can be promoted by manipulating genetic diversity in agrosystems: niche partitioning, facilitation, and kin selection. We show that a combination of factors has impacted either directly or indirectly plant-plant interactions during domestication and breeding, with a trend toward reduced benefits arising from niche partitioning and facilitation. Such factors include marked decrease of molecular and functional diversity of crops and other organisms present in the agroecosystem, mass selection, and increased use of chemical inputs. For example, the latter has likely contributed to the relaxation of selection pressures on nutrient-mobilizing traits such as those associated to root exudation and plant nutrient exchanges via microbial partners. In contrast, we show that beneficial interactions arising from kin selection have likely been promoted since the advent of modern breeding. We highlight several issues that need further investigation such as whether crop phenotypic plasticity has evolved and could trigger beneficial interactions in crops, and whether human-mediated selection has impacted cooperation via kin recognition. Finally, we discuss how plant breeding and agricultural practices can help promoting beneficial interactions within and between species in the context of agroecology where the mobilization of diversity and complexity of crop interactions is viewed as a keystone of agroecosystem sustainability.},
}

@article {pmid35730152,
year = {2022},
author = {Micheletti, AJC and Ge, E and Zhou, L and Chen, Y and Zhang, H and Du, J and Mace, R},
title = {Religious celibacy brings inclusive fitness benefits.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {289},
number = {1977},
pages = {20220965},
pmid = {35730152},
issn = {1471-2954},
mesh = {Child ; China ; *Family ; Genetic Fitness ; Humans ; Male ; Reproduction ; *Sexual Abstinence ; Siblings ; },
abstract = {The influence of inclusive fitness interests on the evolution of human institutions remains unclear. Religious celibacy constitutes an especially puzzling institution, often deemed maladaptive. Here, we present sociodemographic data from an agropastoralist Buddhist population in western China, where parents sometimes sent a son to the monastery. We find that men with a monk brother father more children, and grandparents with a monk son have more grandchildren, suggesting that the practice is adaptive. We develop a model of celibacy to elucidate the inclusive fitness costs and benefits associated with this behaviour. We show that a minority of sons being celibate can be favoured if this increases their brothers' reproductive success, but only if the decision is under parental, rather than individual, control. These conditions apply to monks in our study site. Inclusive fitness considerations appear to play a key role in shaping parental preferences to adopt this cultural practice.},
}

Child
China
*Family
Genetic Fitness
Humans
Male
Reproduction
*Sexual Abstinence
Siblings

@article {pmid35703047,
year = {2022},
author = {Hearn, LR and Davies, OK and Schwarz, MP},
title = {Extreme reproductive skew at the dawn of sociality is consistent with inclusive fitness theory but problematic for routes to eusociality.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {289},
number = {1976},
pages = {20220652},
pmid = {35703047},
issn = {1471-2954},
mesh = {Animals ; Bees ; Biological Evolution ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; *Reproduction ; *Social Behavior ; Symbiosis ; },
abstract = {To understand the earliest stages of social evolution, we need to identify species that are undergoing the initial steps into sociality. Amphylaeus morosus is the only unambiguously known social species in the bee family Colletidae and represents an independent origin of sociality within the Apoidea. This allows us to investigate the selective factors promoting the transition from solitary to social nesting. Using genome-wide SNP genotyping, we infer robust pedigree relationships to identify maternity of brood and intracolony relatedness for colonies at the end of the reproductive season. We show that A. morosus forms both matrifilial and full-sibling colonies, both involving complete or almost complete monopolization over reproduction. In social colonies, the reproductive primary was also the primary forager with the secondary female remaining in the nest, presumably as a guard. Social nesting provided significant protection against parasitism and increased brood survivorship in general. We show that secondary females gain large indirect fitness benefits from defensive outcomes, enough to satisfy the conditions of inclusive fitness theory, despite an over-production of males in social colonies. These results suggest an avenue to sociality that involves high relatedness and, very surprisingly, extreme reproductive skew in its earliest stages and raises important questions about the evolutionary steps in pathways to eusociality.},
}

Animals
Bees
Biological Evolution
Female
Humans
Male
Pregnancy
*Reproduction
*Social Behavior
Symbiosis

@article {pmid35622922,
year = {2022},
author = {García-Ruiz, I and Quiñones, A and Taborsky, M},
title = {The evolution of cooperative breeding by direct and indirect fitness effects.},
journal = {Science advances},
volume = {8},
number = {21},
pages = {eabl7853},
pmid = {35622922},
issn = {2375-2548},
abstract = {The evolution of cooperative breeding has been traditionally attributed to the effect of kin selection. While there is increasing empirical evidence that direct fitness benefits are relevant, the relative importance of alternative selection mechanisms is largely obscure. Here, we model the coevolution of the cornerstones of cooperative breeding, delayed dispersal, and alloparental care, across different ecological scenarios while allowing individuals to adjust philopatry and helping levels. Our results suggest that (i) direct fitness benefits from grouping are the main driver for the evolution of philopatry; (ii) kin selection is mainly responsible for the emergence of alloparental care, but group augmentation can be a sufficient promoter in harsh environments; (iii) the coevolution of philopatry and alloparental care is subject to positive feedback; and (iv) age-dependent dispersal is triggered by both group benefits and relatedness. Model predictions are supported by empirical data and provide good opportunities for comparative analyses and experimental tests of causality.},
}

@article {pmid35592877,
year = {2022},
author = {Fouilloux, CA and Fromhage, L and Valkonen, JK and Rojas, B},
title = {Size-dependent aggression towards kin in a cannibalistic species.},
journal = {Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology},
volume = {33},
number = {3},
pages = {582-591},
pmid = {35592877},
issn = {1045-2249},
abstract = {In juveniles extreme intraspecies aggression can seem counter-intuitive, as it might endanger their developmental goal of surviving until reproductive stage. Ultimately, aggression can be vital for survival, although the factors (e.g., genetic or environmental) leading to the expression and intensity of this behavior vary across taxa. Attacking (and sometimes killing) related individuals may reduce inclusive fitness; as a solution to this problem, some species exhibit kin discrimination and preferentially attack unrelated individuals. Here, we used both experimental and modeling approaches to consider how physical traits (e.g., size in relation to opponent) and genetic relatedness mediate aggression in dyads of cannibalistic Dendrobates tinctorius tadpoles. We paired full-sibling, half-sibling, and non-sibling tadpoles of different sizes together in an arena and recorded their aggression and activity. We found that the interaction between relative size and relatedness predicts aggressive behavior: large individuals in non-sibling dyads are significantly more aggressive than large individuals in sibling dyads. Unexpectedly, although siblings tended to attack less overall, in size-mismatched pairs they attacked faster than in non-sibling treatments. Using a theoretical model to complement these empirical findings, we propose that larval aggression reflects a balance between relatedness and size where individuals trade-off their own fitness with that of their relatives. Lay SummaryBefore you eat someone, you have to attack them first. Here, we investigated the factors that shape aggression in the cannibalistic tadpoles of the dyeing poison frog. We find that aggression depends on both size and relatedness: when set in pairs, large tadpoles are half as aggressive towards their smaller siblings than to nonsibs. It looks like belonging to the same family provides some protection against aggression, though no one is ever truly safe.},
}

@article {pmid35560232,
year = {2022},
author = {Roper, M and Sturrock, NJ and Hatchwell, BJ and Green, JP},
title = {Individual variation explains ageing patterns in a cooperatively breeding bird, the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus.},
journal = {The Journal of animal ecology},
volume = {91},
number = {7},
pages = {1521-1534},
pmid = {35560232},
issn = {1365-2656},
support = {BB/M011224/1/BB_/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom ; },
mesh = {*Aging/physiology ; Animals ; Cooperative Behavior ; Longevity ; Reproduction ; *Songbirds/growth & development ; },
abstract = {Alloparental care in cooperatively breeding species may alter breeder age-specific survival and reproduction and subsequently senescence. The helping behaviour itself might also undergo age-related change, and decisions to help in facultative cooperative breeders are likely to be affected by individual condition. Helpers in long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus assist relatives after failing to raise their own brood, with offspring from helped nests being more likely to recruit into the breeding population. Using data collected over 25 years, we examined the age trajectories of survival and reproduction in adult long-tailed tits to determine how these were affected by the presence or absence of helpers and how helper behaviour changed with age. There was evidence for increased reproductive performance with breeder age, but no effect of age on the probability of survival. We found no evidence of significant senescent decline in survival or reproductive performance, although individuals accrued less inclusive fitness in their last year of life. Lifetime reproductive success was positively related to both reproductive life span and body mass. Within a season, breeders that were assisted by helpers enjoyed greater reproductive success through enhanced offspring recruitment in the following year. We found no evidence that age affected an individual's propensity to help, or the amount of indirect fitness accrued through helping. We found a positive correlation between life span and multiple components of reproductive success, suggesting that individual variation in quality underpins age-related variation in fitness in this species. Helping decisions are driven by condition, and lifetime inclusive fitness of immigrants was predicted by body mass. These findings further support individual heterogeneity in quality being a major driver for fitness gains across the life course of long-tailed tits.},
}

*Aging/physiology
Animals
Cooperative Behavior
Longevity
Reproduction
*Songbirds/growth & development

@article {pmid35440705,
year = {2022},
author = {Tuominen, LS and Helle, S and Helanterä, H and Karell, P and Rapeli, L and Richmond, D and Vuorisalo, T and Brommer, JE},
title = {Structural equation modeling reveals decoupling of ecological and self-perceived outcomes in a garden box social-ecological system.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {12},
number = {1},
pages = {6425},
pmid = {35440705},
issn = {2045-2322},
mesh = {Ecosystem ; *Gardening ; *Gardens ; Latent Class Analysis ; Social Environment ; },
abstract = {It is well known that green urban commons enhance mental and physical well-being and improve local biodiversity. We aim to investigate how these outcomes are related in an urban system and which variables are associated with better outcomes. We model the outcomes of an urban common-box gardening-by applying the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework. We expand the SES framework by analyzing it from the perspective of social evolution theory. The system was studied empirically through field inventories and questionnaires and modeled quantitatively by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This method offers powerful statistical models of complex social-ecological systems. Our results show that objectively evaluated ecological outcomes and self-perceived outcomes are decoupled: gardening groups that successfully govern the natural resource ecologically do not necessarily report many social, ecological, or individual benefits, and vice versa. Social capital, box location, gardener concerns, and starting year influenced the changes in the outcomes. In addition, the positive association of frequent interactions with higher self-perceived outcomes, and lack of such association with relatedness of group members suggests that reciprocity rather than kin selection explains cooperation. Our findings exemplify the importance of understanding natural resource systems at a very low "grassroot" level.},
}

Ecosystem
*Gardening
*Gardens
Latent Class Analysis
Social Environment

@article {pmid35432938,
year = {2022},
author = {Marquez-Rosado, A and Garcia-Co, C and Londoño-Nieto, C and Carazo, P},
title = {No evidence that relatedness or familiarity modulates male harm in Drosophila melanogaster flies from a wild population.},
journal = {Ecology and evolution},
volume = {12},
number = {4},
pages = {e8803},
pmid = {35432938},
issn = {2045-7758},
abstract = {Sexual selection frequently promotes the evolution of aggressive behaviors that help males compete against their rivals, but which may harm females and hamper their fitness. Kin selection theory predicts that optimal male-male competition levels can be reduced when competitors are more genetically related to each other than to the population average, contributing to resolve this sexual conflict. Work in Drosophila melanogaster has spearheaded empirical tests of this idea, but studies so far have been conducted in laboratory-adapted populations in homogeneous rearing environments that may hamper kin recognition, and used highly skewed sex ratios that may fail to reflect average natural conditions. Here, we performed a fully factorial design with the aim of exploring how rearing environment (i.e., familiarity) and relatedness affect male-male aggression, male harassment, and overall male harm levels in flies from a wild population of Drosophila melanogaster, under more natural conditions. Namely, we (a) manipulated relatedness and familiarity so that larvae reared apart were raised in different environments, as is common in the wild, and (b) studied the effects of relatedness and familiarity under average levels of male-male competition in the field. We show that, contrary to previous findings, groups of unrelated-unfamiliar males were as likely to fight with each other and harass females than related-familiar males and that overall levels of male harm to females were similar across treatments. Our results suggest that the role of kin selection in modulating sexual conflict is yet unclear in Drosophila melanogaster, and call for further studies that focus on natural populations and realistic socio-sexual and ecological environments.},
}

@article {pmid35429546,
year = {2022},
author = {Taylor, JH and Grieb, ZA},
title = {Species differences in the effect of oxytocin on maternal behavior: A model incorporating the potential for allomaternal contributions.},
journal = {Frontiers in neuroendocrinology},
volume = {65},
number = {},
pages = {100996},
doi = {10.1016/j.yfrne.2022.100996},
pmid = {35429546},
issn = {1095-6808},
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Humans ; Mammals ; *Maternal Behavior ; Mothers ; *Oxytocin ; Receptors, Oxytocin ; Species Specificity ; },
abstract = {Oxytocin has historically been linked to processes involved with maternal behavior. However, the relative importance of oxytocin for maternal behavior widely varies among mammalian species, from indispensable to apparently nonessential. This review proposes a new model in which the relative importance of oxytocin for mothering across species is explained by an evolutionary pressure which we term "allomaternal potential", or the degree to which other conspecifics are capable and likely to assist with caregiving. It is notable that in animals where allomaternal potential is high (i.e., many quality helpers are available), oxytocin is decoupled from mothering. However, in animals where allomaternal potential is low (i.e., conspecifics refuse to, or do not provide, quality help), oxytocin is crucial for mothering. We posit that this relationship is a form of kin selection, whereby oxytocin is a signal that leads mothers to preferentially dispense resources to their own young when quality helpers are unlikely.},
}

Animals
Female
Humans
Mammals
*Maternal Behavior
Mothers
*Oxytocin
Receptors, Oxytocin
Species Specificity

@article {pmid35412899,
year = {2022},
author = {Levy, M and Lo, AW},
title = {Hamilton's rule in economic decision-making.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {119},
number = {16},
pages = {e2108590119},
pmid = {35412899},
issn = {1091-6490},
mesh = {*Altruism ; *Biological Evolution ; Decision Making ; Economics, Behavioral ; Humans ; *Selection, Genetic ; },
abstract = {Hamilton’s rule [W. D. Hamilton, Am. Nat. 97, 354–356 (1963); W. D. Hamilton, J. Theor. Biol. 7, 17–52 (1964)] quantifies the central evolutionary ideas of inclusive fitness and kin selection into a simple algebraic relationship. Evidence consistent with Hamilton’s rule is found in many animal species. A drawback of investigating Hamilton’s rule in these species is that one can estimate whether a given behavior is consistent with the rule, but a direct examination of the exact cutoff for altruistic behavior predicted by Hamilton is almost impossible. However, to the degree that economic resources confer survival benefits in modern society, Hamilton’s rule may be applicable to economic decision-making, in which case techniques from experimental economics offer a way to determine this cutoff. We employ these techniques to examine whether Hamilton’s rule holds in human decision-making, by measuring the dependence between an experimental subject’s maximal willingness to pay for a gift of $50 to be given to someone else and the genetic relatedness of the subject to the gift’s recipient. We find good agreement with the predictions of Hamilton’s rule. Moreover, regression analysis of the willingness to pay versus genetic relatedness, the number of years living in the same residence, age, and sex shows that almost all the variation is explained by genetic relatedness. Similar but weaker results are obtained from hypothetical questions regarding the maximal risk to her own life that the subject is willing to take in order to save the recipient’s life.},
}

*Altruism
*Biological Evolution
Decision Making
Economics, Behavioral
Humans
*Selection, Genetic

@article {pmid35398139,
year = {2022},
author = {Straub, L and Strobl, V and Bruckner, S and Camenzind, DW and Van Oystaeyen, A and Wäckers, F and Williams, GR and Neumann, P},
title = {Buffered fitness components: Antagonism between malnutrition and an insecticide in bumble bees.},
journal = {The Science of the total environment},
volume = {833},
number = {},
pages = {155098},
doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155098},
pmid = {35398139},
issn = {1879-1026},
mesh = {Animals ; Bees ; Insecta ; *Insecticides/toxicity ; Male ; *Malnutrition ; Reproduction ; Spermatozoa ; },
abstract = {Global insect biodiversity declines due to reduced fitness are linked to interactions between environmental stressors. In social insects, inclusive fitness depends on successful mating of reproductives, i.e. males and queens, and efficient collaborative brood care by workers. Therefore, interactive effects between malnutrition and environmental pollution on sperm and feeding glands (hypopharyngeal glands (HPGs)) would provide mechanisms for population declines, unless buffered against due to their fitness relevance. However, while negative effects for bumble bee colony fitness are known, the effects of malnutrition and insecticide exposure singly and in combination on individuals are poorly understood. Here we show, in a fully-crossed laboratory experiment, that malnutrition and insecticide exposure result in neutral or antagonistic interactions for spermatozoa and HPGs of bumble bees, Bombus terrestris, suggesting strong selection to buffer key colony fitness components. No significant effects were observed for mortality and consumption, but significant negative effects were revealed for spermatozoa traits and HPGs. The combined effects on these parameters were not higher than the individual stressor effects, which indicates an antagonistic interaction between both. Despite the clear potential for additive effects, due to the individual stressors impairing muscle quality and neurological control, simultaneous malnutrition and insecticide exposure surprisingly did not reveal an increased impact compared to individual stressors, probably due to key fitness traits being resilient. Our data support that stressor interactions require empirical tests on a case-by-case basis and need to be regarded in context to understand underlying mechanisms and so adequately mitigate the ongoing decline of the entomofauna.},
}

Animals
Bees
Insecta
*Insecticides/toxicity
Male
*Malnutrition
Reproduction
Spermatozoa

@article {pmid35369745,
year = {2022},
author = {Mullon, C and Lehmann, L},
title = {Evolution of warfare by resource raiding favours polymorphism in belligerence and bravery.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {377},
number = {1851},
pages = {20210136},
pmid = {35369745},
issn = {1471-2970},
mesh = {Aggression ; Animals ; *Courage ; Phenotype ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Warfare ; },
abstract = {From protists to primates, intergroup aggression and warfare over resources have been observed in several taxa whose populations typically consist of groups connected by limited genetic mixing. Here, we model the coevolution between four traits relevant to this setting: (i) investment into common-pool resource production within groups (helping); (ii) proclivity to raid other groups to appropriate their resources (belligerence); and investments into (iii) defense and (iv) offense of group contests (defensive and offensive bravery). We show that when traits coevolve, the population often experiences disruptive selection favouring two morphs: 'Hawks', who express high levels of both belligerence and offensive bravery; and 'Doves', who express neither. This social polymorphism involves further among-traits associations when the fitness costs of helping and bravery interact. In particular, if helping is antagonistic with both forms of bravery, coevolution leads to the coexistence of individuals that either: (i) do not participate into common-pool resource production but only in its defense and appropriation (Scrounger Hawks) or (ii) only invest into common pool resource production (Producer Doves). Provided groups are not randomly mixed, these findings are robust to several modelling assumptions. This suggests that inter-group aggression is a potent mechanism in favouring within-group social diversity and behavioural syndromes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.},
}

Aggression
Animals
*Courage
Phenotype
Polymorphism, Genetic
Warfare

@article {pmid35369743,
year = {2022},
author = {Rodrigues, AMM and Barker, JL and Robinson, EJH},
title = {From inter-group conflict to inter-group cooperation: insights from social insects.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {377},
number = {1851},
pages = {20210466},
pmid = {35369743},
issn = {1471-2970},
mesh = {Aggression ; Animals ; *Group Processes ; Humans ; *Insecta ; Problem Solving ; },
abstract = {The conflict between social groups is widespread, often imposing significant costs across multiple groups. The social insects make an ideal system for investigating inter-group relationships, because their interaction types span the full harming-helping continuum, from aggressive conflict, to mutual tolerance, to cooperation between spatially separate groups. Here we review inter-group conflict in the social insects and the various means by which they reduce the costs of conflict, including individual or colony-level avoidance, ritualistic behaviours and even group fusion. At the opposite extreme of the harming-helping continuum, social insect groups may peacefully exchange resources and thus cooperate between groups in a manner rare outside human societies. We discuss the role of population viscosity in favouring inter-group cooperation. We present a model encompassing intra- and inter-group interactions, and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that in this multi-level population structure, the increased likelihood of cooperative partners being kin is balanced by increased kin competition, such that neither cooperation (helping) nor conflict (harming) is favoured. This model provides a baseline context in which other intra- and inter-group processes act, tipping the balance toward or away from conflict. We discuss future directions for research into the ecological factors shaping the evolution of inter-group interactions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.},
}

Aggression
Animals
*Group Processes
Humans
*Insecta
Problem Solving

@article {pmid35356586,
year = {2022},
author = {Scheiner, SM and Barfield, M and Holt, RD},
title = {The factors that favor adaptive habitat construction versus non-adaptive environmental conditioning.},
journal = {Ecology and evolution},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {e8763},
pmid = {35356586},
issn = {2045-7758},
abstract = {Adaptive habitat construction is a process by which individuals alter their environment so as to increase their (inclusive) fitness. Such alterations are a subset of the myriad ways that individuals condition their environment. We present an individual-based model of habitat construction to explore what factors might favor selection when the benefits of environmental alterations are shared by individuals of the same species. Our results confirm the predictions of inclusive fitness and group selection theory and expectations based on previous models that construction will be more favored when its benefits are more likely to be directed to self or near kin. We found that temporal variation had no effect on the evolution of construction. For spatial heterogeneity, construction was disfavored when the spatial pattern of movement did not match the spatial pattern of environmental heterogeneity, especially when there was spatial heterogeneity in the optimal amount of construction. Under those conditions, very strong selection was necessary to favor genetic differentiation of construction propensity among demes. We put forth a constitutive theory for the evolution of adaptive habitat construction that unifies our model with previous verbal and quantitative models into a formal conceptual framework.},
}

@article {pmid35323522,
year = {2022},
author = {Radford, JM and Chen, D and Chernyshova, AM and Taylor, C and Guoth, AW and Wu, T and Hill, KA and Thompson, GJ},
title = {Differential Selection on Caste-Associated Genes in a Subterranean Termite.},
journal = {Insects},
volume = {13},
number = {3},
pages = {},
pmid = {35323522},
issn = {2075-4450},
abstract = {Analyzing the information-rich content of RNA can help uncover genetic events associated with social insect castes or other social polymorphisms. Here, we exploit a series of cDNA libraries previously derived from whole-body tissue of different castes as well as from three behaviourally distinct populations of the Eastern subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes. We found that the number (~0.5 M) of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) was roughly equal between nymph, worker and soldier caste libraries, but dN/dS (ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions) analysis suggested that some of these variants confer a caste-specific advantage. Specifically, the dN/dS ratio was high (~4.3) for genes expressed in the defensively specialized soldier caste, relative to genes expressed by other castes (~1.7-1.8) and regardless of the North American population (Toronto, Raleigh, Boston) from which the castes were sampled. The populations, meanwhile, did show a large difference in SNV count but not in the manner expected from known demographic and behavioural differences; the highly invasive unicolonial population from Toronto was not the least diverse and did not show any other unique substitution patterns, suggesting any past bottleneck associated with invasion or with current unicoloniality has become obscured at the RNA level. Our study raises two important hypotheses relevant to termite sociobiology. First, the positive selection (dN/dS > 1) inferred for soldier-biased genes is presumably indirect and of the type mediated through kin selection, and second, the behavioural changes that accompany some social insect urban invasions (i.e., 'unicoloniality') may be detached from the loss-of-diversity expected from invasion bottlenecks.},
}

@article {pmid35259982,
year = {2022},
author = {Kanwal, J and Gardner, A},
title = {Population viscosity promotes altruism under density-dependent dispersal.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {289},
number = {1970},
pages = {20212668},
pmid = {35259982},
issn = {1471-2954},
mesh = {*Altruism ; *Biological Evolution ; Female ; Humans ; Parturition ; Population Dynamics ; Pregnancy ; Selection, Genetic ; Viscosity ; },
abstract = {A basic mechanism of kin selection is population viscosity, whereby individuals do not move far from their place of birth and hence tend to be surrounded by relatives. In such circumstances, even indiscriminate altruism among neighbours will often involve interactions between kin, which has a promoting effect on the evolution of altruism. This has the potential to explain altruistic behaviour across the whole tree of life, including in taxa for which recognition of kin is implausible. However, population viscosity may also intensify resource competition among kin, which has an inhibitory effect on altruism. Indeed, in the simplest scenario, in which individuals disperse with a fixed probability, these two effects have been shown to exactly cancel such that there is no net impact of viscosity on altruism. Here, we show that if individuals are able to disperse conditionally upon local density, they are favoured to do so, with more altruistic neighbourhoods exhibiting a higher rate of dispersal and concomitant relaxation of kin competition. Comparing across different populations or species, this leads to a negative correlation between overall levels of dispersal and altruism. We demonstrate both analytically and using individual-based simulations that population viscosity promotes the evolution of altruism under density-dependent dispersal.},
}

*Altruism
*Biological Evolution
Female
Humans
Parturition
Population Dynamics
Pregnancy
Selection, Genetic
Viscosity

@article {pmid35253258,
year = {2022},
author = {Lerdau, M},
title = {The complicated legacy of E. O. Wilson with respect to genetics and human behavior.},
journal = {BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology},
volume = {44},
number = {5},
pages = {e2200034},
doi = {10.1002/bies.202200034},
pmid = {35253258},
issn = {1521-1878},
mesh = {*Behavior ; Humans ; *Selection, Genetic ; },
abstract = {Over the arc of his career, E. O. Wilson first embraced, then popularized, and finally rejected an extreme genetical hereditarian view of human nature. The controversy that ensued during the period of popularization (largely in the 1970s and 1980s) obscured the fact that empirical and theoretical research during this time undercut the assumptions necessary for this view. By the end of his career, Wilson accepted the fact that individual/kin selection models were insufficient to explain human behavior and society, and he began conducting research based upon multilevel (group) selection, an idea he had previously scorned.},
}

*Behavior
Humans
*Selection, Genetic

@article {pmid35222785,
year = {2022},
author = {Maley, CC and Seyedi, S},
title = {The life history theory of the Lord of the Rings: a randomized controlled trial of using fact versus fiction to teach life history theory.},
journal = {Evolution},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {2},
pmid = {35222785},
issn = {1936-6426},
abstract = {UNLABELLED: Does asking students to apply concepts from evolution to a fictional context, compared to a novel biological context, improve their understanding, exam performance or enjoyment of the material? Or does it harm their education by taking time away from true biology? At our institution, we sometimes ask students to apply life history theory to species from fictional movies, television shows or books. Previously, we had used a factual article on life history theory, to supplement our textbook. We wrote an alternative introduction to life history theory (included in the additional files for educational use), using Tolkien's fictional species from his Lord of the Rings books. We also introduce the biological species definition, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism, kin selection, and the handicap principle, as those concepts arose naturally in the discussion of the fictional species. Life history theory predicts strong correlations between traits affecting reproduction, growth and survival, which are all shaped by the ecology of the species. Thus, we can teach life history theory by asking students to infer traits and aspects of the ecology of a fictional species that have never been described, based on the partial information included in the fictional sources. In a large, third year undergraduate evolution course at Arizona State University, we randomized 16 tutorial sections of a total of 264 students to either read our article on the life history theory of Lord of the Rings, or the factual article we had used previously in the course. We found that the exam performance on life history questions for the two groups were almost identical, except that fans of The Lord of the Rings who had read our article did better on the exam. Enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory was approximately a full point higher on a 5-point Likert scale for the students that had read the fictional article, and was highly statistically significantly different (T-test p < 0.001 for all questions). There was no difference between the two groups in their familiarity or enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings stories themselves. Reading the article that taught life history theory by applying it to the species of The Lord of the Rings neither helped nor harmed exam performance, but did significantly improve student enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory, and even improved exam scores in students who liked The Lord of the Rings. Using fiction to teach science may also help to engage non-traditional students, such as world-builders, outside of our institutions of education. By encouraging students to apply the scientific ideas to their favorite stories from their own cultures, we may be able to improve both inclusivity and education.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12052-022-00160-8.},
}

@article {pmid35196086,
year = {2022},
author = {Shah, SS and Rubenstein, DR},
title = {Prenatal environmental conditions underlie alternative reproductive tactics that drive the formation of a mixed-kin cooperative society.},
journal = {Science advances},
volume = {8},
number = {8},
pages = {eabk2220},
pmid = {35196086},
issn = {2375-2548},
abstract = {Although animal societies often evolve due to limited natal dispersal that results in kin clustering and facilitates cooperation among relatives, many species form cooperative groups with low kin structure. These groups often comprise residents and immigrants of the same sex that compete for breeding opportunities. To understand how these mixed-kin societies form, we investigated the causes and fitness consequences of dispersal decisions in male cooperatively breeding superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus) inhabiting a climatically unpredictable environment. We show that the two alternative reproductive tactics-natal dispersal or philopatry-exhibit reproductive trade-offs resulting in equivalent lifetime inclusive fitness. Unexpectedly, an individual's tactic is related to the prenatal environment its parents experience before laying rather than the environment it experiences as a juvenile. Individuals that adopt the tactic not predicted by prenatal environmental conditions have lower fitness. Ultimately, climate-driven oscillating selection appears to stabilize mixed-kin societies despite the potential for social conflict.},
}

@article {pmid35193981,
year = {2022},
author = {Belcher, LJ and Dewar, AE and Ghoul, M and West, SA},
title = {Kin selection for cooperation in natural bacterial populations.},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
volume = {119},
number = {9},
pages = {},
pmid = {35193981},
issn = {1091-6490},
support = {834164/ERC_/European Research Council/International ; },
mesh = {*Bacterial Physiological Phenomena ; Genes, Bacterial ; Mutation ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics ; Quorum Sensing ; },
abstract = {Bacteria produce a range of molecules that are secreted from the cell and can provide a benefit to the local population of cells. Laboratory experiments have suggested that these "public goods" molecules represent a form of cooperation, favored because they benefit closely related cells (kin selection). However, there is a relative lack of data demonstrating kin selection for cooperation in natural populations of bacteria. We used molecular population genetics to test for signatures of kin selection at the genomic level in natural populations of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa We found consistent evidence from multiple traits that genes controlling putatively cooperative traits have higher polymorphism and greater divergence and are more likely to harbor deleterious mutations relative to genes controlling putatively private traits, which are expressed at similar rates. These patterns suggest that cooperative traits are controlled by kin selection, and we estimate that the relatedness for social interactions in P. aeruginosa is r = 0.84. More generally, our results demonstrate how molecular population genetics can be used to study the evolution of cooperation in natural populations.},
}

*Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Genes, Bacterial
Mutation
Pseudomonas aeruginosa/genetics
Quorum Sensing

@article {pmid35168400,
year = {2022},
author = {Helle, S and Tanskanen, AO and Coall, DA and Danielsbacka, M},
title = {Matrilateral bias of grandparental investment in grandchildren persists despite the grandchildren's adverse early life experiences.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {289},
number = {1969},
pages = {20212574},
pmid = {35168400},
issn = {1471-2954},
mesh = {Adolescent ; Bias ; Biological Evolution ; Child ; Family ; *Grandparents ; Humans ; Intergenerational Relations ; Reproduction ; },
abstract = {Evolutionary theory predicts a downward flow of investment from older to younger generations, representing individual efforts to maximize inclusive fitness. Maternal grandparents and maternal grandmothers (MGMs) in particular consistently show the highest levels of investment (e.g. time, care and resources) in their grandchildren. Grandparental investment overall may depend on social and environmental conditions that affect the development of children and modify the benefits and costs of investment. Currently, the responses of grandparents to adverse early life experiences (AELEs) in their grandchildren are assessed from a perspective of increased investment to meet increased need. Here, we formulate an alternative prediction that AELEs may be associated with reduced grandparental investment, as they can reduce the reproductive value of the grandchildren. Moreover, we predicted that paternal grandparents react more strongly to AELEs compared to maternal grandparents because maternal kin should expend extra effort to invest in their descendants. Using population-based survey data for English and Welsh adolescents, we found evidence that the investment of maternal grandparents (MGMs in particular) in their grandchildren was unrelated to the grandchildren's AELEs, while paternal grandparents invested less in grandchildren who had experienced more AELEs. These findings seemed robust to measurement errors in AELEs and confounding due to omitted shared causes.},
}

Adolescent
Bias
Biological Evolution
Child
Family
*Grandparents
Humans
Intergenerational Relations
Reproduction

@article {pmid35154777,
year = {2022},
author = {Fox, M and Wiley, KS},
title = {How a pregnant woman's relationships with her siblings relate to her mental health: a prenatal allocare perspective.},
journal = {Evolution, medicine, and public health},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {1-20},
pmid = {35154777},
issn = {2050-6201},
support = {F32 MD015201/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; K01 DK105110/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; R03 DK125524/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States ; },
abstract = {BACKGROUND: In cooperatively breeding species, individuals may promote their inclusive fitness through allomothering. Humans exhibit some features of cooperative breeding, and previous studies have focused on allomothering by grandparents and juvenile siblings in the postnatal period. We hypothesize that a pregnant woman's relationships with her siblings (offspring's maternal aunts and uncles) are beneficial for maternal affect in ways that can enhance the siblings' inclusive fitness. Maternal affect during pregnancy is a salient target of allocare given the detrimental effects of antepartum mood disorders on birth and infant outcomes.

METHODOLOGY: We test our hypotheses in a cohort of pregnant Latina women in Southern California (N = 201). Predictor variables of interest include number of siblings a participant has, if she has sisters, frequency of seeing siblings, and frequency of communication with siblings. Outcome variables measuring maternal affect include depression, state anxiety, pregnancy-related anxiety and perceived stress.

RESULTS: Having at least one sister and greater frequency of communication with siblings were associated with fewer depressive symptoms during pregnancy. No significant associations were found between sibling variables and other measures of affect.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Results suggest that how frequently you communicate with, and not how often you see, siblings could be protective against risk of antepartum depression. Sibling allomothering could impart effects through social-emotional support rather than instrumental support, as a strategy to benefit the prenatal environment in which future nieces and nephews develop. Allomothering may be particularly important in cultural contexts that value family relationships. Future studies should investigate other communities.},
}

@article {pmid35063725,
year = {2022},
author = {Roth, JD and Dobson, FS and Neuhaus, P and Abebe, A and Barra, T and Boonstra, R and Edwards, PD and Gonzalez, MA and Hammer, TL and Harscouet, E and McCaw, LK and Mann, M and Palme, R and Tissier, M and Uhlrich, P and Saraux, C and Viblanc, VA},
title = {Territorial scent-marking effects on vigilance behavior, space use, and stress in female Columbian ground squirrels.},
journal = {Hormones and behavior},
volume = {139},
number = {},
pages = {105111},
doi = {10.1016/j.yhbeh.2022.105111},
pmid = {35063725},
issn = {1095-6867},
mesh = {Animals ; Female ; Hydrocortisone ; *Lactation ; *Odorants ; Pheromones ; Sciuridae/physiology ; Territoriality ; },
abstract = {Social environments can profoundly affect the behavior and stress physiology of group-living animals. In many territorial species, territory owners advertise territorial boundaries to conspecifics by scent marking. Several studies have investigated the information that scent marks convey about donors' characteristics (e.g., dominance, age, sex, reproductive status), but less is known about whether scents affect the behavior and stress of recipients. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that scent marking may be a potent source of social stress in territorial species. We tested this hypothesis for Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) during lactation, when territorial females defend individual nest-burrows against conspecifics. We exposed lactating females, on their territory, to the scent of other lactating females. Scents were either from unfamiliar females, kin relatives (a mother, daughter, or sister), or their own scent (control condition). We expected females to react strongly to novel scents from other females on their territory, displaying increased vigilance, and higher cortisol levels, indicative of behavioral and physiological stress. We further expected females to be more sensitive to unfamiliar female scents than to kin scents, given the matrilineal social structure of this species and known fitness benefits of co-breeding in female kin groups. Females were highly sensitive to intruder (both unfamiliar and kin) scents, but not to their own scent. Surprisingly, females reacted more strongly to the scent of close kin than to the scent of unfamiliar females. Vigilance behavior increased sharply in the presence of scents; this increase was more marked for kin than unfamiliar female scents, and was mirrored by a marked 131% increase in free plasma cortisol levels in the presence of kin (but not unfamiliar female) scents. Among kin scents, lactating females were more vigilant to the scent of sisters of equal age, but showed a marked 318% increase in plasma free cortisol levels in response to the scent of older and more dominant mothers. These results suggest that scent marks convey detailed information on the identity of intruders, directly affecting the stress axis of territory holders.},
}

Animals
Female
Hydrocortisone
*Lactation
*Odorants
Pheromones
Sciuridae/physiology
Territoriality

@article {pmid35000446,
year = {2022},
author = {Shimoji, H and Dobata, S},
title = {The build-up of dominance hierarchies in eusocial insects.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {377},
number = {1845},
pages = {20200437},
pmid = {35000446},
issn = {1471-2970},
mesh = {Animals ; *Ants/physiology ; Behavior, Animal/physiology ; Humans ; Reproduction/physiology ; Social Dominance ; *Wasps/physiology ; },
abstract = {Reproductive division of labour is a hallmark of eusocial insects. However, its stability can often be hampered by the potential for reproduction by otherwise sterile nest-mates. Dominance hierarchy has a crucial role in some species in regulating which individuals reproduce. Compared with those in vertebrates, the dominance hierarchies in eusocial insects tend to involve many more individuals, and should require additional selective forces unique to them. Here, we provide an overview of a series of studies on dominance hierarchies in eusocial insects. Although reported from diverse eusocial taxa, dominance hierarchies have been extensively studied in paper wasps and ponerine ants. Starting from molecular physiological attributes of individuals, we describe how the emergence of dominance hierarchies can be understood as a kind of self-organizing process through individual memory and local behavioural interactions. The resulting global structures can be captured by using network analyses. Lastly, we argue the adaptive significance of dominance hierarchies from the standpoint of sterile subordinates. Kin selection, underpinned by relatedness between nest-mates, is key to the subordinates' acceptance of their positions in the hierarchies. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'.},
}

Animals
*Ants/physiology
Behavior, Animal/physiology
Humans
Reproduction/physiology
Social Dominance
*Wasps/physiology

@article {pmid34953159,
year = {2022},
author = {Walter, A and Bilde, T},
title = {Avoiding the tragedy of the commons: Improved group-feeding performance in kin groups maintains foraging cooperation in subsocial Stegodyphus africanus spiders (Araneae, Eresidae).},
journal = {Journal of evolutionary biology},
volume = {35},
number = {3},
pages = {391-399},
doi = {10.1111/jeb.13976},
pmid = {34953159},
issn = {1420-9101},
support = {624798/MCCC_/Marie Curie/United Kingdom ; },
mesh = {Animals ; *Spiders/physiology ; },
abstract = {Cooperation involving shared resource systems is prone to 'the tragedy of the commons', where individuals act in their own self-interest to exploit the resource in a manner that is detrimental to the common good of all group members. Directing cooperation towards kin provides a solution to this problem and predicts the differential performance depending on the relatedness of group members. In subsocial spiders, juveniles live in transient groups that cooperate in hunting and communal feeding. Prey capture is costly in terms of risk of injury and investment of venom and digestive enzymes, and therefore presents a situation where individuals may attempt to avoid costly interactions and exploit the resource acquired by other group members. We tested the prediction that individuals differentiate participation and/or investment in cooperative prey capture and extra-oral digestion (injection of digestive enzymes into prey prior to the initiation of extraction of nutrients) in response to the relatedness of group members with whom they interact, in the subsocial spider Stegodyphus africanus. The performance of groups and interactions over prey attack in groups of either related or mixed kin spiderlings were determined over a period of 4 weeks. We show that kin groups attack the prey significantly faster, recruit individuals to form feeding groups faster, extract prey body mass more efficiently and experience less antagonistic interactions than groups of mixed relatedness, which ultimately translates into an elevated growth rate. These results indicate that related individuals are more willing to take risks and invest in communal digestion when foraging with kin, as predicted by inclusive fitness theory as a solution to the tragedy of the commons.},
}

Animals
*Spiders/physiology

@article {pmid34949484,
year = {2022},
author = {Rodrigues, AMM and Gardner, A},
title = {Reproductive value and the evolution of altruism.},
journal = {Trends in ecology & evolution},
volume = {37},
number = {4},
pages = {346-358},
doi = {10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.007},
pmid = {34949484},
issn = {1872-8383},
support = {771387/ERC_/European Research Council/International ; },
mesh = {*Altruism ; Biological Evolution ; Female ; Humans ; Reproduction ; *Selection, Genetic ; },
abstract = {Altruism is favored by natural selection provided that it delivers sufficient benefits to relatives. An altruist's valuation of her relatives depends upon the extent to which they carry copies of her genes - relatedness - and also on the extent to which they are able to transmit their own genes to future generations - reproductive value. However, although relatedness has received a great deal of attention with regard to altruism, reproductive value has been surprisingly neglected. We review how reproductive value modulates patterns of altruism in relation to individual differences in age, sex, and general condition, and discuss how social partners may manipulate each other's reproductive value to incentivize altruism. This topic presents opportunities for tight interplay between theoretical and empirical research.},
}

*Altruism
Biological Evolution
Female
Humans
Reproduction
*Selection, Genetic

@article {pmid34938490,
year = {2021},
author = {Humphries, DJ and Nelson-Flower, MJ and Bell, MBV and Finch, FM and Ridley, AR},
title = {Kinship, dear enemies, and costly combat: The effects of relatedness on territorial overlap and aggression in a cooperative breeder.},
journal = {Ecology and evolution},
volume = {11},
number = {23},
pages = {17031-17042},
pmid = {34938490},
issn = {2045-7758},
abstract = {Many species maintain territories, but the degree of overlap between territories and the level of aggression displayed in territorial conflicts can vary widely, even within species. Greater territorial overlap may occur when neighboring territory holders are close relatives. Animals may also differentiate neighbors from strangers, with more familiar neighbors eliciting less-aggressive responses during territorial conflicts (the "dear enemy" effect). However, research is lacking in how both kinship and overlap affect territorial conflicts, especially in group-living species. Here, we investigate kinship, territorial overlap, and territorial conflict in a habituated wild population of group-living cooperatively breeding birds, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor. We find that close kin neighbors are beneficial. Territories overlap more when neighboring groups are close kin, and these larger overlaps with kin confer larger territories (an effect not seen for overlaps with unrelated groups). Overall, territorial conflict is costly, causing significant decreases in body mass, but conflicts with kin are shorter than those conducted with nonkin. Conflicts with more familiar unrelated neighbors are also shorter, indicating these neighbors are "dear enemies." However, kinship modulates the "dear enemy" effect; even when kin are encountered less frequently, kin elicit less-aggressive responses, similar to the "dear enemy" effect. Kin selection appears to be a main influence on territorial behavior in this species. Groups derive kin-selected benefits from decreased conflicts and maintain larger territories when overlapping with kin, though not when overlapping with nonkin. More generally, it is possible that kinship extends the "dear enemy" effect in animal societies.},
}

@article {pmid34933602,
year = {2021},
author = {Hitchcock, TJ and Gardner, A},
title = {Sex-biased demography modulates male harm across the genome.},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
volume = {288},
number = {1965},
pages = {20212237},
pmid = {34933602},
issn = {1471-2954},
mesh = {Biological Evolution ; Demography ; Female ; *Genome ; Humans ; Inheritance Patterns ; Male ; Reproduction ; *Sex Chromosomes ; },
abstract = {Recent years have seen an explosion of theoretical and empirical interest in the role that kin selection plays in shaping patterns of sexual conflict, with a particular focus on male harming traits. However, this work has focused solely on autosomal genes, and as such it remains unclear how demography modulates the evolution of male harm loci occurring in other portions of the genome, such as sex chromosomes and cytoplasmic elements. To investigate this, we extend existing models of sexual conflict for application to these different modes of inheritance. We first analyse the general case, revealing how sex-specific relatedness, reproductive value and the intensity of local competition combine to determine the potential for male harm. We then analyse a series of demographically explicit models, to assess how dispersal, overlapping generations, reproductive skew and the mechanism of population regulation affect sexual conflict across the genome, and drive conflict between nuclear and cytoplasmic genes. We then explore the effects of sex biases in these demographic parameters, showing how they may drive further conflicts between autosomes and sex chromosomes. Finally, we outline how different crossing schemes may be used to identify signatures of these intragenomic conflicts.},
}

Biological Evolution
Demography
Female
*Genome
Humans
Inheritance Patterns
Male
Reproduction
*Sex Chromosomes

@article {pmid34932965,
year = {2021},
author = {Roy, SW},
title = {Sex determination: Ant supergenes link sex ratio to social structure.},
journal = {Current biology : CB},
volume = {31},
number = {24},
pages = {R1573-R1575},
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.017},
pmid = {34932965},
issn = {1879-0445},
mesh = {Animals ; *Ants/genetics ; Reproduction ; *Sex Ratio ; Social Structure ; },
abstract = {A new study maps individual Formica ant queens' tendency to produce single-sex offspring to a so-called 'supergene' locus. This supergene neighbors another supergene determining social structure. Consequently, single-queen and multi-queen colonies disproportionately produce daughters and sons, respectively. This association mirrors the predictions of kin selection, though other possible explanations remain.},
}

Animals
*Ants/genetics
Reproduction
*Sex Ratio
Social Structure

@article {pmid34878556,
year = {2022},
author = {Brodie, ED and Cook, PA and Costello, RA and Formica, VA},
title = {Phenotypic Assortment Changes the Landscape of Selection.},
journal = {The Journal of heredity},
volume = {113},
number = {1},
pages = {91-101},
doi = {10.1093/jhered/esab062},
pmid = {34878556},
issn = {1465-7333},
mesh = {Animals ; Biological Evolution ; Body Size ; *Coleoptera/genetics ; Male ; Phenotype ; Selection, Genetic ; *Social Behavior ; },
abstract = {Social interactions with conspecifics can dramatically affect an individual's fitness. The positive or negative consequences of interacting with social partners typically depend on the value of traits that they express. These pathways of social selection connect the traits and genes expressed in some individuals to the fitness realized by others, thereby altering the total phenotypic selection on and evolutionary response of traits across the multivariate phenotype. The downstream effects of social selection are mediated by the patterns of phenotypic assortment between focal individuals and their social partners (the interactant covariance, Cij', or the multivariate form, CI). Depending on the sign and magnitude of the interactant covariance, the direction of social selection can be reinforced, reversed, or erased. We report estimates of Cij' from a variety of studies of forked fungus beetles to address the largely unexplored questions of consistency and plasticity of phenotypic assortment in natural populations. We found that phenotypic assortment of male beetles based on body size or horn length was highly variable among subpopulations, but that those differences also were broadly consistent from year to year. At the same time, the strength and direction of Cij' changed quickly in response to experimental changes in resource distribution and social properties of populations. Generally, interactant covariances were more negative in contexts in which the number of social interactions was greater in both field and experimental situations. These results suggest that patterns of phenotypic assortment could be important contributors to variability in multilevel selection through their mediation of social selection gradients.},
}

Animals
Biological Evolution
Body Size
*Coleoptera/genetics
Male
Phenotype
Selection, Genetic
*Social Behavior

@article {pmid34850889,
year = {2022},
author = {McGlothlin, JW and Fisher, DN},
title = {Social Selection and the Evolution of Maladaptation.},
journal = {The Journal of heredity},
volume = {113},
number = {1},
pages = {61-68},
doi = {10.1093/jhered/esab061},
pmid = {34850889},
issn = {1465-7333},
mesh = {Adaptation, Physiological/genetics ; *Biological Evolution ; Genetic Fitness ; Phenotype ; *Selection, Genetic ; },
abstract = {Evolution by natural selection is often viewed as a process that inevitably leads to adaptation or an increase in population fitness over time. However, maladaptation, an evolved decrease in fitness, may also occur in response to natural selection under some conditions. Social selection, which arises from the effects of social partners on fitness, has been identified as a potential cause of maladaptation, but we lack a general rule identifying when social selection should lead to a decrease in population mean fitness. Here we use a quantitative genetic model to develop such a rule. We show that maladaptation is most likely to occur when social selection is strong relative to nonsocial selection and acts in an opposing direction. In this scenario, the evolution of traits that impose fitness costs on others may outweigh evolved gains in fitness for the individual, leading to a net decrease in population mean fitness. Furthermore, we find that maladaptation may also sometimes occur when phenotypes of interacting individuals negatively covary. We outline the biological situations where maladaptation in response to social selection can be expected, provide both quantitative genetic and phenotypic versions of our derived result, and suggest what empirical work would be needed to test it. We also consider the effect of social selection on inclusive fitness and support previous work showing that inclusive fitness cannot suffer an evolutionary decrease. Taken together, our results show that social selection may decrease population mean fitness when it opposes individual-level selection, even as inclusive fitness increases.},
}

Adaptation, Physiological/genetics
*Biological Evolution
Genetic Fitness
Phenotype
*Selection, Genetic

@article {pmid34839709,
year = {2022},
author = {Domingues, CPF and Rebelo, JS and Monteiro, F and Nogueira, T and Dionisio, F},
title = {Harmful behaviour through plasmid transfer: a successful evolutionary strategy of bacteria harbouring conjugative plasmids.},
journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences},
volume = {377},
number = {1842},
pages = {20200473},
pmid = {34839709},
issn = {1471-2970},
mesh = {*Bacteria/genetics ; Biological Evolution ; *Conjugation, Genetic ; Plasmids/genetics ; },
abstract = {Conjugative plasmids are extrachromosomal mobile genetic elements pervasive among bacteria. Plasmids' acquisition often lowers cells' growth rate, so their ubiquity has been a matter of debate. Chromosomes occasionally mutate, rendering plasmids cost-free. However, these compensatory mutations typically take hundreds of generations to appear after plasmid arrival. By then, it could be too late to compete with fast-growing plasmid-free cells successfully. Moreover, arriving plasmids would have to wait hundreds of generations for compensatory mutations to appear in the chromosome of their new host. We hypothesize that plasmid-donor cells may use the plasmid as a 'weapon' to compete with plasmid-free cells, particularly in structured environments. Cells already adapted to plasmids may increase their inclusive fitness through plasmid transfer to impose a cost to nearby plasmid-free cells and increase the replication opportunities of nearby relatives. A mathematical model suggests conditions under which the proposed hypothesis works, and computer simulations tested the long-term plasmid maintenance. Our hypothesis explains the maintenance of conjugative plasmids not coding for beneficial genes. This article is part of the theme issue 'The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements'.},
}

*Bacteria/genetics
Biological Evolution
*Conjugation, Genetic
Plasmids/genetics

@article {pmid34821809,
year = {2021},
author = {Zhao, H and Liu, Y and Zhang, H and Breeze, TD and An, J},
title = {Worker-Born Males Are Smaller but Have Similar Reproduction Ability to Queen-Born Males in Bumblebees.},
journal = {Insects},
volume = {12},
number = {11},
pages = {},
pmid = {34821809},
issn = {2075-4450},
abstract = {Queen-worker conflict over the reproduction of males exists in the majority of haplodiplioidy hymenpteran species such as bees, wasps, and ants, whose workers lose mating ability but can produce haploid males in colony. Bumblebee is one of the representatives of primitively eusocial insects with plastic division labor and belongs to monandrous and facultative low polyandry species that have reproductive totipotent workers, which are capable of competing with mother queen to produce haploid males in the queenright colony compared to higher eusocial species, e.g., honeybees. So, bumblebees should be a better material to study worker reproduction, but the reproductive characteristics of worker-born males (WMs) remain unclear. Here, we choose the best-studied bumblebee Bombus terrestris to evaluate the morphological characteristics and reproductive ability of WMs from the queenless micro-colonies. The sexually matured WMs showed smaller in forewing length and weight, relatively less sperm counts but equally high sperm viability in comparison with the queen-born males (QMs) of the queenright colony. Despite with smaller size, the WMs are able to successfully mate with the virgin queens in competition with the QMs under laboratory conditions, which is quite different from the honeybees reported. In addition, there was no difference in the colony development, including the traits such as egg-laying rate, colony establishment rate, and populations of offspring, between the WM- and the QM-mated queens. Our study highlights the equivalent reproductive ability of worker-born males compared to that of queens, which might exhibit a positive application or special use of bumblebee rearing, especially for species whose males are not enough for copulation. Further, our finding contributes new evidence to the kin selection theory and suggests worker reproduction might relate to the evolution of sociality in bees.},
}

@article {pmid34803791,
year = {2021},
author = {Chatterjee, D and Rai, R},
title = {Choosing Death Over Survival: A Need to Identify Evolutionary Mechanisms Underlying Human Suicide.},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
volume = {12},
number = {},
pages = {689022},
pmid = {34803791},
issn = {1664-1078},
abstract = {The act of killing self contradicts the central purpose of human evolution, that is, survival and propagation of one's genetic material. Yet, it continues to be one of the leading causes of human death. A handful of theories in the realm of evolutionary psychology have attempted to explain human suicide. The current article analyses the major components of certain prominent viewpoints, namely, Inclusive fitness, Bargaining model, Pain-Brain model, Psychological aposematism, and few other perspectives. The article argues that relatively more weightage has been given to understanding ultimate (the "why") rather than proximate (the "how") functionality of suicidal acts. Evolutionary theorists have consistently pointed out that to comprehensively understand a trait or behavior, one needs to delineate not only how it supports survival but also the evolution of the mechanisms underlying the trait or behavior. Existing theories on suicide have primarily focused on its fitness benefits on surviving kin instead of providing evolutionary explanations of the more complex mechanisms leading up to such self-destructive motivations. Thus, the current paper attempts to highlight this gap in theorizing while suggesting probable proximate explanations of suicide which stresses the need to diffuse attention paid to fitness consequences of the act alone. We speculate that such explorations are needed in order to build a robust and comprehensive evolutionary theory of human suicide.},
}

@article {pmid34798134,
year = {2022},
author = {Raymond, B and Erdos, Z},
title = {Passage and the evolution of virulence in invertebrate pathogens: Fundamental and applied perspectives.},
journal = {Journal of invertebrate pathology},
volume = {187},
number = {},
pages = {107692},
doi = {10.1016/j.jip.2021.107692},
pmid = {34798134},
issn = {1096-0805},
support = {BB/S002928/1/BB_/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom ; },
mesh = {Animals ; Baculoviridae ; *Biological Evolution ; Fungi/genetics ; *Nematoda ; Virulence ; },
abstract = {Understanding the ecological and genetic factors that determine the evolution of virulence has broad value for invertebrate pathology. In addition to helping us understand the fundamental biology of our study organisms this body of theory has important applications in microbial biocontrol. Experimental tests of virulence theory are often carried out in invertebrate models and yet theory rarely informs applied passage experiments that aim to increase or maintain virulence. This review summarizes recent progress in this field with a focus on work most relevant to biological control: the virulence of invertebrate pathogens that are 'obligate killers' and which require cadavers for the production of infectious propagules. We discuss recent theory and fundamental and applied experimental evolution with bacteria, fungi, baculoviruses and nematodes. While passage experiments using baculoviruses have a long history of producing isolates with increased virulence, studies with other pathogens have not been so successful. Recent passage experiments that have applied evolution of virulence frameworks based on cooperation (kin selection) have produced novel methods and promising mutants with increased killing power. Evolution of virulence theory can provide plausible explanations for the varied results of passage experiments as well as a predictive framework for improving artificial selection.},
}

Animals
Baculoviridae
*Biological Evolution
Fungi/genetics
*Nematoda
Virulence