SGER: When Clones Attack: Can Fish Without Individual Variation Form Dominance Relationships?

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary Research in animal behavior and the social sciences shows that differences among individuals - in genetic and non-genetic characteristics - can help to predict their positions in social structures. But are these differences necessary - fundamental in some way - to the formation of the social structures themselves? Could identical individuals not form social structures? Recent developments in genetic and reproductive technologies make it possible to investigate these questions, and this proposal describes a series of experiments designed to do so by examining the formation of dominance relationships in cloned and non-cloned fish (tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus). The principal investigator will compare the dynamics of dominance relationship formation in fish that are: (1) identical in all ways (in both genetic and non-genetic characteristics), (2) genetically identical but non-genetically variable, (3) genetically variable but non-genetically identical, and (4) variable in both genetic and non-genetic characteristics. Comparing these four groups will allow the principal investigator to determine whether or not identical individuals can form dominance relationships and hierarchies as readily as non-identical individuals, and if individual variation is important, to estimate the contribution of genetic versus non-genetic characteristics. There are several broader implications of this project. First, it will help clarify the theoretical basis of social organization which is of interest not only to animal behaviorists and social scientists but also to some researchers in the military, artificial intelligence, and systems engineering. Second, it will provide a model to show how cloned animals can be used more broadly in investigations of the links between genetics and social behavior. Third, since this project involves genetics, cloned animals, and behavior, its results should be of broad interest, and the principal investigator will make these results available to both general and scientific audiences. Fourth, this project will provide educational experiences for SUNY at Stony Brook undergraduates working as research assistants, many of whom are from traditionally under-represented groups.