Article
Biology
Samin Gokcekus, Ella F. Cole, Ben C. Sheldon, Josh A. Firth
Summary: Understanding why individuals cooperate with genetically unrelated others is a major focus in biology. The social network approach is beneficial in identifying factors influencing cooperation, testing various routes to cooperation, and uncovering evolutionary and ecological pressures leading to differences in cooperation in natural populations.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Laurence J. Belcher, Anna E. Dewar, Chunhui Hao, Melanie Ghoul, Stuart A. West
Summary: Laboratory experiments have shown that bacteria exhibit cooperative behaviors directed towards relatives, but natural bacterial populations lack evidence for cooperation and kin selection. By using molecular population genetics, a study of a natural population of Bacillus subtilis found evidence supporting kin selection and cooperative traits through increased polymorphism and divergence at cooperative genes. This study also eliminated alternative explanations and found more deleterious mutations in genes controlling cooperative traits.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Keigo Uematsu, Man-Miao Yang, William Amos, William A. A. Foster
Summary: The kin structure and genetic relatedness of two species of aphids on bamboo were compared to uncover the factors promoting the evolution of eusociality in open colonies without nests. The results show that the lack of migration from the primary host and feeding on a large and stable host plant may favor the evolution of eusociality, leading to the production of genetically homogenized, large, and long-lived colonies.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Tripti Yadav, Omkar, Geetanjali Mishra
Summary: The cannibalistic tendencies of ladybird at different life stages are influenced by victim relatedness. Early life stages tend to cannibalize more sibling and non-sibling eggs, while fourth instars and adults show a higher preference for eggs regardless of relatedness. Kin recognition and avoidance of cannibalism are stage-specific.
BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Stuart A. West, Guy A. Cooper, Melanie B. Ghoul, Ashleigh S. Griffin
Summary: Since 1964, our understanding of the importance of cooperation for life on Earth has undergone a dramatic transformation. From early research on social insects to the current exploration across the entire tree of life, advances in technology have helped illuminate generalizations of cooperation across different taxa and opened up new directions for future research.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Simon Vitt, Rieke F. Schons, Alexander J. R. Keller, Timo Thuenken
Summary: This study investigates the impact of inbreeding on the social behavior of fish groups. It finds that inbred sibling groups have different shoaling characteristics, including shorter activity distance and faster recovery ability.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Ashraf Atta M. S. Salem, Mahfouz Abdelsattar, Mosaad Abu Al-Diyar, Amthal H. H. Al-Hwailah, Esraa Derar, Nadiah A. H. Al-Hamdan, Shouket Ahmad Tilwani
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between cooperation and altruistic behavior among gifted adolescents in three universities in Egypt and Kuwait. It found a significant positive relationship between altruism and cooperation among these adolescents, as well as differences between genders and seniority levels in both altruism and cooperation.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Trey J. Scott
Summary: By comparing cooperative and private loci in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it was found that cooperative loci tend to be more pleiotropic than private loci in terms of protein-protein interactions, gene ontology terms, and gene expression specificity. These findings suggest that pleiotropy may be a general mechanism to limit cheating and that cooperation may shape pleiotropy in the genome.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Liru Chen, Yuanfei Pan, Xiaoyun Pan, Liangrui Yu, Alejandro Sosa, Ji Yang, Bo Li
Summary: This study suggests that density-dependent kin interactions may have evolved from competition to cooperation by kin selection of reduced shade avoidance responses in response to invasive plant invasion. The results indicate that kin selection pressures may play a more important role in fine-tuning plant shade avoidance responses than previously thought, providing a new mechanism to explain plant invasion success.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Adam M. Fisher, Sally Le Page, Andri Manser, Daniel R. Lewis, Gregory Holwell, Stuart Wigby, Tom A. R. Price
Summary: The study found that fruit fly larvae were more likely to cannibalize non-related larval victims in both species, and this effect increased at high densities in D. simulans. There was no evidence that fruit fly larvae use social familiarity to assess relatedness. Additionally, in D. melanogaster, cannibalistic larvae preferred to cannibalize larvae that were being attacked by a greater number of conspecifics, indicating that cues linked to conspecific abundance encourage cooperative cannibalism.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Xiaomei Wang, Zhongshan Zhang, Shaoyong Zhang, Fan Yang, Min Yang, Junbo Zhou, Zuguang Hu, Xiaogang Xu, Genxiang Mao, Guangming Chen, Wenzhou Xiang, Xue Sun, Nianjun Xu
Summary: Marine organisms have unique chemicals that have potential antiaging properties. Various components like carbohydrates, proteins, pigments, flavonoids, fatty acids, and phenols from marine organisms have been shown to have antiaging effects in experimental models involving rats, fruit flies, and nematodes. There is potential for these natural ingredients from marine organisms to be used in nutraceuticals, functional foods, and cosmetics as alternatives to synthetic ingredients for consumer wellbeing.
FOOD RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jun Abe, Ryosuke Iritani, Koji Tsuchida, Yoshitaka Kamimura, Stuart A. West
Summary: Melittobia australica females exhibit a sophisticated sex ratio behavior, producing consistently female-biased offspring sex ratios when they have not dispersed and adjusting their sex ratio based on the number of females laying eggs when they have dispersed. This indicates that dispersal status serves as an indirect cue for relatedness and influences their sex ratio adjustments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Yen-Wen Wang, Cecile Ane
Summary: In this study, the authors present a kinship estimator called KIMGENS, which is capable of estimating kinship among individuals with various ploidies and is robust to population structure. The results show that KIMGENS outperforms previous estimators in accurately estimating kinship in simulated panmictic, structured, and admixed populations.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Joris Melchior Schroder, Eva-Maria Merz, Bianca Suanet, Pamala Wiepking
Summary: This study examines the impact of social contagion within neighborhoods on repeated blood donation behavior. By analyzing longitudinal survey and register data, the study finds that blood donors are positively affected by donations made by other donors in their neighborhoods, and this effect is not mediated by normative or informational social influence. Exploratory analysis further attributes this finding to social contagion within donor couples. The study contributes to the research on repeated blood donation behavior and can inform retention strategies of blood banks.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Victoria R. Franks, Rose Thorogood, Patricia Brekke
Summary: Across the animal kingdom, little is known about the development of social environments, particularly in wild populations. This study examines how associations among young animals form and are influenced by environmental or genetic conditions established by parents. The results suggest that the natal environment created by parents, rather than genetic condition, establishes the foundation for social associations in offspring.