SFB-TRR 212

The role of niche construction and evolutionary capacitance for evolvability in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

Individual differences in niche construction activity contribute to the individualised niche and thus the selection imposed by this environment. Such selection acts on the niche constructors and also group members sharing the niche. This project explores how the individual immune experience of priming and wounding influences niche construction in a gregariously living insect, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. Here, niche construction is achieved via stink gland secretions, which improve the microbiota of the flour inhabited by this species. We asked how information regarding individual immune experience is transferred to group members, and found strong effects of both, priming and wounding, on cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which serve as important infochemicals in insects.

Our main aim is to test how individualisation contributes to enhanced evolutionary adaptation via niche construction and evolutionary capacitance. We will address the following main hypotheses:

1. Chemical communication via CHC profiles provides the basis for the transfer of individual experience into a group of beetles.
2. Epigenetic processes contribute to the rapid adaptation facilitated by niche construction and evolutionary capacitance.
3. Rapid adaptation to new temporal niches is facilitated by evolutionary capacitance.

Taken together, our project will experimentally test the influence of individualisation on two intensively debated, interconnected ways to enhance adaptability, niche construction and evolutionary capacitance.