S08: Cooperation, Conflict and the Evolution of Socially Transferred Materials

Organizers

Dr. Steven A. Ramm, Université De Rennes

Dr. Joris M. Koene, VU Amsterdam

Dr. Mariana F. Wolfner, Cornell University

Invited Speakers

Dr. Jen Perry, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada

Dr. Aileen Berasategui, VU Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

Many organisms have evolved to transfer materials to conspecifics which go beyond simple gametes or nutrients. These are defined as socially transferred materials and include components that have been metabolized by the donor and induce a direct physiological response in the receiver, bypassing sensory organs. Examples include components of milk, seminal fluids, skin secretions and regurgitate and may even extend to the transfer of symbiotic microbes, with the method of transfer itself ranging from active uptake by recipients (e.g. consumption of externally deposited spermatophores), passive transfer (e.g. in ejaculates or milk) or even forced transfer (as in various forms of hypodermic injection). Although these transfers benefit the donor, they can influence the fitness of the recipient in different ways, either positively or negatively. Hence, whilst many social transfers may originate in cooperation, they also provide significant scope for conflict when the evolutionary interests of donors and recipients diverge.

This broad and emerging field of integrative biology contains many parallels and research opportunities in dramatically different transfer systems that have to date been studied in isolation, within their own scientific fields (ranging from evolutionary ecology, via dairy production to medicine). An important early goal of the nascent STM community is thus to connect researchers focusing on different transfers to foster cross-fertilization, and to collectively identify unifying concepts and experimental priorities for understanding their role in evolution. In this symposium, we therefore aim to showcase the wide diversity of biological phenomena that can usefully be captured by the framework of socially transferred materials, and to identify the commonalities and key differences in their origins, properties and evolutionary fates.

The symposium is organized by the ESEB STN Socially Transferred Materials.