Me and we: the interplay between individual and group behavioral variation in social collectives

Adria C LeBoeuf; Christina M Grozinger

doi:10.1016/j.cois.2014.09.010

Me and we: the interplay between individual and group behavioral variation in social collectives

Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2014 Nov:5:16-24. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2014.09.010. Epub 2014 Sep 28.

Authors

Adria C LeBoeuf¹, Christina M Grozinger²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolution, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, UNIL-Sorge, Batiment Biophore, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
² Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology, The Pennsylvania State University, 1 Chemical Ecology Lab, Orchard Road, University Park, PA 16802, USA. Electronic address: cmgrozinger@psu.edu.

PMID: 32846737
DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2014.09.010

Abstract

In social insects, substantial behavioral variation exists among individuals and across colonies. Here, we discuss the role of individual variation in shaping behavioral tendencies of social groups, and highlight gaps in our knowledge about the role of the social group in modulating individual behavioral tendencies. We summarize our knowledge of the genetic mechanisms underpinning these processes, and describe the use of genomic tools to better understand the influence of social context on individuals. We discuss rapid collective phasic transitions, in which a group of individuals engages in a common novel behavior together, as a potentially highly informative model system in which to comprehensively investigate the interplay between individual and group variation.

Publication types

Review