Abstract: The intrinsic mechanisms underlying population fluctuations especially in small mammalian species have received much attention from ecologists and evolutional biologists. According to the polymorphic behavior hypothesis and kin selection theory, integration between social behavior and kinship may play a major role in driving animals’ population fluctuations, which has become one of the frontier topics in the field. However, controversies still exist mainly due to the lack of convincing data demonstrating the underlying mechanisms. In the present review, we introduce some of the new methodological tools available for studying social behavior and kinship, review related theories, and discuss the current literature with respect to the behavior-kinship linkage models and possible future directions.

Key words: environmental stress, proteome, saponin, Panax notoginseng, flavonoid