Online Seminar: Convergent Evolution of a Social Symbiosis

How social and symbiotic behaviors evolve in the Metazoa is poorly understood at the cellular and molecular levels. Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) comprise the most species-rich animal family, and form a remarkable clade in which numerous independent lineages have evolved from solitary, free-living organisms into highly social species capable of behaviorally assimilating into ant colonies. The repeated evolution of this way of life involves dramatic changes in behavior, anatomy and chemical communication, and constitutes a unique, convergent system for studying social and symbiotic evolution. In this talk, I will discuss my laboratory’s current efforts to harness the genetic and experimental tractability of rove beetles to illuminate molecular and neurobiological phenomena underlying phenotypic evolution in this clade of organisms.

This seminar will be given online via Zoom. Details in attached poster.