Born in 1976 in the USA
Studied Evolution at Indiana University
Schwerpunkt
Soziale Insekten als Soziale Insekten als Modellsystem für die Evolutionäre EntwicklungsbiologieModellsystem für die Evolutionäre Entwicklungsbiologie
Arbeitsvorhaben
Soziale Interaktionen und die Evolution komplexer Phänotypen
I study how social interactions affect the genetic basis, evolution, and development of complex social phenotypes. My project will focus on how multi-level selection acts on genetic components arising from social interactions to shape social evolution. I will extend a model of physiological epistasis arising from interactions between genes within organisms to intergenomic epistasis arising from social interactions. I will also build upon models of the evolution of sociality that incorporate both genes expressed during development and genes with social effects.
Recommended Reading
Linksvayer, T. A., M. K. Fondrk, and R. E. Page. 2009. "Colony-level selection in honey bees produces coevolved socially-interacting gene complexes." American Naturalist 173: E99-E107.
Linksvayer, T. A. 2007. "Ant species size differences are determined by epistasis between brood and worker genomes." PLoS ONE 2: e994.
Linksvayer, T. A. and M. J. Wade. 2005. "The evolutionary origin and maintenance of eusociality in the aculeate Hymenoptera: maternal effects, sib-social effects, and heterochrony." The Quarterly Review of Biology 80: 317-336.
