Research
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Selected Publications
Doering GN, MM Prebus, S Suresh, JN Greer, R Bowden, TA Linksvayer. 2024. Emergent collective behavior evolves more rapidly than individual behavior among ant species. biorxiv.
Singh R, S Suresh, JH Fewell, JF Harrison, TA Linksvayer. 2024. Wolbachia-infected pharaoh ant colonies have higher egg production, metabolic rate, and worker survival. Journal of Experimental Biology 227: jeb247168.
Tong C, L Avilés, LS Rayor, AS Mikheyev, TA Linksvayer. 2022. Genomic signatures of recent convergent transitions to social life in spiders. Nature Communications 13: 6967.
Mueller UG, TA Linksvayer. 2022. Microbiome breeding: conceptual and practical issues. Trends in Microbiology 30: 997-1011.
Walsh JT, L Pontieri, P d’Ettorre, TA Linksvayer. 2020. Ant cuticular hydrocarbons are heritable and associated with variation in colony productivity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287: 20201029.
Singh R, TA Linksvayer. 2020. Wolbachia-infected ant colonies have increased reproductive investment and an accelerated life cycle. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb220079
Walsh JT, S Garnier, TA Linksvayer. 2020. Ant collective behavior is heritable and shaped by selection. American Naturalist 196: 541-554.
Warner MR, L Qiu, AS Mikheyev, TA Linksvayer. 2019. The convergent evolution of eusociality is based on a shared reproductive groundplan plus lineage-specific sets of plastic genes. Nature Communications 10: 2651.
Warner MR, AS Mikheyev, TA Linksvayer. 2019. Transcriptomic basis and evolution of the ant nurse-larval social interactome. PLoS Genetics 15: e1008156.
Linksvayer TA, BR Johnson. 2019. Re-thinking the social ladder approach for elucidating the evolution and molecular basis of insect societies. Current Opinion in Insect Science 34: 123-129.
Warner M, AS Mikheyev, TA Linksvayer. 2017. Genomic signature of kin selection in an ant with obligately sterile workers. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34: 1780-1787.
Pontieri L, AM Schmidt, R Singh, JS Pedersen, TA Linksvayer. 2017. Artificial selection on ant caste uncovers effect of Wolbachia infection on sex ratio. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 30: 225-234.
Linksvayer TA, MJ Wade. 2016. Theoretical predictions for sociogenomic data: the effects of kin selection and sex-limited expression on the evolution of social insect genomes. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 4: 65.
Vojvodic S, B Harpur, C Kent, A Zayed, BR Johnson, KE Anderson, TA Linksvayer. 2015. The transcriptomic and evolutionary signature of social interactions regulating honey bee caste development. Ecology & Evolution 5: 4795-4807.
Mikheyev AS, TA Linksvayer. 2015. Genes associated with ant social behavior show distinct transcriptional and evolutionary patterns. eLife 4: e04775.
Overview
Welcome!
We study the genetic and behavioral underpinnings of complex social systems to understand how these systems function and evolve, and more generally to provide basic insight into the genetic basis and evolution of social traits – traits that are affected by, or defined by, social interactions. We use social insects (ants and honey bees) as study systems because they are highly social and show striking variation in the degree of social complexity. None of the well-established animal model systems (e.g., mouse, fruit fly, nematode) are highly social, so that social insects have strong potential to provide unique insight into the genetic and evolutionary implications of complex social interactions.
We use two main empirical approaches:
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detailed analyses of an ant model, the pharaoh ant Monomorium pharaonis, as well as the honey bee Apis mellifera
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comparative analyses across social arthropods, in particular across all ants and within particular ant lineages (e.g., Temnothorax and Leptothorax)
