The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

David C. Queller, Ph.D., Spencer T. Olin Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

Joan E. Strassman, Ph.D., Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis

Speaker bio(s)

Theory for understanding the evolution and mechanisms of social and mutualistic interactions comes largely from visible organisms like wasp colonies, cooperative birds, cleaner fish and fungus-growing ants. Microbes present the opportunity to test these theories in novel systems and are excellent for bringing together the evolutionary and mechanistic consequences of living in a community of relatives, strangers and helpful or dangerous other species. Dr. Queller and Dr. Strassmann study cooperation and conflict in the eukaryote amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. They use experimental and field approaches to discover exactly how genetically distinct clones interact and deploy genomics and use a variety of other methods to infer how likely those interactions are in nature. They also look at the interaction of D. discoideum with its bacterial prey, demonstrating that strong mutualistic interactions have evolved with some prey that benefit both parties and allow the team to out-compete non-cooperators. They have identified the mechanisms of these interactions in some cases down to the small molecules involved.

 

Dr. Queller received his PhD. in biological sciences from the University of Michigan. After a postdoc at the University of Sussex, he spent many years on the faculty at Rice University, moving to Washington University in 2011. Dr. Queller is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Science.

 

Dr. Strassmann received her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979. She joined the faculty of Rice University in 1980, eventually becoming department chair and Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor in Natural Sciences in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She moved to Washington University in 2011. Dr. Strassmann is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other honors. 

 

Dr. Strassmann and Dr. Queller have collaborated on many studies of social insects at field sites in Venezuela, Brazil and Italy. In particular they have explored the tension between conflict and cooperation in families. They pioneered molecular methods to understand the specifics of genetic structure underlying the complex social systems of social insects. In 2000, they switched to a new system, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, which has both family level altruism and mutualisms with bacteria. Their current research involves this system and others that will transform our understanding of what it means to be an organism. Their current research explores life cycles, kin recognition, and organismality at genetic, behavioral and evolutionary levels.

 

Open to

Public

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Linda Hanssler

Phone

(212) 327-7714

Sponsor

Linda Hanssler
(212) 327-7714
lhanssler@rockefeller.edu