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Saxer and Edwards winners in the Rice IBB Symposium
Congratulations to Greda Saxer for winning the best poster in Evolutionary Biology and Tracy Edwards for winning the best poster in Genetics at the 4th Annual IBB Symposium, June 18, 2008.Rice University evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Queller have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The academy is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers. The 2008 class of 190 fellows and 22 foreign honorary members includes Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners and recipients of Academy and Grammy awards. The class also includes James A. Baker III, honorary chairman of Rice's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Strassmann and Queller are well-known for their pioneering studies on the evolution of sociality, cooperation and conflict. The focus of their current work is the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. (more info)Links to Videos of talks by Joan Strassmann added - Visit Joan's page
About us
The Strassmann and Queller Group is headed by Joan Strassmann and David Queller, Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professors of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University. Their research focus is evolutionary biology, particularly social evolution and genetic conflicts of interest in social insects and social amoebae.
Over the past 40 years, evolutionary theories of social conflict and cooperation have radically changed our view of life. It has become clear that social evolution lies at the heart of some of the most significant transitions in evolution: the emergence of chromosomes, cells, eukaryotes, and multicellular organisms. In each, formerly separate entities overcome conflicts and merge into a greater whole. Understanding social evolution is therefore central to understanding the very structure of life. Though theories of social evolution are inherently genetic, the field has been largely removed from the advances of modern molecular genetics and large-scale genomics. The problem is that there has been no model organism with the right combination of sociality, short lifespan, and well-developed genetic and genomic tools. In the Strassmann / Queller Group we are using the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, which possesses these three characteristics, to put a molecular and mechanistic face on the processes of social evolution.
Recent Publications
- Strassmann, JE and Queller, DC. 2008. Social Evolution: Ant eggs lacking totipotency. Current Biology 18:R299-R301.
- Kronforst, MR, Gilley, DC, Strassmann, JE, and Queller, DC. 2008. DNA methylation is widespread across social Hymenoptera. Current Biology 18:R287-R288.
- Cervo, R. Dapporto, L., Beani, L., Strassmann, JE, and Turillazzi, S. 2008. On status badges and quality signals in the paper wasp Polistes dominulus: body size, facial colour patterns and hierarchical rank. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 275:1189-1196.
- Santorelli, LA, Thompson, CRL, Villegas, E, Svetz, J, Dinh, C, Parikh, A, Sucgang, R, Kuspa, A, Strassmann, JE, Queller, DC and Shaulsky, G. 2008. Facultative cheater mutants reveal the genetic complexity of cooperation in social amoebae. Nature 451:1107-1110.
- McConnell,R., Middlemist, S., Scala, C., Strassmann, J.E. and Queller, D.C. 2007. An unusually low microsatellite mutation rate in Dictyostelium discoideum, an organism with unusually abundant microsatellites. Genetics. 177:1499-1507.
- Afkhami, M.E. and Strassmann, JE. 2007. Adult yellow-crowned night-herons face in opposite directions at the nest. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 119: 747-749
- Strassmann, J.E. and Queller, D.C. 2007. Altruism among Amoebas. Natural History 116: 24-29.
- Gilbert, OM, Foster, K., Mehdiabadi, NJ, Strassmann, JE, and Queller, DC. 2007. High relatedness maintains multicellular cooperation in a social amoeba by controlling cheater mutants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104:8913-8917.
- Strassmann, JE, and Queller, DC. 2007. Insect societies as divided organisms: The complexities of purpose and cross-purpose. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104:8619-8626.
- Kuzdzal-Fick, J.J., Foster, K. R.; Queller, D. C., and Strassmann, J. 2007. Exploiting new terrain: an advantage to sociality in the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. Behavioral Ecology. 18: 433-437.