Research Interests

I am interested in how cooperative groups are formed and maintained and what they allow organisms to accomplish.  I am particularly interested in how unicellular eukaryotic organisms cooperate because it is this cooperation that allows the production of multicellular life. The progression of steps of how cooperation arose and how development has evolved  are still uncertain.  By understanding the evolution of cooperation in simple organisms I hope to gain insight into the first possible steps towards organismal complexity.

 Whether high relatedness is required to promote cooperation amongst unicellular eukaryotes is relevant to whether it was required for the first multicellular organisms. Evolutionary cheating may possibly drive genetic changes in organisms in which different genotypes occur within cooperative groups.  In such an organism, mutant alleles that increase the fitness of a cell when in chimera but decrease it when in a clonal group would be more likely to be maintained in a population if chimeras form frequently. I intend therefore to determine frequency of chimerism of wild Dictyoselids cooperative groups (i.e. slugs and fruiting bodies).  By determining the frequency of chimerism in nature, I hope to learn how likely or widespread evolutionary cheating may be in this system.

  I also am interested in what drives major adaptations in the cellular slime mold slug stage. There are many differences between species in development and movement, yet there appears to be a single common goal of fruiting body formation and dispersal of spores.  I am starting by examining the costs and benefits of different types of migration and whether they might allow the slime molds to fill different niches.