11 de junio de 2010. 12:00h
Auditorio Centro de Astrobiologia CSIC-INTA
Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial
Ctra de Ajalvir, km 4
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid

Ponente: Laurent Keller. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne Switzerland

Resumen:

In this talk I will discuss how interactions between genes and social environment influence behavior and social organization. In particular, I will show that, in ants, worker behavior and gene expression profiles are more strongly influenced by indirect effects associated with the genotypic composition of workers within their colony than by the direct effect of their own genotype.  This constitutes an unusual example of an “extended phenotype,” and suggests a complex genetic architecture directly and indirectly influencing the individual behaviors that, in aggregate, produce an emergent colony-level phenotype. I will finally discuss of these gene by environment interactions underlie the presence of two distinct modes of social organization.