BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Hox Activity Levels Govern the Evolution of Behaviors - Jimena Ber
 ni. Medical Research Building Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Universi
 ty of Sussex
DTSTART:20250716T150000Z
DTEND:20250716T163000Z
UID:TALK233425@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Daniel Sobrido-Cameán
DESCRIPTION: Despite being a fundamental question in Biology\, the evoluti
 on of animal behaviour remains poorly understood. The divergence of behavi
 ours has been correlated with neuronal circuit changes between species or 
 with distinct genetic makeups\, but actual demonstrations of the genetic p
 rocesses that have taken place to drive the emergence of new behaviours ha
 ve only been achieved in the sensory system in the context of receptor exp
 ression (Auer et al.\, Nature 2020). Here\, we show that by merely tweakin
 g the levels of expression of the key developmental Hox genes\, different 
 circuits with different behavioural outputs can be generated. This change 
 occurs only at the final steps of embryonic development\, refining connect
 ivity in an otherwise unchanged system. In other words\, rather than requi
 ring specific developmental blueprints for each motor circuit—in the cas
 e of the fruit fly\, those governing\, rolling\, turning\, crawling\, etc.
 —a single blueprint is used\, with gene expression levels at the final s
 tages determining the final designation of each circuit. Such a mechanism 
 ensures the system stability and simplifies circuit diversification—with
 in organisms and potentially also across all organisms.
LOCATION:in person at Gurdon Institute
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR