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SUMMARY:CANCELED DUE TO USS PENSIONS STRIKE. - Yannick Wurm (Queen Mary Un
 iversity of London)
DTSTART:20180306T130000Z
DTEND:20180306T140000Z
UID:TALK97201@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Rebecca Kilner
DESCRIPTION:Evolution of ant social chromosomes and bumblebee diversity\n\
 nEcological\, behavioural and theoretical studies have informed our unders
 tanding of the impacts and tradeoffs of different environments. In contras
 t\, we know relatively little about the genes and genetic architectures in
 volved in responding or adapting to different environments. Two of our pro
 jects on social insects contribute to this understanding.\n\nA fundamental
  trait that varies throughout the ants is whether a colony will include on
 e or several queens. In the fire ant we demonstrated that this dimorphism 
 is determined by alternate variants of a "supergene" region >400 protein-c
 oding genes. Using population genomics\, phylogenetic and transcriptomic a
 pproaches I will share our current understanding of the forces involved in
  the evolution and maintenance of this system.\n\nBumblebees are key polli
 nators that face many widely publicised environmental challenges including
  habitat loss and pesticide exposure. To complement traditional behavioura
 l experiments\, we are developing a molecular toolkit to examine pollinato
 r health. This has identified genes and pathways involved in the response 
 to pesticide exposure\, as well as regions in the genome with strong signs
  of recent sweeps in wild populations.
LOCATION:Canceled - apologies for any inconvenience caused
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