Functional heterogeneity: relationship between group performance and individual behavioural differences

By Prof. Isaac Planas-Sitjà from Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isaac-Planas)

Zoom Link:

https://oist.zoom.us/j/95993904953?pwd=MEZpZk1uVGxJQUxGZnpyOEoxbVVKUT09

Meeting ID: 959 9390 4953
Passcode: 782775

Abstruct:

Animals face daily decisions, such as where to forage or nest, which can be critical for their fitness. In social animals, these decisions are complicated by a potential conflict of interests among group members, which nonetheless must collectively reach some form of agreement if the group is to remain together. Insects have been model organisms to study collective behaviour and advance our understanding of mechanisms leading to optimal and successful decisions. While it is clear that there are no two identical individuals, a debate still exists on whether heterogeneity of behaviour among group members could improve, or not, group performance. In fact, the question of how identical or dissimilar units, with same average properties, give rise to different collective processes goes beyond behavioural ecology. During this talk, I will introduce some of the mechanisms involved in collective behaviour (e.g., information sharing, social feedback and social interactions), and discuss how these mechanisms coupled with individual differences can lead to more accurate decisions, from gregarious to eusocial insects.

Seminar: From alpine beetle populations to Cretaceous moth radiation: can we connect the dots between microevolution and macroevolution?

Abstract
Population genetics and phylogenetics are two main subfields of evolutionary genetics. The former investigates the genetic variations among populations within a species while the latter focuses on reconstructing phylogeny of many species using genetic data. In this presentation, I will present my previous work on the population genetics of an alpine ground beetle, Nebria ingens complex, in the Sierra Nevada in California and my current work on the deep evolutionary history of species radiation of Lepidoptera. In the alpine ground beetle study, I used genome-wide variants to characterize the population structure and demographic history. I found that the glacial refugia was in the low-elevation drainage basins of Sierra Nevada during the last glacial maximum, followed by the postglacial recolonization to the current high-altitude alpine zone. I also used genome-wide association approaches to identify the genes putatively associated with the postglacial elevational range shift, local adaptation to the heterogeneous environments, and the morphological variations. For the study of Lepidoptera species radiation, I use published high-quality lepidopteran genomes to explore the genomic evidence related to rapid diversification of modern lepidopteran lineages. The preliminary results suggest that the gene evolution involving host plant detection, phytocompound detoxification, and protein digestion play crucial roles in species diversification along with the Angiosperm radiation. Finally, I will provide my personal perspective on connecting population genetics (microevolution) and phylogenetics (macroevolution) for a more thorough understanding of evolutionary processes.

About Dr. Yi-Ming Weng:
Yi-Ming was born and brought up in Taiwan. He graduated from National Chung-Hsing University for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Entomology department. He is interested in insect biodiversity and evolution in general. For his master thesis, he studied phylogeography of alpine ground beetles in Taiwan, looking for sharing evolutionary history between the alpine ground beetle species with similar ecological niche and geographical distribution. Yi-Ming started his PhD carrier in the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. He worked with Professor Sean Schoville to further study the evolutionary history of alpine ground beetle from the Sierra Nevada in California using genomic data. By the time he started to develop his skillsets in bioinformatics and genomics. Now Yi-Ming is working with Professor Akito Kawahara in the University of Florida as a postdoctoral researcher studying evolutionary genomics of Lepidoptera.

Despite Yi-Ming has been working mostly with computers for his bioinformatics analyses, he is most interested in outdoor activities and direct observation of insects. He believes that good biological questions usually come from the field, and stepping out to touch the insects gets the best inspiration. 

Seminar: Cichlid fishes as a model for evolution of altruism in vertebrates

We are inviting Dr. Shun Satoh from Kyoto University who calls himself as a "Fish Maniac" in his blog.For his details please check the link below. https://symphysodondiscus.wixsite.com/website-1/blank-3

Date: May 29th(Mon) 
Time: 15:00* -
Room: C209 (Center Bldg)
 *The start time has been updated as of May 19th. sorry for the inconvenience.

Zoom Link:
https://oist.zoom.us/j/94360778822?pwd=ZDlPZFY2d3luQWovcUdLZ1lvbGdpQT09
Meeting ID: 943 6077 8822
Passcode: 705537
If you have any questions, please contact egu@oist.jp.

OIST Mini Symposium "Phylogeny and Classification of Termites"

Evolutionary Genomics Seminar Vol.1_Mysterious mating behavior of a subsocial wood-feeding cockroach: female and male eat their wings one another, presented by Haruka Osaki, Postdoc at Kyoto University

Seminar by Haruka Osaki, Postdoc at Kyoto University

Date: August 5th

Time: 3pm - (30-40 mins Lecture and 10-20mins QA session)

Zoom: Meeting:

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74391178937?pwd=7nClhiDi4S-7j5Hq6BTKHy0uhMrMv9.1

For questions please contact: egu@oist.jp

Japan Eco-Evo English Seminar #9: Gall-forming aphids, small insects with great power: female-biased sex allocation via female competition induces novel insect gall organogenesis in plants

The seminar aims to initiate interactions between international and Japanese researchers and students in the field of Ecology and Evolution. The 9th event is presented by Dr. Xin Tong, SPDR Fellow of Cell Function Research Team at RIKEN CSRS.
Title:
Gall-forming aphids, small insects with great power: female-biased sex allocation via female competition induces novel insect gall organogenesis in plants

Timeline
15:00~15:30: seminar
15:30~16:00: questions and discussion
16:00~: mixer

Please apply from here: https://sites.google.com/view/jee-english-seminar

Japan Eco-Evo English Seminar #8: Individual-based temporal beta-diversity: Individual turnover and compositional shift in a community

The seminar aims to initiate interactions between international and Japanese researchers and students in the field of Ecology and Evolution. The 8th event is presented by Ryosuke Nakadai from National Institute for Environmental Studies.

Please register from the next link: https://sites.google.com/view/jee-english-seminar

Title:
Individual-based temporal beta-diversity: Individual turnover and compositional shift in a community

Timeline
15:00~15:30: seminar
15:30~16:00: questions and discussion
16:00~: mixer

Abstract:
  As increasing the necessity to assess the influences of global climate change and anthropogenic disturbances on biodiversity, the concept of beta-diversity has been extended to a temporal context and has been intensively studied in recent years. In studies of temporal beta-diversity, methodologies used in spatial beta-diversity have often been used simply. However, temporal beta-diversity often includes "the same individual" between two communities implicitly, which has not been the case with spatial communities, so it is necessary to consider the effects of individual turnover and persistence for quantifying temporal beta-diversity. I focused on both individual identity and the persistence of individuals within a temporal beta-diversity framework and developed some novel indices. In my presentation, I will explain the novel indices which I recently developed and the concepts behind them, showing examples of analysis. I would also like to discuss the prospects for community assemblages through both time and individual identity.
 

[Seminar] Evolution of the termite 'worker' phenotype: a reinterpretation of observations & a reconsideration of hypotheses by Dr. Theodore Evans

Dr. Theodore Evans, Associate Professor, the University of Western Australia. 

Language: English, no interpretation.

Seminar by Dr. Nathan Lo

Dr. Nathan Lo, Associate Professor , School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, will give a short talk on his research.