What can ants teach us about the genetics of social behavior? It’s a question Assistant Professor of Biology Timothy Linksvayer has been investigating in the lab he shares with both his students and his army of specimens. Linksvayer is especially interested in the interplay of social interactions with genetic architecture and trait evolution in social insects such as ants and honey bees. While researchers typically approach the problem by examining how each individual’s genes affect its own traits, Linksvayer and his students study how social interactions among colony members make each individual’s traits dependent on the genes of all colony members.
Watch the video below to learn more:
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