Michael Goodisman
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Ecology & Evolution
Within a single species, individuals can look and behave in startlingly different ways — males versus females, or in an insect colony, egg-laying queens versus sterile workers. The puzzle is that these very different individuals carry essentially the same genes.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
social insects
intralocus conflict
caste determination
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Estimate genetic correlations for body-form traits among queens, males, and workers in social insects, testing whether shared genetic architecture constrains how far castes and sexes can diverge in morphology.
- Test predictions of intralocus conflict theory at the molecular level by treating gene expression as a trait and measuring genetic correlations in expression across castes and sexes.
- Search genome-wide population variation in social insects for signatures of ongoing intralocus caste conflict and intralocus sexual conflict, linking genomic patterns to measured phenotypes.
More about the research
A trait that is good for one class may be harmful for another, and because both share the genetic instructions, evolution can get stuck: this tug-of-war is called intralocus conflict. This research asks whether such conflict has limited how different the classes within insect societies can become, and what genetic mechanisms allow diversity to arise anyway.
Why it matters
Understanding why individuals that share a genome can develop into radically different forms addresses a basic question about the origins of biological diversity. Because bees, wasps, ants, and termites have substantial ecological and economic importance — as pollinators, predators, and pests — knowledge of the genetic mechanisms shaping their castes may also inform how these insects are managed and studied.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
James Lewis
Clemson University, SC·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Identify the genetic architecture and molecular mechanisms behind a polygenic, male-specific wing color and pattern mimicry trait in a model butterfly, using functional and quantitative genomics.
Timothy Linksvayer
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Ecology & Evolution
Identify the gene regulatory networks that control the development of obligate sterility in ant workers, which completely lack reproductive organs.
Beryl Jones
University of Kentucky, KY·Ecology & Evolution
Identify changes in gene regulatory networks (GRNs) linked to evolutionary gains and losses of social behavior across bee species that differ in sociality.
The school
Georgia Institute of Technology: 50 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 572 research doctorates a year.
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