Gro Vang Amdam, Dr.

Project

Life History "Ground Plans" in Social Insect Evo-Devo

Recent work from my group and collaborators suggests that selection on major life history regulators may have been central to evolution of insect social behavior. By defining a "ground plan" of co-regulated traits, these systems can contribute to predictable variation in social phenotypes and serve as substrates for selective breeding.
I would like to mature these hypotheses into a heuristic framework that describes my ideas on the mechanisms of the "ground plan". This framework will allow the focus group to expand its explanatory models to include specific candidate regulators. I believe this extended insight can change our understanding of how social behavior can emerge.

Recommended Reading

Linksvayer, T. A., O. Rueppell, O. Kaftanoglu, R. E. Page, and G. V. Amdam. 2009. "The genetic basis for transgressive ovary size in honey bee workers." Genetics, in press.
Patel, A., K. F. Fondrk, O. Kaftanoglu, C. Emore, G. Hunt, K. Frederick, and G. A. Amdam. 2007. "The making of a queen: TOR pathway is a key player in diphenic caste development." PLoS ONE 6: e509. Featured in Nature, Research highlights.
Amdam, G. V., A. Csondes, M. K. Fondrk, and R. E. Page. 2006. "Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits." Nature 439: 76-78.

Publications from the Fellows' Library

Amdam, Gro Vang (Cold Spring Habor, 2022)

Identifying a developmental transition in honey bees using gene expression data

Amdam, Gro Vang (Chicago, Ill., 2013)

Life-history evolution and the polyphenic regulation of somatic maintenance and survival

Amdam, Gro Vang (London, 2012)

Physiological variation as a mechanism for developmental caste-biasing in a facultatively eusocial sweat bee

Amdam, Gro Vang (Cambridge, 2012)

Regulation of behaviorally associated gene networks in worker honey bee ovaries

Amdam, Gro Vang (San Francisco, California, US, 2011)

Honey bee PTEN--description, developmental knockdown, and tissue-specific expression of splice-variants correlated with alternative social phenotypes

Amdam, Gro Vang (Oxford [u.a.], 2011)

Social context, stress, and plasticity of aging

Amdam, Gro Vang (Oxford, 2011)

Larval and nurse worker control of developmental plasticity and the evolution of honey bee queen-worker dimorphism : corrections

Amdam, Gro Vang ([Berlin?], 2011)

Genetic architecture of ovary size and asymmetry in European honeybee workers

Amdam, Gro Vang (San Francisco, California, US, 2011)

Development of an RNA interference tool, characterization of its target, and an ecological test of caste differentiation in the eusocial wasp Polistes

Amdam, Gro Vang (2011)

Honey bee life history plasticity : development, behavior, and aging