Articulated abdominal appendages in Sepsidae are one of the most dramatic evolutionary innovations that have occurred relatively recently (in a single dipteran family). Check out the latest paper on this system.
Author: akopp Page 5 of 15
Judy’s proposal to work on the origin of the insect sexual differentiation pathway has been funded by the NSF. Congratulations!!! This will be a very exciting project.
This year’s mushroom trip-and-dinner was once again a success. The weather and forest spirits cooperated with our intentions to a sufficient degree:
The dinner menu featured porcini and shaggy parasol soup, 10-mushroom-species minestrone, sauteed winter chanterelles, hedgehog mushroom risotto, pasta with black trumpet sauce, and candy cap cookies.
Let us hope the next season will be as good or better!
And many thanks to Grace for wonderful pictures.
Take a look:
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003344
The quarter is over and we all survived. To celebrate these happy events, an outdoor barbecue party will take place on Thursday, March 28, at 5 pm (till whenever). Remember to bring your own chair!
Angus and Pam’s paper on tripanosomatid parasites of Drosophila is now in press in PLoS One. They can give you a preview if you ask nicely.
Just a quick heads-up about some upcoming talks and presentations:
– Gavin is giving a talk about his work on sex comb evolution at the American Entomological Society meeting, April 7-10;
– Sarah’s PBG graduation seminar, summarizing her work on the comparative genetics of pigmentation, is Tuesday, April 23
– Don and Raul are giving talks, and Cindy, Lisa, and Margaret are presenting posters, at the Undergraduate Research Conference April 26 (posters) and 27 (talks)
Lots of good stuff!
This winter, I will be teaching two classes that may be of interest to the group. The first is my regular Evolution of Animal Development class that I do every couple of years – see the “Classes” page. The other is a new class that will cover transgenic technologies developed for model organisms including Drosophila, mammals, zebrafish, marine invertebrates, plants, fungi, and single-celled eukaryotes. The emphasis will be on recent advances and on broadly applicable principles and tools that are successful across a wide range of eukaryotic taxa. Class schedule will be by mutual agreement (Doodle) so sign up early.
Raul has received the Presentation Award at the 2012 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Biomedical Students for his work on the evolution of ovipositor morphology in D. suzukii. This is out of 1700 people who presented their research. Congratulations!
Check it out:
http://www.genetics.org/content/192/4.cover-expansion
Daniel believes this is the austral aura of a fly (or something to that effect)