AIMRC Seminar: Integrating Omics Approaches to Understand Variance in Visual Attraction

The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center (AIMRC) will host Erica Westerman, an associate professor of integrative animal behavior, at 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, in CHEM 0144. Westerman's research explores how the developmental environment, both physical and social, influences brain development, physiological responses to environmental change and social behavior. In this talk, Westerman will share how her lab identifies developmental conditions and genetic mechanisms that maintain diversity in mate preferences within a certain population, as well as potential trade-offs between optimal mate preference and optimal juvenile development.

Abstract: Mate selection is one of the most important decisions an animal makes and influences morphological evolution and speciation. Theory suggests that populations should evolve to have optimal, population-wide mate preferences; however, natural populations often exhibit diverse mate preference phenotypes. Westerman's lab uses a suite of genomic, transcriptomic and gene editing tools, as well as manipulative rearing experiments to identify developmental conditions and genetic mechanisms that maintain within-population diversity in mate preference, using the butterfly Bicyclus anynana as a model system. Her lab also studies potential trade-offs between optimal mate preference and optimal juvenile development.

Biography: Westerman is an associate professor of integrative animal behavior in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Her research utilizes the rich butterfly community of Northwest Arkansas as well as lab-reared butterflies to understand the mechanisms underlying variation in both visual attraction and pollinator behavior. Westerman collaborates with the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks; her students in zoology, animal behavior and phenotypic plasticity; and the broader Northwest Arkansas community on this research.

This event is supported by NIGMS of the National Institutes of Health under award number P20GM139768. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Pizza and beverages will be served. Please contact Kimberley Fuller, fullerk@uark.edu, for more information.

For those unable to attend in person, this seminar will also be available via Zoom.