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Next seminar is up: The Department of Biology’s Seminar Series will feature a diverse group of national and international scientists in the fields of Cell and Molecular Biology, Physiology, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Time: 12:30pm to 1:30 pm (unless noted otherwise). .... Next Seminar: When: Monday, December 7, 2020 @ 12:30 pm Join Zoom Meeting: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92725250086 Meeting ID: 927 2525 0086 Passcode: 326984 Speaker: Dr. Robert Huber Seminar Topic: Using the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum to study Batten disease. "Biology Seminar" See more

Next #YorkU Biology Seminar: The obvious and the obscure of the honey bee ovary by @ORueppell, hosted by @AmroYorkU & @JPPaluzzi Monday Nov 30, 12:30-1:30 https://yorku.zoom.us/j/93941324664 Meeting ID: 939 4132 4664 Password: 015057... Abstract: Reproductive division of labour is at the heart of advanced social evolution. In honey bees and other eusocial insects, a reproductively specialized queen caste monopolizes egg-laying and workers perform all other tasks. The reproductive ground-plan hypothesis of social evolution postulates that this phenotypic plasticity, as well as plasticity within workers that causes behavioral specialization, has evolved by co-opting physiological mechanisms that governed reproduction in the solitary ancestor. I will describe our studies to test the predicted link between behavior and reproductive physiology of honey bee workers by investigating the genetic architecture of ovary size. Next, I will describe the neuropeptide tachykinin as a more proximally modulator of behavioral specialization in honey bee workers: Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that tachykinin-signaling reduces task-specific response thresholds, which are central to behavioral specialization in social groups. Under certain circumstances, workers activate their ovaries and experience an increase in their life expectancy. I will discuss a study to address the question whether this lifespan extension is intrinsic or extrinsic and which molecular factors might play a role. I show further that initial investment into eggs has long-term consequences for survival and that honey bee queens plastically adjust egg size to social and environmental conditions. Finally, I discuss the honey bee queen’s ovary as a central hub for vertical virus transmission and report on our studies of transmission pathways and impact on the egg transcriptome.

Next Biology Seminar Series offering: Development of dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons in zebrafish: from embryos to adults Speaker: Dr. Marc Ekker https://biology.yorku.ca/seminar-series/... ZOOM MEETING: Meeting ID: 920 5070 7616 Password: 930667 https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92050707616

Next seminar Mon. Nov. 9: https://biology.yorku.ca/seminar-series/

York University Libraries celebrates Red and White Day with a #YorkU Authors virtual book display. Click the link to see what faculty members have published recently: http://bit.ly/yorkauthors #YUSpirit

The Department of Biology’s Seminar Series will feature a diverse group of national and international scientists in the fields of Cell and Molecular Biology, Physiology, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Next seminar: When: Monday, November 2, 2020 @ 12:30 pm Join Zoom Meeting: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/94941216751 Meeting ID: 986 3409 3474... Passcode: 258949 Speaker: Dr. Katie Marshall Seminar Topic: Mechanisms of plasticity in invertebrate cold tolerance at the continental and local scale. https://biology.yorku.ca/seminar-series/ See more