The Evolution of Sociality
Darwin’s dilemma: If natural selection is the key to evolution, what motivates sterile castes of insects to support their colonies? In 1964, scientists studying social insects developed a new theoretical framework that could solve the dilemma: kin selection.
The theory showed how an individual could compensate for the lack of direct reproduction by enhancing the reproduction of close relatives, thereby getting genes they held in common into the next generation.
Joan Strassmann and David Queller have devoted their scientific careers to elucidating social evolution, first by focusing on social wasps in Texas, Venezuela and Italy, and more recently, by studying cellular slime molds (social amoebae). To create a fully experimental genetic social system, they are examining social genes to better understand sociality at the molecular level.
This year’s symposium will highlight Strassmann and Quellar’s work; she will review social wasp evolution, and he will focus on cooperation and conflict in a social amoeba. Additionally, Al Hook, Lucian Professor of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s, will kickoff the symposium with a discussion of the origins of group living in solitary wasps.
ABOUT THE BROTHER LUCIAN BLERSCH SYMPOSIUM
Organized by the School of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s University, the event is free and open to the public. This symposium honors Brother Lucian Blersch, CSC, a longtime professor of engineering at St. Edward’s who died in 1986 and in whose name a professorship in the School of Natural Sciences was endowed by a gift from J.B.N. Morris, hs ’48, ’52, and his family.