Publications by authors named "Elissa L Suhr"
1. Adaptive maternal programming occurs when mothers alter their offspring's phenotype in response to environmental information such that it improves offspring fitness. When a mother's environment is predictive of the conditions her offspring are likely to encounter, such transgenerational plasticity enables offspring to be better-prepared for this particular environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological invasions have significant ecological, evolutionary and economic consequences. Ants are exemplary invaders and their invasion success is frequently attributed to a shift in social structure between native and introduced populations. Here, we use a multidisciplinary approach to determine the social structure, origin and expansion of the invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, in Australia by linking behavioural and genetic studies with indicators of dispersal pathways and propagule pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Ants are essential to ecosystems and display complex behaviors, but genomic resources for them are limited.
- Researchers have sequenced the genome of the invasive Argentine ant, utilizing innovative funding methods, which reveals unique biological features and genetic similarities to other species like honeybees.
- The Argentine ant genome shows significant expansions of specific gene families and has unique aspects like complete DNA methylation tools, while having fewer immune genes, which may indicate a reliance on behavior for pathogen control.