Oct. 3, 2019
This NIH award will support EEB's assistant professor Sarah Kocher to “bridge the gap between population and evolutionary genetics, neurobiology and behavior to uncover the core neurobiological and genetic mechanisms that shape the ‘social brain.’ ” Kocher examines how genetic and environmental factors shape variation in social behavior of bees, including research on sweat bees that found a link to patterns of activity in specific genes, including ones linked to autism. In her work on halictid bees, she and fellow researchers found that the social species had evolved a more sensorial communications system compared with related solitary species.