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Department of Biology
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Our current FEATURED FACULTY is Dr. Susanne Kohalmi [Read about Dr. Kohalmi]
BIOLOGY IN THE NEWS:
BUGS Helen Battle Lecture
is hosting Dr. van de Peer from the University of Gent, Belgium
WHERE: B&GS 0153
WHEN: Feb 14th
Lecture: 11:30-12:30
Meet & Greet: 12:30 – 1:30
Dr., van de Peer is one of the world leaders on Bioinformatics and a collaborator on our spider mite genome work. He will be talking on the evolutionary significance of ancient genome duplications.
Summary: Many organisms are currently polyploid, or have a polyploid ancestry and now have secondarily 'diploidized' genomes. This finding is surprising because retained whole-genome duplications (WGDs) are exceedingly rare, suggesting that polyploidy is usually an evolutionary dead end. We argue that ancient genome doublings could probably have survived only under very specific conditions, but that, whenever established, they might have had a pronounced impact on species diversification, and led to an increase in biological complexity and the origin of evolutionary novelties.
Political Biology 4243G 2012Guest Lecture Series
This year’s guest lecture series in the Department of Biology’s Political Biology course has an exciting line up of speakers from multiple departments and faculties across campus.
We extend this invitation to you to join us as we learn about current issues, interesting controversies and science newsmakers. Click here for the full schedule.
NATURE IN THE CITY 2012
A six–part series of illustrated talks on nature within the City of London
Mark your calendar for next year’s Nature in the City, a free six-part series of illustrated talks on nature within the City of London. Co-sponsors are the London Public Library and Nature London.
Tuesdays, January 17 th to February 21 st, 2012 7:30 – 8:30 pm
January 17 The Wily Coyote – Ben Hindmarsh
January 24 Landscaping with Native Plants – Ben Porchuk
January 31 Effects of Climate Change – Hugh Henry
February 7 A River Runs through It – Patrick Donnelly
February 14 Endearing Chickadees – David Sherry
February 21 Kains Woods – Winifred Wake
Everyone is invited to attend at the Central Library of London Public Library, 251 Dundas Street, in the Wolf Performance Hall. [Full details]
Western researchers find fear itself affects predator-prey relationship
London, ON, Dec 08, 2011 – Franklin D. Roosevelt famously warned that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. New research from The University of Western Ontario reveals that FDR’s rhetorical flourish also accurately reflects a fundamental truth within the animal kingdom too.
In a study published today in Science, findings from a team led by Western biology professor Liana Zanette prove perception – in this case, fear – of predation risk is powerful enough to affect wildlife populations even when predators are prevented from directly killing any prey.
“The traditional view of predators is that they kill prey, and that direct killing is the only way predators can affect prey numbers. But predators also scare prey and wildlife live with this fear of being torn limb from limb by some predator every moment of every single day of their entire lives,” explains Zanette, a principal investigator at Western’s Advanced Facility for Avian Research. “This state of fear can be as important as direct killing in reducing prey numbers.” [read more >>>]
In memoriam - Don Hayden
Professor Emeritus Donald Bruce Hayden retired faculty member from Biology died on November 20, 2011. He retired from Western in 2009 after 46 years of service. Visitation service at McFarlane & Roberts Funeral Home, 2240 Wharncliffe Rd. S Lambeth on Thursday, November 24, 2011 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. where a funeral service will also be held on Friday, November 25 at 11:00 a.m.
You can find his complete obituary here
Miodrag Grbić leads international consortium to spider mite genome publication in Nature
An international consortium under the leadership of Dr. Miodrag Grbić from the University of Western Ontario recently unveiled the first genome of chelicerates (spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, ticks and mites), the second largest group of animals on Earth. This study is published in the latest issue of Nature, (Grbić et al, “The genome of Tetranychus urticae reveals herbivorous pest adaptations”).
Other Western co-authors in this international consortium include Associate Professors Vojislava Grbić (Biology) and Jeffrey Hutter (Physics and Astronomy), postdoctoral fellows Vladimir Zhurov, Marie Navarro, Marc Cazaux, and Gustavo Acevedo, and graduate students Stephen Hudson and Anica Bjelica. [Full details]
Details on the Genomics in Agricultural Pest Management group can be found at http://devbiol.zoo.uwo.ca/spidermite/
