Society-wide Symposium: Evolutionary Endocrinology: Hormones as mediators of evolutionary phenomena

Hormones are agents of biological coordination, orchestrating the (co)expression of genes and phenotypes in response to both intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Hormones circulate systemically, signal diverse tissues, and regulate nearly all aspects of the phenotype, including behavior, morphology, physiology, and life history. Moreover, hormonal phenotypes are both heritable and subject to natural selection. Yet, despite their many key roles in mediating evolutionary phenomena, hormones have rarely been integrated into explicit evolutionary models and analyses. However, in the past two decades, the field of Evolutionary Endocrinology has emerged not only as a means of understanding the evolution of the endocrine system itself, but also as a framework for exploring the roles of hormones in shaping fundamental evolutionary phenomena. Originally centered on classic quantitative-genetic approaches to the study of endocrine phenotypes, this field has recently expanded to include exciting new ideas about the evolutionary significance of hormones in: structuring genetic covariance, resolving genomic conflict, shaping life-history evolution, facilitating or constraining adaptation, and mediating non-genetic inheritance and maternal effects.

This symposium will bring together evolutionary biologists and comparative endocrinologists addressing these and other topics in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate systems, and encompassing a variety of hormones and endocrine axes. Endocrinology and evolutionary biology will serve as common themes that tie together perspectives from developmental biology, genetics and genomics, comparative morphology and physiology, and behavioral ecology. Speakers will highlight a variety of evolutionary techniques and perspectives, including genomic and transcriptomic analyses, phenotypic selection studies, artificial selection experiments, quantitative genetics, and evolutionary developmental biology. Our overarching goals are to (1) develop an integrative framework for exploring the roles of hormones in mediating key evolutionary phenomena, one that will guide and inspire the expanding field of evolutionary endocrinology, and (2) develop new connections between endocrinologists and evolutionary biologists.

Sponsors: DAB, DCE, DEDB, DEE, DPCB

 

Organizers

• Robert Cox (University of Virginia)
• Joel McGlothlin (Virginia Tech)
• Frances Bonier (Queen’s University)

Speakers

S6.1 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 08:00 COX, RM*; MCGLOTHLIN, JW; BONIER, F:

Hormones as mediators of phenotypic and genetic integration: an evolutionary genetics approach

S6.2 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 08:30 OUYANG, Jenny Q:

Endocrine variation as a mediator of life-history evolution: the relationship between hormones and fitness in a fluctuating environment

S6.3 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 09:00 MOKKONEN, M.*; KOSKELA, E.; MAPPES, T.:

Hormones mediate evolutionary conflict between the sexes

S6.4 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 10:00 ZERA, A.J.:

Evolutionary endocrinology of dispersal polymorphism in insects

S6.5 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 10:30 SCHWARTZ, Tonia/S*; BRONIKOWSKI, Anne/M:

Evolution of the insulin and insulin-like signaling network in a garter snake metapopulation

S6.6 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 11:00 DANTZER, Ben:

Ecology muddles the relationship between hormones and life history traits

S6.7 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 11:30 DAVIDOWITZ, G:

Synergism and antagonism at the physiological level regulates the evolution of life histories at the phenotypic level

S6.8 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 13:30 GARLAND, JR., T*; SALTZMAN, W; GARLAND, Theodore:

Hormones and the evolution of complex traits: insights from artificial selection on behavior

S6.9 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 14:00 ROSVALL, KA*; BERGEON BURNS, CM; JAYARATNA, SP; KETTERSON, ED:

Molecular mechanisms of testosterone production: a gonad-centric view of behavioral evolution

S6.10 Tuesday, Jan. 5, 14:30 ZINNA, R.S.; KRAUS, A.L.; GOTOH, H.; BRENT, C.S.; EMLEN, D.J.; LAVINE, L.S.*:

Endocrine regulation of the weapons of sexual selection