June WEES seminar:

You are here

Wageningen Evolution & Ecology Seminars (WEES)

Dear all,   

With this email, we would like to invite you to attend June’s Wageningen Evolution & Ecology Seminar (WEES) and Workshop in-person!  The seminar will take place on Monday 12th June, 16.00-17.00 in Orion, C2030. This will be followed by drinks at The Spot and the opportunity to have dinner with the speaker (sign up for dinner with Liana Greenberg – liana.greenberg@wur.nl). 

 The associated workshop will be from 14.00-15.30 in Orion, B4015The workshop gives attendees the opportunity to meet the seminar’s speaker and have a discussion about a hot topic in science. Furthermore, BSc and MSc students can get 1 ECTS for attending 2 workshopsRegistration is required for this workshop and you can sign up by emailing Liana Greenberg (liana.greenberg@wur.nl).

  This will be a great event so please forward this information to anyone who might be interested! 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

  

Seminar: Beetle perspectives on eating cabbage: how multitrophic interactions have shaped flea beetle adaptations to glucosinolates (16.00h in Orion, C2030)  

Dr. Franziska Beran

Project manager, Department of Insect Symbiosis
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany   

Most herbivorous insect species are specialists that feed on only a small number of plant species. These food preferences are strongly influenced by plant defense compounds to which insects have adapted. Insects employ remarkably diverse strategies to cope with plant defense compounds, ranging from enzymatic breakdown to sequestration, the accumulation of plant toxins for protection from natural enemies. Our goal is to understand the impact of functionally different adaptations to plant defense compounds on the ecology and evolution of herbivorous insects. Therefore, we focus on two closely related genera of flea beetles that have independently from each other specialized on brassicaceous plant and either detoxify or sequester glucosinolates, the characteristic defense compounds of Brassicaceae. By combining metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches with functional and phylogenetic studies, we investigate the molecular basis and evolution of flea beetle adaptations to glucosinolates. Our results reveal how plants and natural enemies have shaped the adaptive strategies of flea beetles and provide insights into factors contributing to the evolutionary success of these insects. I will also discuss the implications of our findings for the development of sustainable pest control strategies.

  

Workshop: Plant secondary metabolites and the evolution of insect-plant interaction  (14.00h in Orion, B4015)  

Insect-plant associations are often regarded as the result of a coevolutionary arms race that has been driven by the diversification plant defense compounds and corresponding insect counteradaptations. In this workshop we will take advantage of a classical model system in this field, the interaction between Pieridae butterflies and their Brassicales host plants to discuss the concept of coevolution and the possible role of insect adaptations to plant defense compounds as evolutionary key innovations.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About WEES:

WEES is an initiative of PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. For this series we invite researchers from all over the world who have leading roles in their field. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. WEES is funded by graduate schools PE&RC, WIMEK, EPS, VLAG, and WIAS.

Want to organize seminars yourself? Join WEES!

WEES is looking for new members! We aim for a broad and diverse range in topics and would like to welcome new members to help and include topics not represented yet. If you are curious, send an email to weeswageningen@gmail.com and join one of our meetings.

For more information, please visit our website weeswageningen.nl.