蟋蟀的个人生活

杜克大学的罗宾Tinghitella教授 生物科学系 is accustomed to the fact that her 研究 attracts a lot of curiosity. After all, who isn't interested in hearing about the courtship rituals of crickets? Especially when they involve males serenading females with elaborate, chirping love songs.

对于Tinghitella, the fact that animal mate choice is inherently interesting makes it the perfect hook for introducing students 和 the public to the complexities of evolutionary biology.

“Animal mate choice is an intriguing subject that's fun to think about,她说。. “人们很容易理解, 和 you can use it to draw listeners into more complicated evolutionary topics.”

在DU 创始人论坛 3月1日, Tinghitella在她的演讲中就是这么做的, “Gr和 gestures 和 love notes: animal mating communication in a rapidly changing world.”

在她的实验室里, she 和 a team of undergraduate 和 graduate 研究ers have been amassing a trove of data on the mating habits of crickets 和 fish. The 研究 is broadly focused on how the sexes communicate with regard to mating decisions. Tinghitella对此特别感兴趣, 然而, in how environmental change — such as habitat fragmentation, 噪音和光污染, 和 climate change — can impact the mating environment 和 shape mating decisions, 对进化有潜在的影响, 亲缘物种的杂交, 种群灭绝.

在一个实验中, Tinghitella’s team is raising two sets of crickets: those exposed to simulated traffic noise, 还有那些在沉默中长大的人. They have found that juvenile female crickets raised in simulated traffic noise have more trouble locating the mating songs of male crickets upon maturity.

“环境al change is a huge problem when species can’t keep up,Tinghitella说. “Small changes in the environment perturb how animals communicate, with drastic results.”

In some cases, species are able to evolve rapidly enough to keep up with environmental change. Tinghitella cites an experiment that she undertook in Hawaii, where the mating strategies of male crickets were literally killing them — a parasitoid fly introduced to the isl和s from North America located males by their love songs 和 deposited fatal maggots inside their bodies.

在几年的时间里, 然而, what was likely a single gene mutation resulted in males with a modified wing shape that left them unable to sing. 这些沉默的雄性, 寄生蝇看不见谁, had more mating success on fly-infested isl和s than chirping males, who were eaten by maggots before they were able to reproduce.

“People don’t grasp how quickly evolutionary change can result from subtle environmental change,Tinghitella说. “Mating behavior is one of the factors that governs divergence between species, making the manner in which animals cope with changes to the mating environment really important for the preservation of biodiversity.”

和她的研究一样迷人, Tinghitella reports that the most rewarding aspect of her job is the opportunity to mentor students.

“I really enjoy watching students who aren’t yet entrenched in the science come at things with fresh eyes 和 develop questions or perspectives that haven’t occurred to me,她说。. “这就是我喜欢在杜克大学的原因. 教学的平衡很好, 研究, 和 mentorship that you don’t find at other institutions.”

这是DU的核心任务 自然科学与数学学部 is to offer students unprecedented access to 研究 opportunities. By working alongside distinguished faculty mentors in state-of-the-art facilities, undergraduates 和 graduates are able to apply their newfound knowledge to 研究 that changes lives 和 challenges ideas.