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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20140407T000000
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DTSTAMP:20201013T005133Z
CREATED:20200922T215854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T005133Z
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SUMMARY:Christopher Schmitt - The genomics of obesogenic growth during development and adult-onset obesity in captive vervet monkeys: Preliminary results and potential for studies in the wild
DESCRIPTION:Christopher Schmitt: UCLA Center for Nuerobehavioral Genetics Obesity is increasingly prevalent worldwide\, and has severe negative impacts on public health. Obesity arises from a complex interaction of genetic predisposition and environment that can accumulate throughout life. Although increasing evidence points to the importance of early development in the manifestations of adult disease\, few studies have been undertaken of developmental measures that might be associated with adult obesity risk. The search for obesogenic markers during development in humans is complicated by the ubiquity of diets high in fat and simple carbohydrates\, and the difficulty in assessing the actual diets of study subjects. This research investigates the genetic underpinnings of adult onset obesity and obesogenic growth trajectories from birth to adulthood in a genetically well-characterized model system under a controlled diet and environment: the African green monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) in the Vervet Research Colony at Wake Forest University. \nWe currently have some power to identify SNPs associated with these obesogenic traits\, but the sample size must be increased. With further sampling\, a more detailed examination of growth trajectories\, in combination with novel biomarkers such as the SNPs discovered in this study\, may be used to assess early obesity risks and promote the discovery of novel biomedical interventions. Perhaps of more interest to evolutionary anthropologists\, the results of this captive study could easily be extended to wild populations. Our research group has already sequenced the genomes of hundreds of vervet monkeys from across their ancestral ranges in Africa\, and in an isolated wild population on the islands of St. Kitts & Nevis in the Caribbean.  This research raises the exciting possibility of assessing phenotypic plasticity and environmental impacts on trait expression in the wild associated with SNPs that are obesogenic in captivity.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christopher-schmitt-the-genomics-of-obesogenic-growth-during-development-and-adult-onset-obesity-in-captive-vervet-monkeys-preliminary-results-and-potential-for-studies-in-the-wild/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20140421T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20140421T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T005133Z
CREATED:20200922T215855Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T005133Z
UID:4272-1398038400-1398038400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Josh Tasoff - A Biotic Economics Framework for Microbial Trade
DESCRIPTION:Josh Tasoff: Claremont Graduate University School of Politics and EconomicsA significant fraction of all life in the biosphere exists in complex communities in which crossfeeding is essential. In the same way that firms and consumers exchange a vast array of goods in modern markets\, organisms exchange essential resources to promote their growth. Here\, we present a framework based on general equilibrium theory from economics to predict the population dynamics of crossfeeding microbial communities. Analysis of a special case of the model involving two crossfeeding microbes yields several novel insights: (1) the economic concept of comparative advantage is a crucial condition for trade-based mutualism between species\, (2) species that contribute more resources increase their growth rate but at the expense of a lower share of the total population\, and (3) the inability to produce essential metabolites (i.e. auxotrophy) can be a selective advantage that explains its prevalence in microbial ecosystems. To test our model experimentally\, we construct a synthetic syntrophic consortia of Escherichia coli and manipulate the cells’ ability to exchange essential amino acids. Experimental data are consistent with those generated by our model. This biotic economics framework provides a foundation to tackle key questions in microbial ecology and evolution and has useful applications to engineering synthetic ecosystems.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/josh-tasoff-a-biotic-economics-framework-for-microbial-trade/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20140428T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20140428T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T005133Z
CREATED:20200922T215855Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T005133Z
UID:4273-1398643200-1398643200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jeffrey Schloss - Ecstatic Religious Rituals as Oxytocin-mediated\, Hard-to-fake Signals of Cooperative Commitment?
DESCRIPTION:Jeffrey Schloss: Westmont College Department of Biology A prominent evolutionary account of “religious cognition” is that it emerged as a byproduct of agency detection mechanisms biased toward false positives\, which were exapted as cultural innovations of moralizing gods helped stabilize cooperation by controlling defection in large-scale interactions.  Although there is some empirical evidence for this account\, along with the concomitant claim that religious rituals function as costly signals of commitment\, if the cost of such rituals is less than their benefit\, they need not function as honest signals of ascent.  This talk will examine the proposal that some kinds of religious rituals associated with autonomically mediated behaviors such as blushing\, shivering\, fainting\, and ecstatic speech\, may function as hard-to-fake\, though not costly\, signals that both convey and promote cooperative intent.  I will describe results from experiments in which human subjects engaged in a variety of religious and non-religious group activities – including Pentecostal worship – followed by participation in a series of decision tasks in standard economic games.  Indices of trust\, trustworthiness\, generosity\, and conditional responsiveness varied significantly between treatments. Measures of prosociality were correlated with the effect of group activity on plasma oxytocin.  I will discuss the implications and limitations of these findings for evolutionary accounts of religion and for our understanding of ritualized group behaviors as facilitators of cooperation.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jeffrey-schloss-ecstatic-religious-rituals-as-oxytocin-mediated-hard-to-fake-signals-of-cooperative-commitment/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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