Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and parasites can involve rapid fluctuations of genotype frequencies that are known as Red Queen dynamics. Under such dynamics, recombination in the hosts may be advantageous because genetic shuffling can quickly produce disproportionately fit offspring (the Red Queen hypothesis). Previous models investigating these dynamics have assumed rather simple mode...

1Department of Nephrology and Transplantation Services, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5011, 2Department of Medicine, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, 3ANZDATA Registry, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5011 and 4Hyperbaric Unit, The Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adel...

According to evolutionary theory, cooperation should evolve most easily in closely related groups. In colonies of ants, bees, and wasps, within-colony relatedness is maximized when all offspring are descended from a single queen mated with a single male. However, in many species colonies are not composed of strictly nuclear families, suggesting there may also be benefits to greater genetic dive...

Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes code for proteins involved in the incitation of the adaptive immune response in vertebrates, which is achieved through binding oligopeptides (antigens) of pathogenic origin. Across vertebrate species, substitutions of amino acids at sites responsible for the specificity of antigen binding (ABS) are positively selected. This is attributed to pathogen-...

In insect societies, chemical communication plays an important role in colony reproduction and individual social status. Many studies have indicated that cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are the main chemical compounds encoding reproductive status. However, these studies have largely focused on queenless or monogynous species whose workers are capable of egg laying and have mainly explored the mec...

'Queen Bees' are senior women in masculine organizational cultures who have fulfilled their career aspirations by dissociating themselves from their gender while simultaneously contributing to the gender stereotyping of other women. It is often assumed that this phenomenon contributes to gender discrimination in organizations, and is inherent to the personalities of successful career women. We ...

A major distinction in the social organization of ant societies is the number of reproductive queens that reside in a single colony. The fire ant Solenopsis invicta exists in two distinct social forms, one with colonies headed by a single reproductive queen and the other containing several to hundreds of egg-laying queens. This variation in social organization has been shown to be associated wi...

Anarchistic behaviour is a very rare phenotype of honeybee colonies. In an anarchistic colony, many workers' sons are reared in the presence of the queen. Anarchy has previously been described in only two Australian colonies. Here we report on a first detailed genetic analysis of a British anarchistic colony. Male pupae were present in great abundance above the queen excluder, which was clearly...