Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology

Patrick Kennedy; Gemma Baron; Bitao Qiu; Dalial Freitak; Heikki Helantera; Edmund R. Hunt; Fabio Manfredini; Thomas O'Shea-Wheller; Solenn Patalano; Christopher D. Pull; Takao Sasaki; Daisy Taylor; Christopher D. R. Wyatt; Seirian Sumner

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2017.08.004

Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology

Patrick Kennedy, Gemma Baron, Bitao Qiu, Dalial Freitak, Heikki Helantera, Edmund R. Hunt, Fabio Manfredini, Thomas O'Shea-Wheller, Solenn Patalano, Christopher D. Pull, Takao Sasaki, Daisy Taylor, Christopher D. R. Wyatt, Seirian Sumner^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions. We illustrate the broadening range of biological insight coming from social insect biology with four examples. These new frontiers promote open-minded, interdisciplinary exploration of one of the richest and most complex of biological phenomena: sociality.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	861-872
Number of pages	12
Journal	Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Volume	32
Issue number	11
Early online date	9 Sept 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2017.08.004
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2017

Bibliographical note

We thank participants at the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (North West Europe Section) for their invaluable contributions to discussions on these topics at the Winter Meeting of 2015, at the University of Bristol. We also thank A.F.G. Bourke, M.J.F. Brown and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

Keywords

automated monitoring
eusociality
genomics
model organisms
social behavior
superorganism

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Kennedy, P., Baron, G., Qiu, B., Freitak, D., Helantera, H., Hunt, E. R., Manfredini, F., O'Shea-Wheller, T., Patalano, S., Pull, C. D., Sasaki, T., Taylor, D., Wyatt, C. D. R., & Sumner, S. (2017). Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 32(11), 861-872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2017.08.004

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title = "Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology",

abstract = "Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions. We illustrate the broadening range of biological insight coming from social insect biology with four examples. These new frontiers promote open-minded, interdisciplinary exploration of one of the richest and most complex of biological phenomena: sociality.",

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note = "We thank participants at the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (North West Europe Section) for their invaluable contributions to discussions on these topics at the Winter Meeting of 2015, at the University of Bristol. We also thank A.F.G. Bourke, M.J.F. Brown and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.",

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AU - Hunt, Edmund R.

AU - Manfredini, Fabio

AU - O'Shea-Wheller, Thomas

AU - Patalano, Solenn

AU - Pull, Christopher D.

AU - Sasaki, Takao

AU - Taylor, Daisy

AU - Wyatt, Christopher D. R.

AU - Sumner, Seirian

N1 - We thank participants at the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (North West Europe Section) for their invaluable contributions to discussions on these topics at the Winter Meeting of 2015, at the University of Bristol. We also thank A.F.G. Bourke, M.J.F. Brown and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

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N2 - Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions. We illustrate the broadening range of biological insight coming from social insect biology with four examples. These new frontiers promote open-minded, interdisciplinary exploration of one of the richest and most complex of biological phenomena: sociality.

AB - Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions. We illustrate the broadening range of biological insight coming from social insect biology with four examples. These new frontiers promote open-minded, interdisciplinary exploration of one of the richest and most complex of biological phenomena: sociality.

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KW - eusociality

KW - genomics

KW - model organisms

KW - social behavior

KW - superorganism

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JO - Trends in Ecology & Evolution

JF - Trends in Ecology & Evolution

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ER -

Deconstructing Superorganisms and Societies to Address Big Questions in Biology

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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