Marlene Zuk

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Marlene Zuk, 2014

Marlene Zuk (born May 20, 1956 in Philadelphia ) is an American evolutionary biologist and expert in the field of behavioral ecology . She has been Professor of Ecology , Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota since 2012 . Together with the British sociobiologist William D. Hamilton , based on their studies of the mating behavior of insects , she formulated the so-called Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis (also: "Parasite hypothesis"), according to which sexually active females select their sexual partner in particular on the basis of characteristics that are inheritable and protect the offspring from parasites .

Life

After studying at the University of California, Santa Barbara , Marlene Zuk earned her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1986 with a study on Sexual selection, mate choice and gregarine parasite levels in the field crickets Gryllus veletis and G. pennsylvanicus . Before moving to the University of Minnesota, she began research in 1989, most recently as a professor, at the University of California, Riverside .

In 2017 Zuk was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 2019 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Marlene Zuk is married to John T. Rotenberry, who is also Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Minnesota.

Research on crickets

Marlene Zuk became internationally known in specialist circles due to her studies on the acoustic orientation of crickets , especially the species Teleogryllus oceanicus . Teleogryllus oceanicus is native to Australia and many islands in the Pacific , such as Tahiti , Samoa and the Marquesas . The species was introduced to the islands of the Hawaiian island chain at least 150 years ago and has also established itself there. Part of the typical behavioral repertoire of this cricket species is that the females ready to mate are attracted by chirping males, especially at night. On the Hawaiian Islands, however, the nocturnal caterpillar fly Ormia ochracea , originating from the USA, was introduced , which - attracted by the calls of the male crickets - lays its eggs on the males; the larvae of the caterpillar fly that hatch from it later drill into the cricket's body and eat it up from the inside. In the early 1990s, Zuk demonstrated that this parasitism exerts noticeable selection pressure on the cricket population: for example, the males living in Hawaii chirped more quietly than the males in two comparison groups from Moorea ( French Polynesia ) and Australia. In 1998, Zuk demonstrated that the lure calls of parasitized and non-parasitized males also differ within a cricket population: on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i, for example, non-parasitized males chirped much shorter and with longer pauses than parasitized males. In the following years fewer and fewer calls from Teleogryllus oceanicus were to be heard at night on Kaua'i and from 2001 hardly any more - the reason for this was not, however, that the cricket species had been brought to the brink of extinction by the parasitic flies. Rather, since 2003 at the latest, more than 90 percent of their population has been males with stunted wings, so that they are no longer capable of stridulation . According to the analyzes, a certain mutation had established itself in the population within only around five years, i.e. - with three to four generations per year - within a maximum of 20 generations. According to the observations of Zuk and her working group, despite this handicap , silent males have a chance of mating as long as they are near chirping males.

These studies by Marlene Zuk are now considered evidence of "rapid evolution", that is, a change in the allele frequency in a population within a few generations. At the same time, early observations of the interaction between host and parasite gave rise to the formulation of the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis on sexual selection through “female choice”.

Publications (selection)

Books
  • Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals. University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-520-21974-8
    • What would life be without parasites? Why we need diseases. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, 2008, ISBN 978-3-827-41978-1
  • Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are. Harcourt, 2007, ISBN 978-0-151-01225-1
  • Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, ISBN 978-0-151-01373-9
  • Paleofantasy. What evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live. WW Norton & Company, New York and London 2014, ISBN 978-0-393-08137-4
  • with Leigh W Simmons: Sexual Selection: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Reprint 2018, ISBN 978-0-198-77875-2
Technical article
  • with Nathan W. Bailey: Same-sex sexual behavior and evolution. In: Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Volume 24, 2009, pp. 439-446, doi: 10.1016 / j.tree.2009.03.014
  • Same-Sex Insects: What do bees - or at least flies - have to tell us about homosexuality? In: Natural History . Volume 119, No. 10, 2011, pp. 22-29,
  • with Francisco Garcia-Gonzalez, Marie Elisabeth Herberstein and Leigh W. Simmons: Model Systems, Taxonomic Bias, and Sexual Selection: Beyond Drosophila. In: Annual Review of Entomology. Volume 59, 2014, pp. 321–338, doi: 10.1146 / annurev-ento-011613-162014
  • with Teri J. Orr: Reproductive delays in mammals: an unexplored avenue for post ‐ copulatory sexual selection. In: Biological Reviews. Volume 89, No. 4, 2014, pp. 889-912, doi: 10.1111 / brv.12085
  • with BrianGray, Nathan W. Bailey and Michelle Poon: Multimodal signal compensation: do field crickets shift sexual signal modality after the loss of acoustic communication? In: Animal Behavior. Volume 93, 2014, pp. 243-248, doi: 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2014.04.033
  • with Susan L. Balenger: Behavioral ecology and genomics: new directions, or just a more detailed map? In: Behavioral Ecology. Volume 25, No. 6, 2014, pp. 1277–1282, doi: 10.1093 / beheco / aru172
  • with Susan L. Balenger: Roaming Romeos: male crickets evolving in silence show increased locomotor behaviors. In: Animal Behavior. Volume 101, 2015, pp. 213-219, doi: 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2014.12.023

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marlene Zuk's Lab at the University of Minnesota
  2. ^ William D. Hamilton and Marlene Zuk: Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites? In: Science . Volume 218, No. 4570, 1982, pp. 384-387, doi: 10.1126 / science.7123238
  3. ↑ Abstract of the dissertation
  4. Jump up ↑ Disease Can Be Our Ally, Not Just Our Enemy, Says New Book by UCR Evolutionary Biologist. On: ucr.edu of April 5, 2007
  5. ↑ Marlene Zuk's Lab at the University of California, Riverside
  6. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter Z. (PDF; 117 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed July 12, 2018 .
  7. ^ A b Nathan W. Bailey and Marlene Zuk: Acoustic experience shapes female mate choice in field crickets. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Online publication of November 22, 2008, doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2008.0859
  8. ↑ a b Marlene Zuk: Paleofantasy. What evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live. WW Norton & Company, New York and London 2014, pp. 67-72, ISBN 978-0-393-08137-4
  9. ↑ Marlene Zuk, Leigh W. Simmons and Luanne Cupp: Calling characteristics of parasitized and unparasitized populations of the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Volume 33, No. 5, 1993, pp. 339-343, doi: 10.1007 / BF00172933
  10. ↑ Marlene Zuk, Leigh W. Simmons and John T. Rotenberry: Acoustically ‐ orienting parasitoids in calling and silent males of the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. In: Ecological Entomology. Volume 20, No. 4, 1995, pp. 380-383, doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-2311.1995.tb00471.x
  11. ↑ Marlene Zuk, John T. Rotenberry and Leigh W. Simmons: Calling Songs of Field Crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) With and Without Phonotactic Parasitoid Infection. In: evolution. Volume 52, No. 1, 1998, pp. 166-171, doi: 10.2307 / 2410931
  12. ^ Marlene Zuk, John T. Rotenberry and Leigh W. Simmons: Geographical variation in calling song of the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus: the importance of spatial scale. In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Volume 14, No. 5, 2001, pp. 731-741, doi: 10.1046 / j.1420-9101.2001.00329.x
  13. ↑ Marlene Zuk, John T. Rotenberry and Robin M. Tinghitella: Silent night: adaptive disappearance of a sexual signal in a parasitized population of field crickets. In: Biology Letters. Online publication of December 22, 2006, doi: 10.1098 / rsbl.2006.0539
  14. ↑ Flying sex pest silences the crickets. On: newscientist.com of September 21, 2006
  15. ↑ Susan L. Balenger and Marlene Zuk: Testing the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis: Past, Present, and Future. In: Integrative and Comparative Biology. Volume 54, No. 4, 2014, pp. 601-613, doi: 10.1093 / icb / icu059
  16. ^ Adrianna Smyth: The Hamilton-Zuk Hypothesis: Finding its Rightful Place Among Models of the Evolution of Female Mate Preferences. On: ib.berkeley.edu , November 20, 1995


personal data
SURNAME Zuk, Marlene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , United States