A new publication by recent UNC Biology PhD Kuangyi Xu and his UNC Biology co-advisors provides theoretical insights into what governs whether small populations succeed or fail in getting “rescued” by natural selection. When small, chance events play a large role in the fate of populations, and the level of genetic variation and the strength of selection interact in ways that can be counterintuitive. So mathematical models are needed to understand the optimal conditions for survival. READ MORE

Karin Pfennig announced as new member of the 2023-2025 class of Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars. The program brings together selected faculty from across campus in a two-year competency-based experience to advance their engaged research, which is conducted in partnership with communities and addresses issues of shared concern and mutual benefit. READ MORE

Animals display a wide variety of display traits whose function is to attract the opposite sex, yet in many species, female mating preferences are inconsistent both from female to female and over time. Current models of sexual selection cannot sufficiently explain this variation. We propose a new hypotheses, called “Inferred Attractiveness”, that proposes that young females that observe the mate choices of older females may make mistakes in their inference of which traits these older females find attractive. Previous models of social learning of preferences assume young females copy the preferences of older females exactly, as if they were reading their minds. We show with a series of mathematical models that if young females instead infer that the most unusual trait of a chosen male is the attractive one, all of the between-female and temporal variation seen in nature results. PLoS Biology

György “Hínár” Schrader Polczer has worked for UNC-Chapel Hill for 22 years as a technology support analyst for the Department of Biology within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

What brought you to Carolina?

I’m originally from Hungary and began my career in information technology in Budapest. After moving to the United States and working in other industries, I was looking to return to the field. In 1998, I was living in Michigan and saw an opening at Carolina’s biology department that fit my experience and interest.

I worked at UNC-Chapel Hill as a computer systems administrator for almost a year before moving back to Hungary to spend time with my family. In that position, I provided technical assistance and support for computers, servers, and other research equipment across the department. I returned to North Carolina 18 months later and eventually found my way back to Carolina in 2002 for the same position I held before — this time as a permanent employee.

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Lilly Papell is a senior majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and creative writing within the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. She studies how genome organization within microscopic animals called tardigrades plays a role in how they survive the DNA-damaging environments — such as ionizing radiation and desiccation — that would kill most lifeforms. READ MORE

The Copenhaver lab has published a paper Nature Communications SCFRMF mediates degradation of the meiosis-specific recombinase DMC1 which describes how a key meiotic protein is regulated by a degradation process that ensures it is removed when no longer needed. Disruption of this targeted degradation causes fertility defects in plants.

Featuring Graduate Students Amala John and Elizabeth Smith.

Plant body plans are elaborated in response to both environmental and endogenous cues. How these inputs intersect to promote growth and development remains poorly understood. During reproductive development, central zone stem cell proliferation in inflorescence meristems is negatively regulated by the CLAVATA3 (CLV3) peptide signalling pathway. In contrast, floral primordia formation on meristem flanks requires the hormone auxin. Here we show that CLV3 signalling is also necessary for auxin-dependent floral primordia generation and that this function is partially masked by both inflorescence fasciation and heat-induced auxin biosynthesis. Stem cell regulation by CLAVATA signalling is separable from primordia formation but is also sensitized to temperature and auxin levels. In addition, we uncover a novel role for the CLV3 receptor CLAVATA1 in auxin-dependent meristem maintenance in cooler environments. As such, CLV3 signalling buffers multiple auxin-dependent shoot processes across divergent thermal environments, with opposing effects on cell proliferation in different meristem regions. READ MORE

In 2018, faculty at UMBC and four of its top-sending community colleges embarked on a project with an ambitious mission: improve students’ quantitative skills in biological contexts, and eliminate the achievement gap between transfer and direct-entry students in courses requiring these skills. The urgent need for students in the life sciences to be proficient in a range of mathematical concepts has been made clear again and again by various national reports. The project, dubbed the NEXUS Institute for Quantitative Biology (NIQB), arose to address that need. READ MORE

Congratulations to Biology doctoral student Oscar Arroyo and mentor Dan McKay for Oscar’s new HHMI Gilliam Fellowship to Advance Equity & Inclusion in Science. These awards recognize outstanding science, paired with dedicated mentorship and leadership.