Dr Ana Duarte

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 767 130
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 336 676
Email: al638 at cam.ac.uk

Position held: Post-doctoral Research Associate (NERC-funded)



  
Research
 
II am interested in understanding the evolution of cooperation and conflict. My project focuses on social immunity in burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides). Burying beetles lay their eggs in carcasses of small rodents and birds, and produce anti-microbial exudates which prevent carcass decomposition. Owing to the fact that more than one breeding pair can lay eggs in the same carcass, the anti-microbial exudates can be seen as a public good, produced at a cost to the individuals. Our aim is to identify the sources of individual variation in production of the public good and investigate potential trade-offs with life-history traits. I will collaborate on this project with Dr Rebecca Kilner, Dr Sheena Cotter, Dr Giuseppe Boncoraglio and Dr Martin Welch (Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge).

Prior to Cambridge
I did my PhD in the Netherlands at the University of Groningen, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies. Under the supervision of Prof. Franjo Weissing, I developed theoretical models on division of labour in social insects. I was particularly interested in the interaction between emergent properties of individual behaviour (self-organization) and the evolution of a colony-level trait, division of labour. I also collaborated with Prof. Laurent Keller (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Prof. Patrizia D'Etorre (University of Paris 13, France). During my Masters, I worked on cooperation and conflict in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, with Prof. Joan Strassmann and Prof. Dave Queller (Rice University, Texas). Prior to that, I worked as a research technician on an experimental evolution project in Drosophila subobscura, with Prof. Margarida Matos (University of Lisbon). I still maintain a great interest in experimental evolution, and, in the future, would like to combine it with the study of social behaviour.
Publications
 
  • A. Duarte, I. Pen, L. Keller & F.J. Weissing (2012): Evolution of self-organized division of labor in a response threshold model. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 66, 947-957.
  • A. Duarte, E. Scholtens & F.J. Weissing (2012): Implications of behavioral architecture for the evolution of self-organized division of labor. PLoS Comput. Biol. 8, e1002430.
  • A. Duarte, F.J. Weissing, I. Pen & L. Keller (2011): An evolutionary perspective on self-organized division of labor in social insects. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 42, 91–110.
  • P. Simões, M.R. Rose, A. Duarte, R. Gonçalves & M. Matos (2007). Evolutionary domestication in Drosophila subobscura. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 62, 1817-1829.
  • M. Matos, P. Simões, A. Duarte, C. Rego, T. Avelar & M.R. Rose (2004). Convergence to a novel environment – comparative method versus experimental evolution. Evolution 58, 1503-1510.

Ana Duarte
 
Research
Publications
 
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, U. K.