Highlights from 2021 - 2022

Departmental Highlights and News from 2021- 2022

 

Publications and News from Biological Sciences (student publications in bold; * denotes Wellesley students; Biological Sciences faculty underlined

 

Life in Lake Waban: Students Study Bluefill Sunfish Locomotion

Annika Pfister '23, Paige Gee '24 and Zoe Reynolds '22 worked with Bradley Wood, postdoctoral research associate in biology during the 2021 Science Center Summer Research Program to better understand why the fish swim they way they do in the wild. 

 

How Bees Tell Murder Hornets to Buzz Off

Heather Mattila published groundbreaking new research detailing how honey bees use tools to spread dung on the entrances to their hives to proect themselves from giant hornets. Her paper in Royal Society Open Science about the alarms honey bees sound to alert the hive when a giant hornet attacks builds on her previous knowledge and work.

 

Life Finds a Way: Asexual Weevils Know How to Adapt

Andrea Sequeira, Gordon and Althea Lang '26 Professor of Biological Sciences and a team of scientists from Wellesley and the University of Buenos Aires has shown us how.

 

Comparison of the External Morphology of the Sternal Glands for Hornets in the Genus Vespa.

Mattila HR, Otis GW, Billen J, Nguyen LTP, Shimano S.

Biology (Basel). 2022 Feb 5;11(2):245. doi: 10.3390/biology11020245.

PMID: 35205111

 

Isolation and Characterization of Cyanobacterial Extracellular Vesicles.

Biller SJ, Muñoz-Marín MDC, Lima S, Matinha-Cardoso J, Tamagnini P, Oliveira P.

J Vis Exp. 2022 Feb 3;(180). doi: 10.3791/63481.

 

Siderophores as an iron source for picocyanobacteria in deep chlorophyll maximum layers of the oligotrophic ocean.

Hogle SL, Hackl T, Bundy RM, Park J, Satinsky B, Hiltunen T, Biller S, Berube PM, Chisholm SW.

ISME J. 2022 Jun;16(6):1636-1646. doi: 10.1038/s41396-022-01215-w. Epub 2022 Mar 3.

 

Siderophores as an iron source for picocyanobacteria in deep chlorophyll maximum layers of the oligotrophic ocean.

Hogle SL, Hackl T, Bundy RM, Park J, Satinsky B, Hiltunen T, Biller S, Berube PM, Chisholm SW.

ISME J. 2022 Mar 3. doi: 10.1038/s41396-022-01215-w.

 

Alterations in common marmoset gut microbiome associated with duodenal strictures.

Sheh A, Artim SC, Burns MA, Molina-Mora JA, Lee MA*, Dzink-Fox J, Muthupalani S, Fox JG.

Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 28;12(1):5277. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09268-9

 

Linking the Morphology of Sternal Glands to Rubbing Behavior by Vespa soror (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Workers During Recruitment for Group Predation.

Mattila HR, Shimano S, Otis GW, Nguyen LTP, Maul ER*, Billen J.

Ann Entomol Soc Am. 2021 Nov 18;115(2):202-216. doi: 10.1093/aesa/saab048. eCollection 2022 Mar.

 

Prochlorococcus extracellular vesicles: molecular composition and adsorption to diverse microbes.

Biller SJ, Lundeen RA, Hmelo LR, Becker KW, Arellano AA, Dooley K, Heal KR, Carlson LT, Van Mooy BAS, Ingalls AE, Chisholm SW.

Environ Microbiol. 2022 Jan;24(1):420-435. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15834. Epub 2021 Nov 12.

 

Fission yeast polycystin Pkd2p promotes cell size expansion and antagonizes the Hippo-related SIN pathway.

Sinha D, Ivan D, Gibbs E*, Chetluru M, Goss J, Chen Q.

J Cell Sci. 2022 Feb 15;135(4):jcs259046. doi: 10.1242/jcs.259046. Epub 2022 Feb 21.