Events Detail

Speaker:
Serena Ding, Imperial College London

This event is part of an event series „Seminar Series of CASCB“.

View the recording of Serena's talk here

Serena Ding is a Postdoc at Imperial College in London. She is currently studying collective feeding behaviour in C. elegans using quantitative analysis of video microscopy and mathematical models.

C. elegans as a window into the genetics of individual and collective behaviour

In complex biological systems, simple individual-level behaviours can give rise to emergent group-level phenomena. Using quantitative phenotyping and agent-based modelling, we previously identified three behavioural rules that govern aggregation and swarming behaviours in the roundworm C. elegans. By tuning these rules to different degrees, we can capture diverse collective phenotypes ranging from solitary to tightly clustering. We recently conducted a screening of 198 genetically diverse C. elegans strains isolated from the wild, and indeed found significant variations in their collective phenotypes. Preliminary genome-wide association mappings suggest that some of these phenotypic variations may be genetically heritable. The C. elegans experimental system thus offers an exciting opportunity to elucidate the genetic underpinnings of individual and collective behaviour.