Joan E. Strassmann

Joan E. Strassmann is a leading evolutionary biologist at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Her work focuses on cooperative alliances that have occurred at several important steps in the evolution of life, and which have proven evolutionarily and ecologically successful. Their use of molecular techniques for phylogeny reconstruction, for determining genetic relatedness among cooperators, and for assessing who reproduces within a group have allowed them to make a great deal of progress towards understanding alliances. Her early work studied the several hundred species of social wasps. However, recent questions have proven more easily pursued in other organisms, so her work shifted to stingless bees and more recently with the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum and related species. Much of her recent work has been in collaboration with David C. Queller.

Recent Publications

Queller, D. C. and J. E. Strassmann, "Kin selection and social insects," BioScience, 48 (1998), 165-175. Solís, C. R., C. R. Hughes, C. J. Klingler, J. E. Strassmann and D. C. Queller, "Lack of kin discrimination during wasp colony fission," Behavioral Ecology, 9 (1998), 172-176. Field, J., C. R. Solís, D. C. Queller and J. E. Strassmann, "Social and genetic structure of paper wasp cofoundress associations: tests of reproductive skew models," American Naturalist, 151 (1998), 545-563.

Peters, J. M., D. C. Queller, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca and J. E. Strassmann, "Microsatellite loci for stingless bees," Molecular Ecology, 7 (1998), 784-787.

Strassmann, J. E., K. F. Goodnight, C. J. Klingler and D. C. Queller, "The genetic structure of swarms and the timing of their production in the queen cycles of neotropical wasps," Molecular Ecology, 7 (1998), 709-718.

Arévalo, E., J. E. Strassmann and D. C. Queller, "Conflicts of interest in social insects: male production in two species of Polistes," Evolution, 52 (1998), 797-805.

Wooninck. L., J. E. Strassmann, R. Fleischer, and L. L. Warner, "Characterization of microsatellite loci in a pelagic spawner: the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum," Molecular Ecology, 7 (1998), 1613-1614.

Ezenwa, V. O., J. M. Peters, M. D. Hastings, Y. Zhu, E. Arévalo, P. Seppä, J. S. Pedersen, F. Zacchi, D. C. Queller, and J. E. Strassmann, "Ancient conservation of trinucleotide microsatellite loci in polistine wasps," Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 10, No. 2 (1998), 168-177.

Hastings, M. D., D. C. Queller, F. Eischen and J. E. Strassmann, "Kin selection, relatedness and worker control of reproduction in a large-colony epiponine wasp, Brachygastra mellifica," Behavioral Ecology, 9 (1998), 573-581.

Peters, J. M., D. C. Queller, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, D. W. Roubik, and J. E. Strassmann, "Mate number, kin selection and social conflicts in stingless bees and honey bees," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B, 266 (1998), 379-384.

Ezenwa, V. O., M. Henshaw, D. C. Queller and J. E. Strassmann, "Patterns of buzz running, a swarm initiation behavior, in the neotropical wasp, Parachartergus colobopterus," Insectes Sociaux, 45 (1998), 445-456.

Strassmann, J. E. & D. C. Queller, "Ecological determinants of social evolution.," IN: M. Breed & R. Page eds. The genetics of social evolution. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. (1989), pp. 81-101 .

Strassmann, J. E., "Weak queen or social contract?," Nature, 363 ( 1993), 502-503.

Strassmann, J. E., Solís, C. R., Peters, J. M. and Queller, D. C., "Strategies for finding and using highly polymorphic DNA microsatellite loci for studies of genetic relatedness and pedigrees.," eds. J. Ferraris & S. Palumbi, Wiley Molecular Zoology: Advances, strategies and protocols (1996), 163-180 and 528-549.

Choudhary, M., Strassmann, J. E., Queller, D. C., Turillazzi, S.& Cervo, R., "Social parasites in polistine wasps are monophyletic: implications for sympatric speciation.," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B, 257 (1994), 31-35.

J. E. Strassmann, D. C. Queller 2001., "Selfish responses by clone invaders.," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 98 (2001), 11839-11841..

Henshaw, M. T., Strassmann, J. E., Queller, D. C., " Swarm-founding in the Polistine wasps: the importance of finding many microsatellite loci in studies of adaptation.," Molecular Ecology, 10 (2001), 185-191.

Peters, J. M., Queller E. C., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L., Roubik, D. W., Strassmann, J. E., "Mate number, kin selection and social conflicts in stingless bees and honey bees.," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B, 266 (1999), 379-384.

Bernasconi, G. and Strassmann, J. E., "Cooperation among unrelated individuals: the ant foundress case.," Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 14 (1999), 477-482.

Zhu, Y., Queller, D. C., Strassmann, J. E., "A phylogenetic perspective on sequence evolution in microsatellite loci," Journal of Molecular Evolution, 50 (2000), 324-338.

Herman, R. A., Queller, D. C., Strassmann, J. E., "Control of worker activity and queen suppression in the swarm-founding wasp, Parachartergus colobopterus.," Animal Behaviour, 59 (2000), 841-848.

Henshaw, M. Strassmann, J. E. Quach, S. Queller D. C., "Male production in Parachartergus colobopterus, a neotropical, swarm-founding wasp.," Ethology, Ecology and Evolution, 12 (2000), 161-174.

Queller, D. C., Zacchi, F., Cervo, R., Turillazzi, S., Henshaw, M., Santorelli, L., Strassmann, J. E., "Unrelated helpers in a social insectv," Nature, 405 (2000), 784-787.

Henshaw, M. T., Strassmann, J. E., Queller, D. C., "The independent origin of a queen number bottleneck that promotes cooperation in the African swarm-founding wasp, Polybioides tabidus.," Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 48 (2000), 478-483.

Strassmann, J. E., Zhu, Y., and Queller, D. C., "Altruism and social cheaters in the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum.," Nature, 408 (2000), 965-967.

J. E. Strassmann, "Cheaters in bacteria (News and Views)," Nature, 406 (2000), 555-556.

Strassmann, J. E., Seppä, P., Queller, D. C. 87:266-169., "Absence of within-colony discrimination: foundresses of the social wasp, Polistes carolina, do not prefer their own larvae.," Naturwissenschaften, 87 (2000), 266-269.

Strassmann, J. E., "The rarity of multiple mating by females in the social hymenoptera," Insectes sociaux, 48 (2001), 1-13.

Queller, D. C., Ponte, E., Bozzaro, S., Strassmann, J. E., "Single-gene greenbeard effects in the social amoeba "Dictyostelium discoideum".," Science 299 (2003), 105-106.

Mehdiabadi, N.J., Jack C.N., Farnham, T.T., Platt, T.G., Kalla, S.E., Shaulsky, G., Queller, D.C., Strassmann, J.E., "Social evolution: kin preference in a social microbe.," Nature. 442 (2006), 881-882.