@article{mcpherson_wada-katsumata_hatano_silverman_schal_2022, title={Nutritional condition affects tergal gland secretion and courtship success of male cockroaches}, volume={17}, ISSN={["1932-6203"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271344}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0271344}, abstractNote={An integral part of the courtship sequence of the German cockroach ( Blattella germanica ) involves the male raising his wings to expose tergal glands on his dorsum. When a female cockroach feeds on the secretion of these glands, she is optimally positioned for mating. Core chemical components have been identified, but the effect of male diet on the quality of the tergal gland secretion remains unexplored. After validating the pivotal role of tergal feeding in mating, we starved or fed reproductively mature males for one week. We then paired each male with a sexually receptive female and observed their interactions through an infrared-sensitive camera. While starvation had no effect on male courtship behavior, it did influence the duration of female tergal feeding and mating outcomes. Females fed longer on the gland secretion of fed males, and fed males experienced greater mating success than starved males (73.9% vs. 48.3%, respectively). These results suggest that the quality of the tergal gland secretions, and by association mating success, are dependent on the nutritional condition of the male.}, number={8}, journal={PLOS ONE}, author={McPherson, Samantha and Wada-Katsumata, Ayako and Hatano, Eduardo and Silverman, Jules and Schal, Coby}, editor={Borges, Renee M.Editor}, year={2022} }
 @article{wada-katsumata_hatano_mcpherson_silverman_schal_2022, title={Rapid evolution of an adaptive taste polymorphism disrupts courtship behavior}, volume={5}, ISSN={["2399-3642"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03415-8}, DOI={10.1038/s42003-022-03415-8}, abstractNote={The evolution of adaptive behavior often requires changes in sensory systems. However, rapid adaptive changes in sensory traits can adversely affect other fitness-related behaviors. In the German cockroach, a gustatory polymorphism, 'glucose-aversion (GA)', supports greater survivorship under selection with glucose-containing insecticide baits and promotes the evolution of behavioral resistance. Yet, sugars are prominent components of the male's nuptial gift and play an essential role in courtship. Behavioral and chemical analyses revealed that the saliva of GA females rapidly degrades nuptial gift sugars into glucose, and the inversion of a tasty nuptial gift to an aversive stimulus often causes GA females to reject courting males. Thus, the rapid emergence of an adaptive change in the gustatory system supports foraging, but it interferes with courtship. The trade-off between natural and sexual selection under human-imposed selection can lead to directional selection on courtship behavior that favors the GA genotype.}, number={1}, journal={COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY}, author={Wada-Katsumata, Ayako and Hatano, Eduardo and McPherson, Samantha and Silverman, Jules and Schal, Coby}, year={2022}, month={May} }
 @article{mcpherson_wada-katsumata_hatano_silverman_schal_2021, title={Comparison of Diet Preferences of Laboratory-Reared and Apartment-Collected German Cockroaches}, volume={114}, ISSN={["1938-291X"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab139}, DOI={10.1093/jee/toab139}, abstractNote={The German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.) (Blattodea: Ectobiidae), is a common pest of human-built structures worldwide. German cockroaches are generalist omnivores able to survive on a wide variety of foods. A number of studies have concluded that laboratory-reared B. germanica self-select diets with an approximate 1P:3C (protein-to-carbohydrate) ratio. We predicted that field-collected insects would exhibit more variable dietary preferences, related to the wide-ranging quality, quantity, and patchiness of foods available to them. We compared diet self-selection of B. germanica within apartments and in the laboratory by offering them a choice of two complementary diets with 1P:1C and 1P:11C ratios. We observed high variation in the population-level self-selection of these diets among individual apartment sites as well as among various life stages tested in laboratory-based assays. Significant differences between populations in various apartments as well as between populations maintained in the laboratory suggested that factors beyond temporary food scarcity influence diet choice. Nevertheless, we found significant correlations between the amounts of diets ingested by cockroaches in apartments and cockroaches from the same populations assayed in the laboratory, as well as between males, females, and nymphs from these populations. These findings suggest that females, males, and nymphs within apartments adapt to the local conditions and convergently prefer similar amounts of food of similar dietary protein content.}, number={5}, journal={JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY}, publisher={Oxford University Press (OUP)}, author={McPherson, Samantha and Wada-Katsumata, Ayako and Hatano, Eduardo and Silverman, Jules and Schal, Coby}, editor={Appel, ArthurEditor}, year={2021}, month={Oct}, pages={2189–2197} }
 @article{delory_funderburk_miller_zuluaga-smith_mcpherson_pirk_costa_weinstein-teixeira_dahle_rueppell_2020, title={Local variation in recombination rates of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) genome among samples from six disparate populations}, volume={67}, ISSN={["1420-9098"]}, DOI={10.1007/s00040-019-00736-6}, abstractNote={Meiotic recombination is an essential component of eukaryotic sexual reproduction, but its frequency varies within and between genomes. Although it is well established that honey bees have a high recombination rate with about 20 cM/Mbp, the proximate and ultimate causes of this exceptional rate are poorly understood. Here, we describe six linkage maps of the western honey bee Apis mellifera that were produced with consistent methodology from samples from distinct parts of the species near global distribution. We compared the genome-wide rates and distribution of meiotic crossovers among the six maps and found considerable differences. Overall similarity of local recombination rates among our samples was unrelated to geographic or phylogenetic distance of the populations that our samples were derived from. However, the limited sampling constrains the interpretation of our results, because it is unclear how representative these samples were. In contrast to previous studies, we found only in two datasets a significant relation between local recombination rate and GC content. Focusing on regions of particularly increased or decreased recombination in specific maps, we identified several enriched gene ontologies in these regions and speculated about their local adaptive relevance. These data are contributing to an increasing comparative effort to gain an understanding of the intra-specific variability of recombination rates and their evolutionary role in honey bees and other social insects.}, number={1}, journal={INSECTES SOCIAUX}, author={DeLory, T. and Funderburk, K. and Miller, K. and Zuluaga-Smith, W. and McPherson, S. and Pirk, C. W. and Costa, C. and Weinstein-Teixeira, E. and Dahle, B. and Rueppell, O.}, year={2020}, month={Feb}, pages={127–138} }