biology

A study by biologist Amanda Koltz in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that as female wolf spiders become larger and produce more offspring, competition among them increases — triggering higher rates of cannibalism and reducing the number of young spiders that survive to adulthood.

Free from the risk of predators and intent to attract potential mates, male lizards relocated to experimental islets in Greece produce a novel chemical calling card, according to new research from biologists in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

A research team led by Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished Professor and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was awarded $1.2 million for a CRISPR-based gene editing study of Central American lizards.

Weedy rice is a feral form of rice that infests paddies worldwide and aggressively outcompetes cultivated varieties. A new study led by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that weed populations have evolved multiple times from cultivated rice, and a strikingly high proportion of contemporary Asian weed strains can be traced to a few Green Revolution cultivars that were widely grown in the late 20th century.

Faced with a gritty landscape of metal fences, concrete walls and asphalt pavement, lizards that moved into cities in Puerto Rico rapidly and repeatedly evolved better tolerance for heat than their forest counterparts, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Weedy rice — or rice gone rogue — costs U.S. farmers more than $45 million annually. A team led by Washington University in St. Louis will characterize the genetic basis and origins of the traits that allow weedy rice to invade rice fields, reduce yields and contaminate harvests.

Diversity plays a key role in maintaining the stability of plant and animal life in an area. But it’s difficult to scale up smaller experiments to understand how changes will impact larger ecosystems. A new study of North American birds from biologists in Arts & Sciences reveals the importance of both total numbers and variation in species identities.

Stan Braude, a biologist in Arts & Sciences, published a new study in the African Journal of Ecology that considers the role of the moon in driving a particularly rare occurrence: the solo journey of a naked mole rat from one underground colony to start a new one.

Barbara G. Pickard, professor emerita of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Dec. 6, 2019, in St. Louis from complications related to hip surgery. She was 83.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences discovered that rice domestication relied on selection for traits determined by a poorly understood portion of the rice genome.