During his studies, Jilong Ma researched genome evolution using genomics data from social spiders. Social spiders (species from the Stegodyphus genus) evolve striking lifestyles of social living including the building of communal webs, cooperative hunting and broodcare. Social spiders are also special in evolution due to that they have repeatedly evolved only in young species lineages, indicating that sociality in spiders is a short-lived evolutionary strategy. Lifestyle changes result in relaxed selection on the social spiders. Jilong studied how genome evolution has changed in the social spiders compared to their non-social sister species under the scenario of long-term reduced selection.

The new research findings contribute to the understanding of when sociality is established in the social species and how genomics responds to the evolution of sociality. The convergent genomics changes in social species provide insights into why the social spiders are short-lived species in evolution and how is the genome evolution shaped by evolutionary forces in general.

The PhD degree was completed at the Bioinformatics Research Center (BiRC), Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: June 10^th, 2024 at 14:00
Place: 1870-816, Universitetsbyen 81, 8000 Aarhus
Title of dissertation: Genomic Responses to Evolution of Sociality in Stegodyphus Spiders

Contact information: Jilong Ma, e-mail: aujilongm@bio.au.dk
Members of the assessment committee:
[Professor Stephen Wright, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Canada
Professor Sylvain Glémin, CNRS, France

Professor Thomas Bataillon (chair), Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University]
Main supervisor:
Professor Mikkel Heide Schierup, Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University]
Co-supervisor:
Jesper Bechsgaard, Department of Biology, Aarhus University

Trine Bilde, Department of Biology, Aarhus University

Palle Villesen, Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University

Bedømmelsesudvalg:
[Professor Stephen Wright, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Canada
Professor Sylvain Glémin, CNRS, France

Professor Thomas Bataillon (forperson), Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University]
Hovedvejleder:
Professor Mikkel Heide Schierup, Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University]
Medvejleder:
Jesper Bechsgaard, Department of Biology, Aarhus University

Trine Bilde, Department of Biology, Aarhus University

Palle Villesen, Bioinformatics Resarch Center, Aarhus University