Every semester, EES organise a seminar series, which takes place on Mondays at 16:00 at Biozentrum, Lecture Hall B 01.027
Winter Semester 2026/27
Sinead English
University of Mainz, Germany
Pregnancy as a critical window for understanding vulnerability and adaptation to stress: insights from unusual insects
Abstract:
It is widely appreciated that early developmental stages are highly sensitive to environmental stressors, resulting both in immediate impacts and more pervasive effects that last into adulthood. The extent to which such responses reflect adaptive processes or unavoidable vulnerability is highly debated and varies according to the type of stressor, timing of exposure or organism life history. Here, I give an overview of our work on maternal responses to heat, nutrition and infection stress in pregnancy from an evolutionary perspective. I first present the different frameworks to conceptualize these effects, and then highlight our experimental work on insect models of pregnancy - the tsetse fly (Glossina species) and Pacific beetle-mimic cockroach (Diploptera punctata). Using these systems, we can gain insights on the impact of different stressors on mothers and offspring, how these vary when experienced early or late in pregnancy, and the underlying mechanisms. We also highlight how studying these processes in invertebrates can shed light on similar responses in other taxonomic groups which exhibit pregnancy, including humans, while also considering features of viviparity that are unique to these systems.
Host: Richard Merrill
Previous and future talks in the EES seminar series