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Integrative Evolutionary Ecology Lab
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The lab explores the diversity of behavior and morphology in ants and beetles from an evolutionary perspective.
AboutAbout the lab
Thinking about evolution through the flexibility of behavior and morphology
The Integrative Evolutionary Ecology Lab uses insects such as ants and beetles to study how behavior and morphology are produced and how they have evolved.
The lab focuses on 'plasticity,' the ability of behavior and morphology to change depending on the environment and experience in which an individual grows up.
The lab uses a variety of methods, including developmental manipulation experiments by gene knockdown, histology, morphology, behavioral observation, bioinformatics, and field surveys.
It is a research group that was launched in April 2024 at the School of Science, Nagoya University.
Key terms
- Plasticity
- The property by which individuals with the same genome change their behavior and morphology depending on the environment and experience in which they grow up.
- Caste
- A division of roles seen in social insects such as ants, for example queens, which handle reproduction, and workers, which carry out tasks such as brood care and foraging.
- Gene knockdown
- A method of artificially weakening the function of a specific gene in order to investigate its role.
NewsLab news
A doctoral student received poster awards at IUSSI and the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan
A doctoral student's paper on comparative genome analysis of the saw stag beetle was published in Molecular Ecology
A doctoral student's paper on the life history of the Himekiari ant was accepted by the Journal of Natural History
The second paper on insulin in the broad-horned flour beetle was published in JEB
A paper describing a new species of Himeari ant was accepted by ZooKeys
ResearchResearch themes
Living things can flexibly change their behavior and morphology depending on the environment and experience in which they grow up. This lab investigates how such plasticity arises during individual development and how it affects the evolution of phenotypes. The main study organisms are ants, which are social insects, and insects with weapons: the broad-horned flour beetle and stag beetles.
*Illustrative imageCaste differentiation in Diacamma ants
Diacamma ants have no morphologically distinct queen; queens and workers separate through dominance fights. In dominant individuals the ovaries develop, while in subordinate individuals they are suppressed, and it is known that activation of the insulin pathway in queens creates the difference in ovarian development.
*Illustrative imageEvolution and variation of weapons used in fighting
Male broad-horned flour beetles have large mandibles and horns and fight over territory. The head and forelegs that support the mandibles also grow stronger together, and it has become clear that their development involves juvenile hormone during the larval stage and epigenomic mechanisms mediated by histone modification.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Integrative Evolutionary Ecology Lab consist of faculty and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorYasukazu Okada
- Assistant ProfessorMichihiko Takahashi
- YLC Specially Appointed Assistant ProfessorNaoto Idogawa
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Lucanus cervus male Saarland 22” Orchi / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Caste differentiation in Diacamma ants: “Diacamma rugosum casent0217516” Shannon Hartman / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Evolution and variation of weapons used in fighting: “Insect collection ( )” Emmett Tullos from Jackson AL, United States / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (内分
泌シグナル研究): “Drosophila melanogaster under a microscope 01” Gannu03 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (異分野融合生物学): “Evol biol model” Yel D'ohan / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (脳回路構造学): “Minettia fly” Ermell / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (細胞構造学): “Physcomitrella Sporophyt” Manuel Mildner & Annette Hohe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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