In the Light of Evolution V:  Cooperation

This meeting was held January 7-8, 2011 at the Beckman Center, Irvine, CA and organized by  Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller, John C. Avise and Francisco J. Ayala

Meeting Overview

Cooperation is one of the great challenges to evolutionary theory.  If individuals compete, and those winning the conflict leave more copies of their genes, what place is there for cooperation?  A large one, it turns out.  Cooperation is important in the evolution of groups, and is responsible for the great ecological success of social insects.  Understanding how conflict is controlled so that cooperation can occur may explain the organization of genes on chromosomes, eukaryotic cells, multicellularity, and superorganisms like social insect colonies.  Advances in many areas of biology have expanded the reach of cooperation studies.  This Sackler Colloquium will focus on empirical work in these new areas rather than tread old ground.  We will begin with a session on the foundations of cooperation based on selfish-gene thinking. We will then move on to see how the promise of the early work has been fulfilled by the study of real genes for social behavior.  The third session will look at the role of cooperation in disease, as pathogens, selfish genetic elements, and cancers exploit their hosts.  The final session will explore how this evolutionary perspective sheds light on the human condition.

I. Foundations of Cooperation
Chair, John C. Avise, University of California, Irvine

Insect Societies: pinnacles of cooperation, Peter Nonacs, University of California, Los Angeles

Presentation not available

The major evolutionary transitions In bacterial symbiosis, Joel L. Sachs, University of California, Riverside

Presentation not available

Kin, kith, and kind: the varieties of social experience, David C. Queller, Rice University

II. Genetic basis of cooperation and conflict
Chair, David Queller

The evolution of restraint in simple communities, Ben Kerr, University of Washington

Selfish genetic elements, Jack H. Werren, University of Rochester

Banquet Lecture
Introduction, Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine

Evolution of insect society: eat, drink and be scary, Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

III. Hamiltonian Medicine
Chair, Joan E. Strassmann

Genomic imprinting, helpers at the nest, and age at menarche, David Haig, Harvard University

Presentation not available

Pathology from evolutionary conflict, Steven A. Frank, University of California, Irvine

Presentation not available

The sociobiology of drug resistance and pathogen virulence, Andrew Read, Pennsylvania State University

Presentation not available

Microbial sociality: implications for disease, Kevin Foster, Harvard University

IV. Are Humans different?
Chair, Francisco J. Ayala

Cooperation and conflict in traditional cultures, Beverly I. Strassmann, University of Michigan

Presentation not available

The cultural niche, Robert Boyd, University of California, Los Angeles

Social Bonds to Social Preferences; the foundations for human moral sentiments, Joan Silk, University of California, Los Angeles

What does primate cooperation tell us?, Dorothy Cheney, University of Pennsylvania

 Concluding Remarks, John C. Avise, University of California, Irvine