Sydney, Mabel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mabel Sydney
Postdoc

Contents

  1. Curriculum Vitae
    1. Education
    2. Selected conferences
    3. Grants
  2. Research Interests
  3. Publications
  4. Contact

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Curriculum Vitae

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Education

2026 – present Postdoctoral researcher. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.
2019 – 2025 PhD. Biological Sciences. Thesis: ‘‘Male and female diet choice in response to the socio-sexual environment.” Supervised by Professor Tracey Chapman and Professor Jen Perry. University of East Anglia, UK.
2013 – 2016 BSc (Hons). Biological Sciences. University of Exeter, UK.
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Selected conferences

2025

ESEB, Barcelona, Spain. Socially transferred materials symposium, poster:

“The socio-sexual environment influences diet and egg laying choices in female fruit flies.”
2024

Evolution, Montreal, Canada. Evolutionary and ecological consequences of considering the environment as an extended phenotype symposium, talk:

“Female feeding and oviposition site preference is influenced by male social cues.”
2023

Ento, Falmouth, UK. Behavioural and evolutionary ecology symposium, talk:

“Nutritional insensitivity to mating in male fruit flies.”
2023

Behaviour, Bielefeld, Germany. Talk:

“Exploring the relationship between nutrition and reproduction in a model insect.”
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Grants

2024 Society of Experimental Biologists: Company of Biologists travel grant.
2022 Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour: travel and maintenance grant.
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Research Interests

I am interested in how behaviour and nutrition are shaped by social and sexual interactions in insects. During my PhD, I investigated how the socio-sexual environment (such as mating rate, sexual harassment and long-term diet) impacts behaviour, reproduction and diet choice, using the fruit fly model system Drosophila melanogaster. During my post-doc at JGU Mainz with Prof. Dr. Susanne Foitzik I will investigate how social interactions impact behaviour, gene expression and nutrition in a new system, by way of the ant social parasite Temnothorax americanus, and its exploited ant host Temnothorax longispinosus. Specifically, I will research: 1) genomic interactions between parasite-specific and host-specific genes that could determine success of parasitism or host defence; 2) changes in gene expression patterns that trigger the seasonal behavioural switches necessary for parasites to raid host nests for new workers, and; 3) how networks of nutrient sharing via social fluids may be used to manipulate workers in socially-parasitised colonies.

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Publications

Sydney, MC. (2024), Male and female diet choice in response to the socio-sexual environment. Doctoral thesis. University of East Anglia. DOI 

Sydney, MC., Chapman, T., Perry, JC. (2024), Diet choice is insensitive to mating in male fruit flies. Animal Behaviour, 214, 73-86. DOI 

Irish, S., Sutter, A., Pinzoni, L., Sydney, MC., Travers, L., Murray, D., de Coriolis, J.-C. and Immler, S. (2024), Heatwave-Induced Paternal Effects Have Limited Adaptive Benefits in Offspring. Ecology and Evolution, 14: e70399. DOI 

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Contact

Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution
Mabel Sydney
Hanns-Dieter-Hüsch-Weg 15
01.452
55128 Mainz
Tel.: ++49 (0)6131 - 39 26717
Fax: ++49 (0)6131 - 39 27850
E-mail

 

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