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Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1997, University of Würzburg
Send e-mail to
jgadau@asu.edu
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Dr. Gadau's research interests focuses on the causes and consequences of
genetic variability in solitaire and social Hymenoptera. In particular, he wants
to understand the evolutionary processes leading to speciation and adaptation
and what are the essential genetic changes involved in these processes.
Dr. Gadau also has a long standing interest in the study of the evolution of
social insect societies with a focus on ants. He is especially interested in the
evolution of polyandry and polygyny.
Current projects in Dr. Gadau’s group are:
- Mechanisms and genetic architecture of speciation in Nasonia
spp. (parasitic wasp) and Pogonomyrmex spp. (harvester ants)
- Coevolution of ants and plants (Crematogaster/Macaranga) and ants
and bacteria (Camponotus/Blochmania).
- Genetic architecture of adaptive traits like interspecific differences in
courtship behavior, wing size and/or pheromones) using the Nasonia-hybrid
system or disease resistance in the genus Bombus (bumble bees) and A.
mellifera.
- The proximate mechanisms leading to nuclear-nuclear and nuclear-cytoplasmic
incompatibilities and phenotypic aberrations in hybrids.
- Understanding the evolution of multilevel systems like insect colonies
using theoretical approaches:
Social insect colonies are one of the best systems to experimentally study
questions regarding the evolution of complex systems because the have
evolved multiple times independently and come in different sizes. The recent
explosion of research on complex systems in general has produced a variety
of new theoretical, mathematical and computational tools and models which
could be tested using social insect colonies.
Selected Publications
Heinze J, Gadau J, Hölldobler B, Nanda I, Schmidt M, Scheller K (1994)
Genetic variability in the ant Camponotus floridanus detected by
multilocus DNA fingerprinting. Naturwissenschaften 81:34-36
Gadau J, Heinze J, Hölldobler B, Schmid M (1996) Population and colony
structure of the carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus. Mol Ecol 5:785-792
Gadau J, Gertsch PJ; Heinze J, Pamilo P, Hölldobler B (1998). Oligogyny by
unrelated queens in the carpenter ant, Camponotus ligniperdus, Behav Ecol
Sociobiol 44: 15-22.
Gadau J, Page REJr, Werren JH (1999). Mapping of hybrid incompatibility loci
in Nasonia, Genetics 153:1731-1741.
Gadau J, Brady SG, Ward PS (1999). Systematics, distribution, and ecology of
an endemic California Camponotus quercicola (Hymenoptera: Formicidae),
Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 92: 514-522.
Gadau J, Page REJr, Werren JH, Schmid-Hempel P (2000) Genome organization and
social evolution in Hymenoptera. Naturwissenschaften, 87:87-89.
Sauer C, Stackebrandt E, Gadau J, Hölldobler B, Gross R (2000). Systematic
relationships and cospecioation of bacterial endosymbionts and their carpenter
ant host species. IJSEM, 50:1877-1886.
Brady SG, Gadau J, Ward PS (2000). Systematics of the ant genus Camponotus
(Hymenoptera: Formicidae): A preliminary analysis using data from the
mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase I. pp. 131-139. in Hymenoptera: Evolution,
Biodiversity and Biological Control eds.: A. Austin and M. Dowton, CSIRO
Publishing, Canberra. 468 pp.
Gadau J, Gerloff CU, Krüger N, Chan H, Schmid-Hempel P, Wille A, Page REJr.
(2001). A linkage analysis of sex determination in Bombus terrestris (L.)
(Hymenoptera: Apidea) J. Heredity 87:234-242.
Page REJr., Gadau J, Beye M (2002). The emergence of hymenopteran genetics.
Genetics, 160:375-379.
Gadau J, Page REJr., Werren JH (2002). The genetic basis of the interspecific
differences in wing size in Nasonia (Hymenoptea; Pteromalidae) - major
QTL and epistasis. Genetics, 161: 673-684.
Julian GE, Fewell JH, Gadau J, Johnson RA, Larrabee D (2002). Genetic
determination of the queen caste in an ant hybrid zone. PNAS 99: 8175-8160.
Kronauer DJC, Gadau J (2002) Isolation of polymorphic microsatellite markers
in the new world honey ant Myrmecocystus mimicus. Mol. Ecol. Notes.
2:540-541.
Kronauer DJC, Gadau J, Hölldobler B (2002) Genetic evidence for intra- and
interspecific slavery in honey ants (Genus Myrmecocystus). Proc. R. Soc.
Lond. B. 270: 805-810.
Berghoff SM, Gadau J, Winter T, Linsenmaier KE, Maschwitz (2003)
Investigation on the Sociobiology of a hypogaic army ant: description of a
sympatric Dorylus species and interspecific colony conflicts. Insectes
Soc. 50:139-147.
Feldhaar H, Fiala B, Gadau J, Mohamed M, Maschwitz U (2003) Molecular
phylogeny of Crematogaster subgenus Decacrema ants (Hymenoptera:
Formicidae) and the colonization of Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae) trees. Mol.
Phylogenet. Evol., 27: 441-452.
Gadau J, Strehl CP, Oettler J, Hölldolber B (2003) Determinants of
intracolonial relatedness in Pogonomyrmex rugosus (Hymenoptera;
Formicidae) - mating frequency and brood raids. Mol. Ecol., 12: 1931-1938
Rosario Gil, Francisco J. Silva, Evelyn Zientz, François Delmotte, Fernando
González-Candelas, Amparo Latorre, Carolina Rausell, Judith Kamerbeek, Jürgen
Gadau, Bert Hölldobler, Roeland C. H. J. Van Ham, Roy Gross, and Andrés Moya
(2003) The genome sequence of Blochmannia floridanus: comparative
analysis of reduced genomes. PNAS, 100(16):9388-93.
Pietsch C, Rütten KB, Gadau J (2004) Eleven microsatellite markers in Nasonia,
Ahmead 1904 (Hymenoptera; Pteromalidae. Mol Ecol Notes, 4 43-45.
Rutten KB, Pietsch C, Olek K, Neusser M, Beukeboom LW, Gadau J. (2004)
Chromosomal anchoring of linkage groups and identification of wing size QTL
using markers and FISH probes derived from microdissected chromosomes in Nasonia
(Pteromalidae:Hymenoptera). Cytogenet Genome Res., 105(1):126-33.
Kronauer DJC, Hölldobler B, Gadau J (2004) Phylogentics of the New World
honey ants (genus Myrmecocystus) estimated from mitochondrial DNA
sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 32(1):416-21.
Feldhaar H, Fiala B, Gadau J (in press) Characterization of microsatellite
markers for plant-ants of the genus Crematogaster subgenus Decacrema.
Molecular Ecology Notes
Rheindt F, Gadau J, Strehl CP, Hölldobler B (in press) Extremely high mating
frequency in the Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius).
Bickel T, Gadau J, Brühl CA, Hölldobler B, Linsenmair KE (in press)
Reduction of genetic variability in leaf litter ant populations due to habitat
fragmentation and isolation of tropical rainforests in Sabah, Borneo.
Rheindt F, Gadau J (in press) A genetic component in the determination of
worker polymorphism in the Florida harvester ant Pogonomyrmex badius.
Insectes Sociaux
Kaltenpoth M, Strohm E, Gadau J. (in press) Development of polymorphic
microsatellite markers for the European beewolf - Philantus triangulum
(Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Mol. ecol.
Strehl C, Gadau J (in press) Cladistic analysis of island populations of the
Florida harvester ant (Hymenoptera: Formicicdae) using divergence of
mitochondrial DNA sequences.
Miscellaneous:
Habilitationsschrift (University of Würzburg)
"Ursachen und Folgen genetischer Variabilität bei sozialen und
solitären Hymenopteren" (2003)
Proposal to Sequence the Nasonia Genome (2004)
Contributing authors: J.H. Werren, J. Gadau, L. Beukeboom, C. Desplan, J.
Lynch, R. Rivers, S.
Richards, L. van de Zande.