Biology PhD student Brendan Hunt has been awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG) from the National Science Foundation entitled "Is the role of DNA methylation conserved among social insects?" He will compare how an important epigenetic modification, known as DNA methylation, alters the instructions which encode organismal development in the red imported fire ant and the honeybee. Hunt will test the hypothesis that DNA methylation plays a general role in the evolution of social behavior in insects. Hunt is jointly advised by School of Biology Associate Professors Michael Goodisman and Soojin Yi.

More information on the project can be found here:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1011349