Academic Education:

B.S., Boston University

Ph.D., Boston University

Appointments:

Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of Immunology and Microbiology, Stanford University. (2010)

Research Assistant Professor, Dept. Biology, Boston University. (2001 - 2004)

Research Associate, Dept. Biology, Boston University. (1996 - 1999)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. Biology, Boston University. (1993 -1996)

Assistant Professor, Centro de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City. (1992 - 1993)

Research Interests:

My research tries to understand the factors that may have selected for the evolution of termite sociality. I have hypothesized that pathogens and/or parasites may have played important selection forces that favored the evolution of complex insect societies. This evolutionary question is studied by focusing on the adaptations that termites have evolved in order to resist disease. Termites nest, feed and forage in microbially-rich environments and their colonies are composed of thousands of individuals which could easily become infected either through the direct contact with pathogens or indirectly through the social interactions among nestmates. Yet, in spite the high risks of infection, termites thrive within their nests. What are the means by which these insects cope with disease? What are the costs and benefits of group-living with respect to disease susceptibility and disease resistance? My research has established that termites use several, and often simultaneous mechanisms to reduce the risks of infection, including behavioral, biochemical, immunological and social adaptations. This line of work has now expanded to consider the role of pathogenic microbes on the evolution of both termite mating strategies and social immunity whereby social interactions facilitate disease resistance at the colony-level. My research is at the interface of evolutionary biology, behavioral and chemical ecology, immunology and genetics. Termites, as well as all other social insects, represent excellent social test organisms to answer questions about the emerging field of “socioecoimmunology”. Our field work takes place at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and at the Redwoods in California.

Zootermopsis angusticollis nesting in wood.
Age is positively correlated with size.

The overlap of several age-cohorts within the nests appears to reduce disease susceptibility.

Physiological adaptations to resist disease
Termites also respond to the risk of infection through cellular and humoral immunity.
Termite hemocytes engage in phagocytosis of microlatex beads.
The filopodia extensions are characteristic of the phagocytic process.

Teaching Activities:

My teaching activities include a freshman course for Biology majors focusing on organismal biology, an area of Biology that deals with how living organisms evolve, survive, reproduce and interact with the abiotic and biotic factors. We review the morphological, physiological, and behavioral ways in which individual organisms meet the challenges posed by the environment in which they live, all within an evolutionary perspective. Additionally, I teach a course entitled Sociobiology for both graduate and undergraduate students, where we strive to understand the biological basis of social behavior in animals. Why do animals live in societies? Why do animals cooperate and why do they sometimes show extreme forms of altruism? What are the costs and benefits associated with group living? Sociobiology is a multi-disciplinary science, meshing together ethology (animal behavior), ecology, genetics, population biology and comparative psychology, all within the conceptual framework of evolutionary theory. I also have co-taught an Entomology course intended for graduate and undergraduate students and have overseen graduate-level seminars. A particular interest of mine includes supervising undergraduate research in my laboratory. Students receive credit for performing research. The students are responsible for developing an experimental design, carrying the experiment, analyzing and interpreting their data, participating in lab meetings and presenting their results to all lab members as well as preparing manuscripts and poster presentations. Thus, the students experience the entire gamut of responsibilities related to scientific inquiry.

Selected Publications:

Rosengaus R.B. and Traniello, J.F.A. (1993) Disease risk as a cost of outbreeding in the termite Zootermopsis angusticollis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 90:6641-6645.

Rosengaus, R.B., Maxmen A.M., Coates, L.E. and Traniello, J.F.A. (1998) Disease resistance: a benefit of sociality in the dampwood termite Zootermopsis angusticollis (Isoptera: Termopsidae). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 44:125-134.

Rosengaus, R.B., Traniello, J.F.A., Chen, T., Brown, J.J. and Karp, R.D. (1999) Immunity in a social insect. Naturwissenschaften, 86:588-591.

Rosengaus, R.B., Lefebvre, M.L., Jordan, C. and Traniello, J.F.A. (1999) Pathogen alarm behavior in a termite: A new form of communication in social insects. Naturwissenschaften, 86:544-548.

Rosengaus, R.B., M.L. Lefebvre, M.L. and Traniello, J.F.A. (2000) Inhibition of fungal spore germination by Nasutitermes: Evidence for a possible antiseptic role of soldier defensive secretions. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 26(1):21-39.

Rosengaus, R.B. and Traniello, J.F.A. (2001) Disease susceptibility and the adaptive nature of colony demography in the dampwood termite Zootermopsis angusticollis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 50(6):546-556.

Traniello, J.F.A., Rosengaus, R.B. and Savoie, K. (2002) The development of immunity in a social insect: Evidence for the group facilitation of disease resistance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 99(10):6838-6842.

Bordenstein, S. and Rosengaus, R.B. (2005) Wolbachia taxonomy: Discovery of supergroup J in Isoptera. Current Microbiology 51:1-7.

Rosengaus, R.B., Cornelisse, T., Guschanski, K. and Traniello, J.F.A. (2007) Inducible immune proteins in the dampwood termite Zootermopsis angusticollis. Naturwissenschaften 94(1):25-33.

Bulmer MS, Bachelet I, Raman R, Rosengaus RB and Sasisekharan R (2009) Targeting an antimicrobial effector function in insect immunity as a pest control strategy. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences 106 (31):12652-12657.

[Back to Top]