Behavioral Effects of Odorant Injection on Larvae and Eggs of Bicyclus anynana

Summer 2022 — Monteiro Lab, National University of Singapore

Selected as an Amgen Scholars Program participant (4% acceptance rate) for fully funded, full-time research under Prof. Antonia Monteiro.

Abstract

At the Monteiro Lab, I investigated the transgenerational inheritance of learned host plant odor preferences in Bicyclus anynana. My project involved proposing and executing an evolutionary developmental analysis of food odor preference and its inheritance across generations. Through experimental injection of odorants into eggs and larvae, I contributed to demonstrating that B. anynana larvae can acquire novel host plant odor preferences and transmit them to subsequent generations — providing evidence for epigenetic inheritance in this butterfly species.

These results carry implications for ecological speciation and host plant shifts, highlighting the role of learned behaviors in evolutionary diversification. In addition to the research, I co-hosted the Asia Amgen Scholars Symposium, coordinating keynote presentations and research talks from four universities (National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Tsinghua University) across three countries.