20th International Congress of Arachnology

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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE REPORTS | No. 3, July 2, 2016
20th International Congress of Arachnology
Zoological Institute and Museum, Ernst Moritz Arndt
University of Greifswald, Anklamer Str. 20, D-17489
Greifswald, Germany
The mechanisms by which reproductive isolation evolves
and is maintained is central to understanding fundamental
processes of evolution. Chemical cues are one of the most
ancient and widespread modalities of communication, yet
their importance in species recognition and reproductive
isolation remains largely unknown. My work will focus on
the role of chemical communication in reproductive isola-
tion and speciation within the Tetragnatha spider family
where visual and auditory cues appear to play little or
no role in species recognition during mating.
Keywords: chemical communication, pheromones, sexual
behavior, Tetragnatha spiders, species recognition
Oral presentation
De novo genomes of orb-weaving spiders
reveal the diversity and complexity of
spidroins
Ingi Agnarsson1, Paul L. Babb2,3, Nicholas F.
Lahens2,4 , David N. Nicholson1,2, Eun Ji Kim2,4, Linden
Higgins1, John B. Hogenesch2,4, Matjaž Kuntner5,
Benjamin F. Voight2,3,4
1Department of Biology, University of Vermont,
Burlington, VT 05405, USA; 2Department of Systems
Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics,
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Penn-
sylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; 3Department
of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA;
4Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics,
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; 5 EZ Lab,
Institute of Biology at Research Centre of the Slovenian
Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Spider silks are the toughest known biomaterials, yet
are lightweight, extensible, and virtually invisible to the
immune system, and thus have revolutionary potential
for medicine and industry. To investigate spider-silk genes
(i.e. spidroins) systematically, we constructed the first
annotated genomes for orb-weaving spiders: the golden
orb-weaver (Nephila clavipes), and Darwin’s bark spider
(Caerostris darwini). Our results yield an unprecedented
diversity of spidroins, most of which we were able to
characterize in detail (full-length reconstruction) for the
first time. We also find an impressive diversity in the basic
construction blocks of silks including hundreds of unique
repeated coding motifs and cassettes, and reveal patterns of
shared motifs and unique cassettes that may underlie the
observed differences in biomechanical properties among
different silks. We associate spidroin sequences with silk
gland expression challenging some long-held assump-
tions, e.g., that differentiated silk glands extrude spidroins
exclusive to one silk class. We additionally find evidence of
an alternatively spliced spidroin, a spidroin expressed only
in venom glands, evolutionary mechanisms for spidroin
diversification, and non-spidroins genes highly expressed
in silk glands as candidates involved in silk production.
Keywords: silk, genomics, transcriptomics
Oral presentation
Hairy kisses, mating plugs and
female choice in Leucauge (Araneae:
Tetragnathidae)
Anita Aisenberg1, Gilbert Barrantes2, William G.
Eberhard 2,3
1Laboratorio de Etología, Ecología y Evolución, Insti-
tuto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable,
Avenida Italia 3318 CP 11600, Montevideo, Uruguay;
2Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica,
Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Rica; 3Smithsonian Tropi-
cal Research Institute, Museum of Natural Science.
Though many studies have documented rapid male
genital divergence, few have tested how these differences
between close-related species correlate with their sexual
behavior. Leucauge genus includes more than 100 species
but courtship and copulatory behavior has been described
in detail only for L. mariana and L. argyra. The two
species show differences in courtship and copulatory