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Faculty
Ulrich Mueller
W.M. Wheeler Lost Pines Professor in Integrative Biology

Email: umueller@mail.utexas.edu
Website
Main Office: PAT 629
Phone: (512) 232-5775

Alternate Office: PAT 619
Alt. Phone: (512) 471-7619

Mailing Address
The University of Texas at Austin - ICMB
1 University Station C0930
2415 Speedway
Austin ,TX 78712-1095
Ulrich Mueller

Research Summary

Dr. Mueller's research aims at understanding the evolution of organismal interactions, particularly the evolution of mutualisms and the evolution of social conflict and cooperation. Current research focuses largely on the coevolution between fungus-growing ants and their fungi, but Dr. Mueller admits to an inordinate fondness for social insects in general. Evolution, Ecology & Behavior of Social Insects: Research in the Mueller Lab integrates animal behavior, ecology, evolution, microbiology, and systematics, with a focus on social insects. Many projects revolve around the biology of fungus-growing ants, but other social insects such as sweat bees, honeybees, and paperwasps are studied as well. Ecology & Co-Evolution of Symbioses: Research on host-symbiotic coevolution elucidates patterns of ant-microbe co-cladogenesis, symbiont specificity, symbiont choice, and the engineering of microbial consortia by fungus-growing ants in their gardens. Research on ant-fungus coevolution tests specific predictions of symbiont-choice theory. Evolution of Conflict & Cooperation: Social insects are particularly suitable for the study of evolution in a social context, such as the study of conflict and cooperation within a colony of social insects, between social parasites and their hosts, or between social insects and their macroparasitic and microbial symbionts. Tropical Biology: Field research is conducted throughout the Neotropics, but primarily at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama and at the Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.