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Dr Todd BlackledgeAssociate ProfessorOffice: ASEC 280b
Email: blackledge
Phone: (330) 972-7268
Lab Website |
Silk Bioinformatics and Spider BehaviorMy research focuses on how animal behavior and biomechanics interact through ecological and evolutionary processes. I use spiders as a system to investigate questions about web function and the processes that determine evolutionary change in spider web architectures. These questions require an understanding of the silk materials that spiders use to spin webs so I also study the biomechanical performance of the diverse toolkit of different silks spun by the world’s 40000 species of spiders. The close relationship between the molecule structure of silk threads and their mechanical performance in spider webs provides a unique opportunity to investigate questions that span biological levels of organization. This requires an integrated approach such that research in my laboratory draws upon materials science, chemistry, and engineering as well as classic biological disciplines.
Education
2000 Ph.D. Department of Entomology, advisor: John W. Wenzel, thesis “Stabilimenta in spider webs: Predator-prey conflict and sensory drive”, The Ohio State University
1994 B.S. Biology, The George Washington University, magna cum laude
Selected Publications
Blackledge, T.A. and C.M. Eliason*. 2007. Functionally independent components of prey capture are architecturally constrained in spider orb webs. Biology Letters. 3: 456-458. PDF
Blackledge, T.A. and J.M. Zevenbergen**. 2007. Condition-dependent web architecture in the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. Animal Behaviour. 73: 855-864. PDF
Swanson, B.O., T.A. Blackledge, A.P. Summers & C.Y. Hayashi. 2006. Spider dragline silk: Correlated and mosaic evolution in high performance biological materials. Evolution. 60: 2539-2551. PDF
Blackledge, T.A. & C.Y. Hayashi. 2006a. Unraveling the mechanical properties of composite silk threads spun by cribellate orb-weaving spiders. Journal of Experimental Biology. 209(16): 3131-3140. PDF (see Inside JEB highlight)
Blackledge, T.A. & C.Y. Hayashi. 2006b. Silken toolkits: biomechanics of silk fibers spun by the orb web spider Argiope argentata. Journal of Experimental Biology. 209(13): 2452-2461. PDF (cover article) see write ups in Natural History Magazine and Science News
Blackledge, T.A. & R.G. Gillespie. 2004. Convergent evolution of web building behaviors in an adaptive radiation of Hawaiian spiders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101:16228-16233. PDF
Blackledge, T.A., J. A. Coddington, and R. G. Gillespie. 2003. The evolution of three-dimensional spider webs as predator defenses. Ecology Letters.6:13-18. (cover article) PDF see write up at National Geographic News |
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