Research Interests for Susan C. Alberts

I have two primary lines of research. The first involves understanding how behavior impacts individual fitness in natural populations of large mammals. This research is based on detailed information about individual behavior and life histories, and is focussed primarily on the savannah baboon population in Amboseli National Park, in southern Kenya. The second involves the relationship between genes and behavior; how does behavior affect population genetic structure, and how do genes influence behavior? My current research projects include: An analysis of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and its relationship to mating behavior in two baboon populations. Two microsatellite studies, one of the Amboseli baboon population and one of the well-studied wild elephant population in Amboseli.

Keywords:

Aggression, Aging, Allelic Imbalance, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Animals, Wild, Anthropology, Physical, Behavior, Animal, Biological Evolution, Biology, Consensus Sequence, Databases, Factual, Demography, DNA, Mitochondrial, Duffy Blood-Group System, Ecosystem, Elephants, Environment, Evolution, Molecular, Feeding Behavior, Fertility, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Fitness, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Growth, Hybridization, Genetic, Inbreeding, Kenya, Longevity, Longitudinal Studies, Molar, Multivariate Analysis, Object Attachment, Pair Bond, Papio, Papio anubis, Papio cynocephalus, Papio hamadryas, Paternal Behavior, Pedigree, Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A, Phenotype, Phylogeny, Plasmodium vivax, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Polymorphism, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Dynamics, Pregnancy, Primates, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Protein Binding, Qualitative Research, Rain, Receptors, Cell Surface, Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Reproduction, Research Design, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sequence Homology, Sex Factors, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Sexual Maturation, Smell, Social Behavior, Social Dominance, Social Environment, Social Support, Species Specificity, Stochastic Processes, Testis, Testosterone, Theropithecus, Tooth Wear, Transcription Factors, Transcription, Genetic

Representative Publications

1. Silk, JB; Alberts, SC; Altmann, J, Social bonds of female baboons enhance infant survival., Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 302 no. 5648 (November, 2003), pp. 1231-1234 [doi] [abs]
2. Alberts, SC; Watts, HE; Altmann, J, Queuing and queue jumping: long term patterns of reproductive skew among male savannah baboons, Animal Behaviour, vol. 65 no. 4 (2003), pp. 821-840 [doi] [abs]
3. Smith, K; Alberts, SC; Altmann, J, Wild female baboons bias their social behaviour towards paternal half-sisters., Proceedings. Biological sciences, vol. 270 no. 1514 (March, 2003), pp. 503-510, ISSN 0962-8452 [doi] [abs]
4. Buchan, JC; Alberts, SC; Silk, JB; Altmann, J, True paternal care in a multi-male primate society., Nature, vol. 425 no. 6954 (September, 2003), pp. 179-181 [12968180], [doi] [abs]