About Me
My name is Ayse, and I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in the Kronforst lab where I studied the genetic and environmental determinants of migration and migration-associated traits in Monarch butterflies.
Over the years, I've picked up a few things related to butterfly care, anatomy, behavior, and even some butterfly-specific scientific methods that I think would be interesting to both scientists and insect enthusiasts out there. Much of the content I post on this page is thanks to the awesome resources available at the University of Chicago and in the Kronforst lab.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral scholar in the Schmidt-Ott lab at the University of Chicago where I am studying the genetic mechanisms responsible for evolutionary transitions in extra-embryonic tissues of Dipterans.
Publications
Tenger-Trolander, A. 2023. Environmental and genetic effects of captivity — are there lessons for monarch butterfly conservation? Current Opinion in Insect Science 59:101088.
Tenger-Trolander, A.*, Julick ,C. R.*, Lu, W., Green, D. A., Montooth, K. L., & Kronforst, M. R. 2022. Seasonal plasticity in morphology and metabolism differs between migratory North American and resident Costa Rican monarch butterflies. Ecology and Evolution. (2023). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9796
Tenger-Trolander, A. & Kronforst, M. R. Migration behaviour of commercial monarchs reared outdoors and wild-derived monarchs reared indoors. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, 20201326 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1326
Tenger-Trolander, A., Lu, W. , Noyes, M. & Kronforst, M. R. Contemporary loss of migration in monarch butterflies. PNAS 116, 14671–14676 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904690116 News Coverage: The Atlantic NPR CBC News
Westerman, E.L., Lechtinger, R., Tenger-Trolander, A., Massardo, D., Palmer, S. E., & Kronforst, M. R. Does male preference play a role in maintaining female limited polymorphism in a Batesian mimetic butterfly? Behavioural Processes 150, 47–58 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2018.02.014
Westerman, E. L., VanKuren, N.W., Massardo, D., Tenger-Trolander, A., Zhang, W., Hill, R., Perry, M., Bayala, E., Barr, K., Chamberlain, N., Douglas, T., Buerkle, N., Palmer, S. E., & Kronforst, M. R. Aristaless Controls Butterfly Wing Color Variation Used in Mimicry and Mate Choice. Current Biology 28, 3469-3474.e4 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.051
Kunte, K., Zhang, W., Tenger-Trolander, A., Palmer, D. H., Martin, A., Reed, R. D., Mullen, S. P., & Kronforst, M. R. doublesex is a mimicry supergene. Nature 507, 229–232 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13112
The Heliconius Genome Consortium et al. Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species. Nature 487, 94–98 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11041
*Co-first Authors