Milly is a postdoc working on the evolution of insect polarization and color visual systems. Milly graduated from the University of Bristol, UK with a B.Sc. in Biology (1st class Hons) and completed her PhD on the ontogeny of color and polarization vision in dragonflies for which she received a Faculty of Science Prize for Best PhD Thesis. Her first postdoc was in the lab of Prof. Seth Bybee’s lab at Brigham Young University, Utah, where she expanded her research into the evolution of color visual genes (opsins) in insects. Milly then joined Prof. Trevor Wardill’s lab at the University of Cambridge to study color vision in flies using electrophysiology, later moving to the University of Minnesota to study the spectral sensitivity of beetle opsins using transgenic Drosophila. Her research focuses on how insect visual systems are adapted to visual ecology taking a wide range of approaches including behavior, electrophysiology, transcriptomics, histology and transgenic Drosophila.
Current research: Over the many years of research into insect polarization sensitivity, many insects have been shown to detect and use polarized light signals in nature for a range of visual tasks such as navigation, mate detection and to locate water bodies. The study of polarized light is particularly fascinating as it is a visual signal that we, as humans, cannot easily detect with the naked eye. The role of polarized light cues in insect predators has been far less studied. Predators often rely on motion cues to detect prey and use specialised regions of the eye that are tuned for higher visual acuity, for prey capture. Milly will be investigating the integration of polarization cues into prey detection and capture systems in a range of study insects.
Research interests: insect vision, opsin evolution, colour vision, polarization vision, photoreceptor spectral tuning, transcriptomics.
Selected media: Bewitched by Dragonflies, BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03w0gwb
Selected publications:
Current research: Over the many years of research into insect polarization sensitivity, many insects have been shown to detect and use polarized light signals in nature for a range of visual tasks such as navigation, mate detection and to locate water bodies. The study of polarized light is particularly fascinating as it is a visual signal that we, as humans, cannot easily detect with the naked eye. The role of polarized light cues in insect predators has been far less studied. Predators often rely on motion cues to detect prey and use specialised regions of the eye that are tuned for higher visual acuity, for prey capture. Milly will be investigating the integration of polarization cues into prey detection and capture systems in a range of study insects.
Research interests: insect vision, opsin evolution, colour vision, polarization vision, photoreceptor spectral tuning, transcriptomics.
Selected media: Bewitched by Dragonflies, BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03w0gwb
Selected publications:
- Sharkey CR, Powell GS & Bybee SM. (2021). Opsin Evolution in Flower-Visiting Beetles. Front. Ecol. Evol. 9: 676369. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.676369.
- Feller KD, Sharkey CR, McDuffee-Altekruse A, Bracken-Grissom HD, Lord NP, Porter ML, et al. (2020). Surf and turf vision: Patterns and predictors of visual acuity in compound eye evolution. Arthropod Struct. Dev., 101002. DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2020.101002.
- Sharkey CR, Blanco J, Leibowitz M, Pinto Benito D & Wardill TJ. (2020). The spectral sensitivity of Drosophila photoreceptors. Sci. Rep. 10: 18242. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74742-1.
- Foster JJ, Temple SE, How MJ, Daly IM, Sharkey CR, Wilby D, et al. (2018). Polarisation vision: overcoming challenges of working with a property of light we barely see. Sci. Nat. 105: 27. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-018-1551-3.
- Sharkey CR, Fujimoto MS, Lord NP, Shin S, McKenna DD, Suvorov A, et al. (2017). Overcoming the loss of blue sensitivity through opsin duplication in the largest animal group, beetles. Sci. Rep. 7: 8. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-00061-7.
- Suvorov A, Jensen NO, Sharkey CR, Fujimoto MS, Bodily P, Wightman HMC., et al. (2016). Opsins have evolved under the permanent heterozygote model: insights from phylotranscriptomics of Odonata. Mol. Ecol. 26: 1306–1322. DOI: 10.1111/mec.13884.
- Lord NP, Plimpton RL, Sharkey CR, Suvorov A, Lelito JP, Willardson BM, et al. (2016). A cure for the blues: opsin duplication and subfunctionalization for short-wavelength sensitivity in jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). BMC Evol. Biol. 16: 107. DOI: 10.1186/s12862-016-0674-4.
- Sharkey CR, Roberts NW & Partridge JC. (2015). Polarization sensitivity as a visual contrast enhancer in the Emperor dragonfly larva, Anax imperator. J. Exp. Biol. 218, 3399–3405. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.122507.
- Foster JJ, Sharkey CR, Gaworska AVA, Roberts NW, Whitney HM & Partridge JC. (2014). Bumblebees learn polarization patterns. Curr. Biol. 24: 1415–1420. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.007.
