Text Box: Becky L. Williams Department of Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley 3060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg #3140 Berkeley, CA 94720-3140 beckyw @ berkeley.edu* Phone: (510) 643 5448 Fax: (510) 643 6264 PhD Candidate in Roy Caldwell’s lab University of California Museum of Paleontology * remove spaces from email address

 

FOR STUDENTS

 

CLASS LINKS

 

IB 31 Animal Biology          IB C158 Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands        

 

Bio 1B home page              Bio 1B sec 130 pics           IB C82 Intro to Oceans

 

 

Berkeley has lots of great seminars!

Click the links below to see schedules of what, when, and who.

SEMINAR LINKS

 

            Behavior Lunch                   IB seminars         MVZ Lunch           ESPM Colloquium               Other seminars

 

 

 

           

 

 

PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION

 

Dissertation subject:

Investigation of potential forces directing venom evolution:  variation in toxicity of the blue-ringed octopuses (Hapalochlaena spp.),

predator-prey interactions, and bacterial symbionts

 

     I am interested in predator-prey interactions and chemical ecology.  Natural selection can be particularly powerful in these life-or-death struggles and I am fascinated by the variety of venoms and poisons that have evolved as well as the corresponding physiological and behavioral counter-adaptations to this wicked weaponry.  I study the blue-ring octopus and its stomatopod predators and prey as well as the poisonous rough skinned newt (common on the California coast) and its toxin-resistant garter snake predator.  Both the salamander and the octopus have the deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX).  This connection brought me from terrestrial work with the snakes and salamanders in the Brodie lab at Utah State University to the big leap into marine biology with the Caldwell lab at Berkeley--a colossal change, but one which I am thoroughly enjoying!

 

   

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Publications:

Edmund D. Brodie III, Chris R. Feldman, Charles T. Hanifin, Jeffrey E. Motychak, Daniel G. Mulcahy, Becky L. Williams, Edmund D. Brodie, Jr.  2005.  Evolutionary response of predators to dangerous prey: parallel arms races between garter snakes and newts involving tetrodotoxin as the phenotypic interface of coevolution.  Journal of Chemical Ecology.  Journal of Chemical Ecology 31(2):343–355.

Mendelson III, J. R., Williams, B. L., Sheil, C. A. and D. G. Mulcahy.  2005.  Systematics of the Bufo coccifer complex (Anura:  Bufonidae) of Mesoamerica.  Scientific Papers of the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas.  38:1–27.

Williams, B. L., Brodie, E. D., Jr., and E. D. Brodie, III.  2004.  A resistant predator and its toxic prey:  persistence of newt toxin leads to poisonous (not venomous) snakes.  Journal of Chemical Ecology 30(10):1901–1919. 

Williams, B. L., Brodie, E. D., Jr., and E. D. Brodie, III. 2003.   Coevolution of deadly toxins and predator resistance:  Self-assessment of resistance by garter snakes leads to behavioral rejection of toxic newt prey.  Herpetologica.  59(2):155–163.

Williams, B. L., Brodie, E. D., Jr., and E. D. Brodie, III.  2002.  Comparisons between toxic effects of tetrodotoxin administered orally and by intraperitoneal injection to the garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis.  Journal of Herpetology. 36(1):112–115.

Mulcahy, D. G., Cummer, M. R., Mendelson III, J. R., Williams, B. L. and P. C. Ustach.  2002.  Status of two bufonid frogs and evaluation of their distributional records in the Northeastern Bonneville Basin with a new county record in Idaho.  Herpetological Review.  33(4):287–289.

Other contributions:

Setser, K., Mulcahy, D. G., and B. L. Williams. 2003.  Lampropeltis triangulum (Milk Snake) Habitat.  Herpetological Review.  34(2):150.

 

 

    

 

Updated 23 June 2007