Mohannad Dardiry
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biology
Mohannad Dardiry
Mohannad Dardiry
About
Dardiry is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biology. He completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biology.
Current research
Dardiry is currently working on understanding phenotypic plasticity and its role in evolution. He attempts to find the molecular machinery behind the plastic response of the mouth-form dimorphism in the nematode P. pacificus as well as the adaptive value for such response. Therefore, answering both the questions of how and why, as Ernst Mayr referred to as the proximate and ultimate causes in evolutionary biology.
Future research vision
Integrating plasticity in evolutionary theory is an ongoing process. It requires a significant amount of studies to prove the genetic basis of plasticity and its adaptive role. With his current and future studies, Dardiry hopes to improve our understanding of how plasticity affects phenotypic diversity and evolution. Moreover, he aims to explore plasticity, robustness, noise, and modularity as the main components of biological systems, which assist in enhancing our perception of genetic networks in health and disease.
Key publications

Dardiry, M et al. Experimental and theoretical support for costs of plasticity and phenotype in a nematode cannibalistic trait. bioRxiv, 2022.

Dardiry, M et al. Sex or cannibalism: Polyphenism and kin recognition control social action strategies in nematodes. Science Advances, 2021.

Sieriebriennikov, B et al. A developmental switch generating phenotypic plasticity is part of a conserved multi-gene locus. Cell Reports, 2018.

Sommer, RJ et al. The genetics of phenotypic plasticity in nematode feeding structures. Open Biology, 2017.

Werner, MS et al. Environmental influence on Pristionchus pacificus mouth form through different culture methods. Scientific Reports, 2017.

Key awards

Poster Award winner, Genetics Society of America (GSA).

Gwinner Award, 15th annual meeting of the Ethological Society.

First place (talk), Max Planck Institute for Biology 2018 PhD symposium.

First place (Poster), Max Planck Institute for Biology 2017 PhD symposium.

Master's scholarship, Erasmus Mundus.

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