Research Projects

The lab is primarily interested in the evolution of sexually selected and life-history traits. We use laboratory adapted populations of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) as model system to investigate various questions.

There are a number of lines of investigation currently being pursued by the group. In a long-term investigation, we are investigating how sexually selected traits – such as male fertility and competitive ability, sexually antagonistic male and female traits, etc. evolve in relation to the evolution of aging and lifespan. To this effect, a set of ten experimental populations, which were experimentally evolved in the lab for over 1200 generations, are being investigated. The group is investigating nutrient dependent adaptation by using fruit flies as a model system. We are studying causes, constraints, and consequences of adaptation to nutritional deprivation taking an experimental evolution approach. In another project, we are investigating the potential of non-genetically inherited intergenerational parental effects on offspring traits and fitness components. Overall, all these investigations aim at understanding the evolutionary correlations between life history and sexual traits. Since most natural populations have spatial structures, eco-evolutionary dynamics emerging as a consequence of such structuring has emerged as an important problem in the field. The group is currently investigating the effect of spatial structure and habitat fragmentation on sexually selected traits - at both evolutionary as well as ecological timescales. Most of these investigations are based on solid theoretical foundations and are more inclined towards tests of principles that can be widely applied. 

Recently, the group has started natural Ecology, including Behavioural Ecology of Parthenium beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata, a biocontrol species introduced to control the invasive weed species Parthenium hysterophorus. These beetles show unique mating behaviour, which is an interesting problem on its own. Moreover, the group is also investigating the cause behind the inefficacy of the beetles as a biocontrol.

More details can be found here.

Key Publications

1.  Pal, R. S., Bhowmick, A., and Nandy, B.* (2025) Sexual conflict over mating duration and frequency in Zygogramma bicolorata. BioRxive. (Submitted for peer review)

2. Halder, S., Bhore, U., and Nandy, B.* (2025) Female-biased spontaneous dispersal in Drosophila melanogaster and sex-specific effect of nutrition and density therein. Oikos. 2025 (1): e10920.

3. Verma, T., Das, S., Dhodi-Lobo, S., Mishra, A., Bhattacharyya, S., and Nandy, B.* (2025). Evolution of mate harm resistance in females from Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for faster development and early reproduction. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 38: 111-121. BiorXive. 

4. Pal, R. S., Bhowmick, A., Naik, K., and Nandy, B.* (2024). Adaptive Significance of Long Mating With Repeated Intromissions in Zygogramma bicolorata. Ethology. BiorXive. 

5. Halder, S., Kar, S., Sethi, S., Tewari, S., Verma, T., and Nandy, B. (2024). Spatial structure imposes sex-specific costs but does not reduce interlocus sexual conflict. Biological Journal of Linnean Society BioRxive. 

6. Dasgupta, P., Koner, A., Pal, R. S., Pradhan, P. N., Roychowdhury, K., and Nandy, B. (2024) Adaptation to yeast restriction through the evolution of resource acquisition, macronutrient reserve, and ovarian function. BioRxive. (under review)

7. Verma, T., Dasgupta, P., Mohapatra, A., Senapati, H.K., Muni, R.K., & Nandy, B.* 2022. Evolution of reduced mate-harming tendency of males in Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for faster life history. Accepted. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology BioRxiv. Click here for a read-only version. 

8. Dasgupta, P., Halder, S., Dari, D., Nabeel, P., Vajja, S. S., & Nandy, B.* 2022. Evolution of increased early-life fecundity but faster reproductive senescence in Drosophila melanogaster females through adaptation to chronic live-yeast deprivation. Accepted. Evolution BioRxiv. 

9. Mittal, A., Sarangi, M., Nandy, B., Pandey, N. and Joshi, A. 2022. Shorter effective lifespan in laboratory populations of D. melanogaster might reduce sexual selection.  Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. 76: 52. 

10.  Zeeshan, S.A., Gupta, V., Arun, M.G., Dhiman, A., Nandy, B. and Prasad, N. G. 2020. Absence of reproduction-immunity trade-off in male Drosophila melanogaster evolving under differential sexual selection. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 20: 13. 

11.  Verma, T. and Nandy, B. 2019.  Does aggression towards rivals contribute to mate guarding in Drosophila melanogaster?  (Pre-print version available at EcoEvoRxiv)

12.   Dasgupta, P., Sarkar, S., Das, A. A., Verma, T. and Nandy, B*. 2019. Intergenerational paternal effect of adult density in Drosophila melanogaster. Ecology and Evolution. 00:1–11.

13.   Singh, S., Nandy, B.* and Tapadia, M. G.* 2018. Complex effects of Ayurvedic formulation – Guduchi and Madhuyashti, on different components of life-history may elude the elixir effect. J. Genet. 97: 1253–1261.

14.  Dasgupta, P., Halder, S. and B. Nandy*. 2016. Paternal social experience affects male reproductive behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster. J. Genet. 95: 725-727.

15. Nandy, B.*, Dasgupta, P., Halder, S. and Verma, T. 2016. Plasticity in aggression and the correlated changes in the cost of reproduction in male Drosophila melanogaster. Anim. Behav. 114: 3-9.

16. Nandy, B., V. Gupta, N. Udaykumar, M. Samant, S. Sen and N. G. Prasad. 2013c. Experimental evolution of female traits under different levels of interlocus sexual conflict. Evolution. 68:412-25. 

17.  Nandy, B., V. Gupta, N. Udaykumar, M. Samant, S. Sen, S. Z. Ali and N. G. Prasad. 2013b. Evolution of mate-harm, longevity and behaviour in male fruit flies subjected to different levels of interlocus conflict. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13: 212. (Open access)

18.  Nandy, B., P. Chakraborty, V. Gupta, S. Z. Ali and N. G. Prasad. 2013a. Sperm competitive ability evolves in response to altered operational sex ratio. Evolution 67: 2133-2141. 

19. Nandy, B., A. Joshi, S. Z. Ali, S. Sen, N. G. Prasad. 2012. Degree of adaptive male mate choice is positively correlated with female quality variance, Sci. Rep. 2, 447. (Open access)

20. Nandy, B. and N. G. Prasad. 2011. Reproductive behaviour and fitness components in male Drosophila are non-linearly affected by the number of male co-inhabitants early in adult life. J. Insect Sci. 11, 67. (Open access)