Nadia Ayoub and Natalia Toporikova Published in PLOS One The W&L professors investigated the circadian rhythm of spiders.

By Lily Caldwell
October 2, 2026

Washington and Lee University professors Nadia Ayoub and Natalia Toporikova recently co-authored a journal article published in PLOS One, a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific mega-journal published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS).

The article, titled “Phase response curve and RNA-sequencing demonstrate spiders’ sensitivity to light and pinpoint candidate light-responsive genes,” investigates the mechanisms behind the circadian rhythm of spiders. Ayoub, the John T. Herwick, M.D. Professor of Biology and Toporikova, professor of biology, teamed with student researchers and collaborators to subject spiders to light pulses during typical “lights out” periods to determine when they are most sensitive to light and to discover their level of light response. The team used this information to examine the effects of light on gene expression, finding that many genes involved in immune response, growth and development were downregulated as a short-term response to light.

The research behind the article was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation that was awarded in 2023 to fund a three-year collaborative study between researchers from W&L, Pennsylvania State University and East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Ayoub and Toporikova served as principal investigators for the study alongside Thomas C. Jones and Darrell Moore of ETSU.

Ayoub joined W&L’s faculty in 2009, following a post-doctoral fellowship through the National Institutes of Health at the University of California, Riverside. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and her doctorate from the University of Tennessee.

Toporikova earned her doctorate at Florida State University and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and the Georgia Institute of Technology prior to coming to W&L in 2012.

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