Dear Evolunchers,
This is a reminder about our next Evolunch seminar tomorrow:
Hilde Schneemann
ISTA
A fitness landscape perspective on genetic interactions and their role in hybrid fitness
Wednesday, 5th June, 2024
11:00 CET
Mondi 2 a&b, ISTA
Hybrid Meeting (zoom link here)
Abstract:
When genetically differentiated populations come into contact and interbreed, their hybrid offspring will contain a mosaic of the genetic variants characterising the parental lineages, re-arranged into novel combinations. The fitness of these hybrids is central to the evolution of reproductive isolation, but also plays an important role in crop and animal breeding. Remarkably, there are several widespread patterns of hybrid fitness that are observed consistently across widely divergent taxa. These patterns suggest that we can learn something fundamental about general properties of genetic systems by studying data from hybrids. Here I will explore what insights can be gained from a simple fitness landscape model about (i) the signatures of parental divergence on epistatic interactions, and (ii) the effects of ploidy on hybrid fitness.
Biography:
Hilde is a postdoc in the Barton group interested in genetic interactions, hybridization and speciation. During her PhD at the University of Cambridge she worked with John Welch on fitness landscape models to study patterns of hybrid fitness. Previously, she did the MEME masters in evolutionary biology during which she worked with Thomas Lenormand in Montpellier on models of enhancer runaway, and with Nicolas Galtier on adaptive rates of molecular evolution.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
The Evolunch team
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