Two Evolunch seminars again next week!
Evolunch seminar
How animals adjust and adapt to urban environments?
Urban environments present unique challenges and opportunities for wildlife, necessitating remarkable adaptations. In this seminar, I will present my research on how animals, particularly birds and earthworms, adjust and adapt to urban settings, focusing on the impact of metallic trace elements (MTEs) and the consequences of bird feeding. First, I will discuss the impact of MTE exposure on bird reproductive success and physiology, emphasizing the role of melanin as a potential detoxification mechanism. I will also present my findings on earthworm responses to MTEs, highlighting the importance of pollutant detection and habitat choice in coping with soil pollution in urban areas. In the second part, I will share my ongoing research on the evolutionary consequences of bird feeding, with preliminary results on beak shape variations in great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in response to feeder availability within the urban mosaic of Innsbruck. This seminar will explore these findings and their implications for understanding the adaptive strategies of urban wildlife.
My research aims to uncover the impact of human activities on animal evolution. With a decade of experience in urban ecology, I have demonstrated how metal pollution affects birds and influences the evolution of melanin-based plumage. For the past three years, I have been conducting my research at the University of Innsbruck, focusing on how food availability for birds varies within urban mosaics and how this variation influences bird ecology and evolution.
Large duplications are a highly dynamic class of mutation; they arise, and are subsequently lost, at rates far exceeding those typically observed for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The transient nature of large duplications means that their contribution to evolution is often overlooked. In this talk, I will discuss my group’s work on the dynamics of adaptive, but unstable, large duplications in evolving populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25.
We serially transfer eight replicate populations, each founded by a slow-growing P. fluorescens SBW25 mutant lacking one or more tRNA genes, for 100 days (~750 generations). We use a combination of isolate and population whole genome re-sequencing to show that adaptation occurs via large, tandem duplications within the SBW25 chromosome. Initially, the duplications are up to ~1 Mb in size, encompassing ~15% of the genome and many hundreds of genes. Over the experiment, progressively smaller (and hence fitter and more stable) duplications arise and sweep through the evolving populations. In one replicate population, a duplication fragment of just 236 bp – containing only the compensatory tRNA gene – reaches high frequency by the end of the experiment. In addition, our results show that duplication fragment instability plays a pivotal role in the observed evolutionary process; duplication loss typically leaves no trace of the duplication fragment, regenerating the founding genotype and repeatedly providing a clean slate for the emergence of new mutations. Over time, lower-rate but higher-effect (and more stable) mutations ultimately arise and prevail in the evolving populations.
Our experiments demonstrate that large duplications can rapidly generate an unexpected degree of diversity in bacterial genome content, with the potential to influence evolutionary outcomes.
Looking forward to seeing your there !
The Evolunch team
Evolunch seminar
Dear Evolunchers,
This is a reminder about our two Evolunch seminars this week:
Tomorrow seminar (usual seminar day & time):
Sent: Friday, June 7, 2024 10:30 AM
To: group...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-z...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-...@lists.ist.ac.at; group-r...@lists.ist.ac.at; group...@lists.ist.ac.at; evolv...@googlegroups.com; evol...@lists.ist.ac.at
Cc: Marion.C...@uibk.ac.at; gal...@evolbio.mpg.de
Subject: Two Evolunch seminars again next week!
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