[The Svedberg seminar] – Copy-Number Changes During Experimental Evolution in Caenorhabditis elegans: Rate, Fitness Effects and Context-Dependence
April 24 @ 15:15 – 16:15 CEST
VAISHALI KATJU , Professor
Program in Evolutionary Biology
Department of Ecology & Genetics
Uppsala University
Bio
Prof. Katju is an evolutionary geneticist whose research combines the power of experimental evolution with the model nematode C. elegans and high-throughput genomics to address fundamental questions in biology and evolution regards the rates, fitness effects and evolutionary dynamics of spontaneous mutations. Her current and future research program is focused on investigating (i) the consequences of spontaneous mutation under varying intensity of selection, (ii)mitochondrial evolution and the genetic architecture of mitonuclear interactions and (iii) the transcriptional and functional consequences of copy-number changes during adaptation.
D. Katju earned her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Genetics from Indiana University-Bloomington, USA in 2004 under the supervision of Dr. Michael Lynch. Following the completion of a National Science Foundation funded Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics, she served as a faculty member (Assistant and Associate Professor) in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico from 2007-2015. From 2015-2022, she was a faculty member (Associate and full Professor) in the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. In 2022, she joined the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University as a Professor.
Copy-Number Changes During Experimental Evolution in Caenorhabditis elegans: Rate, Fitness Effects and Context-Dependence
The genomic era has revealed that gene copy-number differences due to gene duplications and deletions are rampant in natural populations. Yet, base substitutions as a mutational class have dominated the field of evolutionary biology as the main contributor to genetic variation leading to evolution. Herein, I briefly explore the history of the field, from the neo-Darwinian synthesis through Ohno’s canonical model for the evolution of gene duplicates and its failure to encapsulate the full complexity of the duplication process. Lastly, I present results from three long-term experimental evolution experiments in Caenorhabditis elegans that investigate fundamental properties of copy-number variants (CNVs), including (i) direct estimates of their rates of origin, (ii) evidence that CNVs constitute a common mechanism of adaptive genetic change during compensatory evolution, and (iii) evidence that duplications and deletions of highly transcribed genes are detrimental to fitness and a role for selection against an increase in transcript abundance.
Host: Leif Andersson leif.andersson@imbim.uu.se UU
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