The population genetics of adaptation
Event details
| Date | 10.01.2011 |
| Hour | 10:00 |
| Speaker | Dr Jeffrey D. JENSEN, Program Bioinformatics & Integrative Biology, University Massachusetts, Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Quantifying the relative roles of adaptive and non-adaptive processes in the evolution of natural populations is perhaps the most fundamental question in evolutionary biology, and has been studied for well over a century. However, this characterization remains remarkably elusive owing to difficulties associated with uncoupling genomic signatures of selection from patterns produced by demographic factors (e.g., population size change and structure). I will summarize recent theoretical and statistical advances on this topic, as well as highlight three recent applications of this research, each utilizing a different data class:
1. Divergence: understanding human evolution in the age of Neandertal genomics
2. Polymorphism: characterizing the evolution of adaptive coat color in wild mice
3. Experimental: inferring the distribution of fitness effects by considering all possible point mutations in yeast
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Practical information
- General public
- Free