BRS Parul Johri: Jointly modeling the effects of evolutionary processes on genomic variation

Shareable link: https://ubc.zoom.us/rec/share/ffMY2P1YEVyBIYii5h6UjYvetOmVWTA6ES1t6s5GgVla977lO7xMVkQ8TqlQsGVZ.Mab-g1oGWsZ961Vg

Passcode: aN+2.iHF 

host: Tom Booker

Title talk: Jointly modeling the effects of evolutionary processes on genomic variation

Abstract: Understanding what shapes patterns of genetic diversity in natural populations is an inherently challenging problem. Despite the challenges, studying variation in DNA sequences within individuals in a population has the power to yield insights into selective pressures operating in the natural environment of a species, uncover historical events like the migration of humans and their pathogens across the world, and identify the genetic basis of traits like human diseases. One major challenge facing population-genomic inference is that most current state-of-the-art approaches have been developed to study human-like genomes, which are sparsely populated with functionally important elements, and thus, the effects of selection on linked sites can be ignored. These assumptions, however, do not apply to compact (gene-dense) genomes where direct and indirect effects of selection are pervasive. We are geared towards understanding how the joint effects of selection with other evolutionary processes shape patterns of variation across the genome. We also aim to generate a better estimate of the genome-wide fitness effects of new mutations. As many pathogenic species tend to have highly compact genomes, experience strong bouts of selection as well as drastic repeated bottlenecks, our methods may be useful in uncovering their population and selective history.

Short biography: Parul is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the Department of Biology and the Department of Genetics, with an affiliation in the Integrative Program for Biological and Genome Sciences. Before that, she was a postdoc at Arizona State University, advised by Jeffrey D. Jensen, and frequently collaborated with Brian Charlesworth from the University of Edinburgh. She earned her PhD in the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior program at Indiana University, Bloomington, under the supervision of Michael Lynch. Prior to that, she obtained a Master's in Biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Delhi, India.