BRS Thomas Lenormand: Evolution Lecture "Regulatory evolution, sex chromosomes and speciation"

host: grad students, please contact Linley Sherin

Title talk: Regulatory evolution, sex chromosomes and speciation

Abstract: Much of theoretical population genetics has been developed by deliberately ignoring molecular details, thereby enabling the derivation of general results applicable, in principle, to all circumstances. In this talk, however, I will try to demonstrate that overlooking a key mechanistic feature — the necessity of cis and trans regulators of gene expression — may have obscured our view of key evolutionary processes. To illustrate this, I will show how incorporating just a pinch of regulatory realism into well-known population genetic models provides a range of new and robust explanations for the evolution of sex chromosomes (e.g. why they degenerate and evolve recombination suppression), and the genetics of post-zygotic isolation (e.g. why we observe Haldane's rule or a disproportionate effect of X/Z chromosomes on F1 hybrid fitness). This opens up an exciting new avenue for testing these theories and challenging those that have been around for several decades.

Short biography: