Evolutionary Genetics

The main objective of the Evolutionary Genetics group is to study the genetics of adaptation using experimental evolution, by testing current evolutionary theory. Adaptation and the study of natural selection and its consequences are central to any understanding of biology because they provide a comprehensive framework for the origin, divergence and maintenance of diversity. We use experimental evolution to integrate the study of variation at the phenotype level with the study of variation at the genotype level. Since setting up at the IGC, we have established experimental evolution populations of Caenorhabditis elegans, whose ecology is described by discrete non-overlapping generations at constant 104 census sizes, under benign resource conditions. These populations were manipulated to initially have levels of outcrossing and genetic diversity. Phenotyping is carried out at the level of fitness-proxies, life-history and RNA expression. Genome-wide linkage disequilibrium association mapping is carried out to determine the number and relative effects of the loci underlying adaptation. Numerical simulations are used to obtain the expected distributions of relevant statistics under the conditions of experimental evolution.