Rees Kassen: From so simple a beginning - Adaptation and diversification in microbial populations
- Date: May 3, 2019
- Time: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Rees Kassen from the Department for Biology at University of Ottawa, Canada
- For more information on the speaker please see: https://research.uottawa.ca/people/kassen-rees
- Location: MPI Plön
- Room: Lecture hall
- Host: Paul Rainey
Abstract:
Why
and how life became so diverse has been the central problem
– one might more accurately say obsession – in biology. It
is also the problem that motivates my research. My work
combines experimental evolution with microbes, which allows
us to test evolutionary theories on adaptation and
diversification, with high-throughput whole-genome
sequencing to uncover the genes responsible. I will discuss
recent work on the emergence and fate of genetic diversity
in laboratory populations of the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, evolving
under different antibiotic dosing resistance regimes and in
nutrient conditions resembling the cystic fibrosis lung. I
will also discuss more fundamental work on the genetics of
adaptation, specifically the potential for synonymous
mutations – those that do not change the amino acid – to
contribute to adaptation.