On September 18, 2007, PED Seminar Series Presents
Inferences of biological function and evolutionary process from DNA sequence diversity
I am an experimental population geneticist. My group at Cornell focuses on the analysis of DNA sequence variation within and between species (primarily in the fruit fly, Drosophila). We mix experimental data generation and analysis with computational and statistical method development. Our goals are to understand the evolutionary forces shaping sequence variation within and between species, and in using that variation to infer biological function. In this 30 minute, informal "introduction" talk, I'll give an overview of how to think about genes and their genealogies within and between species. I will provide several examples of evolutionary and biological function inference from our own work related to finding the "footprints" of recent adaptive change in the Drosophila genome and in attempting to understand the nature of molecular interactions ("cooperation" and "antagonism") that appear to drive the rapid evolution of reproductive genes and those that control the germline stem cell/gamete differentiation pathway in flies. Plenty of room for new insights on ways to approach thinking about (modeling and analyzing) molecular colevolution and adaptation.upcoming PED seminars