Susan Johnston
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
Date:
Thursday, 13 September, 2018
Room:
Salle de Conférence Marc Ridet, INRA Castanet-Tolosan
Summary:
Meiotic recombination is often essential for proper chromosome
segregation, and it is also an important driver of genetic diversity.
The relative benefits and costs of recombination are likely to vary with
differences in strength of selection and population demography: if
recombination rate itself is heritable, then it has the potential to
evolve within contemporary populations. My research integrates
traditional quantitative genetic approaches with modern genomic
technologies to investigate the evolution of recombination rates in wild
populations in Soay sheep (Ovis aries) and Red deer (Cervus elaphus). I
will discuss (a) broad patterns in recombination rate, (b) the genetic
architecture of individual recombination rate variation, and (c) the
relationship between genetic variants underlying recombination rate and
individual reproductive success and survival. I will then discuss the
implications of these findings for understanding the evolutionary
importance of recombination rate variation.