WEES – Tobias Uller

Workshop – Why would evolutionary biologists care about development, physiology, and behaviour?

Venue: C4014
Why would anyone who tries to understand evolution be interested in development, physiology or behaviour? One reason is that these ‘proximate’ mechanisms are what turns more or less random genetic changes into phenotypic variation. Evolution can only go where development leads.

In this workshop, we will discuss the relationship between proximate mechanisms and adaptive evolution. We will pay particular attention to the kind of evolutionary questions that motivate the study of phenotypic variability, and how such studies can be carried out using field, experimental, or comparative analysis.

 

As preparation for the workshop please read the following:

Uller, T., et al., 2018. Developmental bias and evolution: a regulatory network perspective. Genetics 209: 949-966.

 

The workshop for those interested is organized from 13:30 to 15:00 in room C3020, Orion building. Registration is required (space limited to 15), email Melanie Lindner (m.lindner@nioo.knaw.nl). The workshop gives attendees the possibility to meet the speaker of the seminar and have a discussion based on recent publications. The workshops are a good possibility to get acquainted with hot topics in science and to learn how to discuss these topics with leading scientists in the field. Furthermore, BSc and MSc students can get 1 ECTS for attending 2 workshops.

 

Seminar – Plasticity and evolution – an intimate relationship 

Venue: C1040

Tobias UllerProfessor, Department of Biology, Lund University (Sweden)
Organisms are both responsive to their environments and locally adapted, yet the role plasticity plays in adaptation remains a matter of debate. In this talk, I will explain why plasticity commonly will appear to take the lead in adaptive evolution. I will illustrate how predictions from this theory can be put to the test using experimental and comparative studies. Such studies demonstrate that our ability to explain and predict evolutionary patterns – such as diversification, adaptation, and convergence – can benefit from an understanding of development.

Thursday, November 21, 2019
Workshop: 13:30 Seminar: 16:00
WUR – Orion
Bronland 1, Wageningen