Abstract:
Ever wonder what your life would be like if you'd made a different choice? Those "coin toss" moments happen all the time, not just for us, but for entire populations of living things! This can make it tricky for scientists to tell if something is changing a species on purpose (like natural selection) or just by chance (like a random mutation). That's where experimental evolution comes in. Imagine running the same experiment multiple times under identical conditions—like hitting rewind and replay on the evolutionary tape. In my talk, I'll dive into fascinating experiments that span more generations than the entirety of human history. But it's not just about the sheer number of generations; it's about how these experiments shed light on the intricate interplay between environment, genetics, sex, and mutations. Join me as we uncover the secrets behind what makes us who we are, and how our world evolves
About the Speaker:
Christian Schlötterer studied biology at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany. After a postdoc with B. Charlesworth at the University of Chicago, USA he re-located to Vienna. He is full Professor of Population Genetics at the Vetmeduni Vienna and is the founder of the Vienna Graduate School for Population Genetics, which he has headed for more than 10 years. He currently serves as head of the Institute of Population Genetics. His research covers many aspects of experimental population genetics and molecular evolution. About 10 years ago he started to work on experimental evolution with Drosophila populations, hence this project is of his core research interest and he is fully committed to the SFB.
