Genomic Perspective on Eco-Evo-Devo

Research Seminar
Title: Genomic Perspective on Eco-Evo-Devo
Speaker: Guojie Zhang, Ph.D.
Professor，
Centre for Social Evolution, 
Section for Ecology and Evolution, 
Department of Biology, 
University of Copenhagen
Time: 13:00-14:30, Nov. 10, 2017
Location: Youcai Deng Hall，School of Life Sciences（生科院邓祐才报告厅）
Abstract：
In the mid 20th century the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (MES) reconciled Darwinian natural selection with Mendelian genetics and established the foundations for all modern biology. Since then, our knowledge of (epi)genetic mechanisms and developmental pathways has exploded going far beyond the classic understanding within the MES. Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) emerged in the 1980s to integrate development biology with evolutionary insights, which has revolutionized our understanding of organismal development while at the same time addressing how the ecological environment shapes adaptive phenotypic plasticity. This has led to the emergence of even higher interdisciplinarity – a new field that is referred to as ecological evolutionary developmental biology (eco-evo-devo). This integration has further been promoted by genome information, which does not only offer all genetic codes needed to build an organism, but also record the evolutionary history of species and its interaction with environment. My group performs comparative genomic studies for a broad spectrum of animal taxa (focusing on birds and ants), to reveal the macro-evolutionary patterns and micro-evolutionary mechanisms underlying the speciation, adaptation, symbiosis, and organism-environment interaction. In this talk, I will present some programs in my group and demonstrate how comparative genomics could interface with knowledge on eco-evo-devo to achieve the understanding of the general relationships between genes, development, environment and natural selection.  
Welcome！