Department Fish Ecology and Evolution

Genomics of rapid adaptation

In this project we follow the rapid evolution of resistance and counter adaptation in an experimental system (Chlorella algae and virus) at the genomic level. We aim to identify beneficial mutations in the genome. This interest is fuelled by the question regarding the genetic basis of adaptive traits and the need to understand the temporal dynamics of adaptive evolution, i.e., how frequent adaptive changes are and what influences the rate of change. By altering the experimental settings we will get at the question on how the dynamics of adaptive change vary with changing demographic setting.

Selected Publications

Retel, C.; Kowallik, V.; Becks, L.; Feulner, P. G. D. (2022) Strong selection and high mutation supply characterize experimental Chlorovirus evolution, Virus Evolution, 8(1), veac003 (14 pp.), doi:10.1093/ve/veac003, Institutional Repository
Retel, C.; Kowallik, V.; Huang, W.; Werner, B.; Künzel, S.; Becks, L.; Feulner, P. G. D. (2019) The feedback between selection and demography shapes genomic diversity during coevolution, Science Advances, 5(10), eaax0530 (9 pp.), doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax0530, Institutional Repository
Frickel, J.; Feulner, P. G. D.; Karakoc, E.; Becks, L. (2018) Population size changes and selection drive patterns of parallel evolution in a host–virus system, Nature Communications, 9(1), 1760 (10 pp.), doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03990-7, Institutional Repository

Collaboration

Funding

This project is integrated into the Priority Programm 1819 of the German Science Foundation