Can Evolution Be Understood Quantitatively? by Daniel Fisher

Explore the quantitative understanding of evolution in this comprehensive lecture by Daniel Fisher at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences. Delve into the basic laws of evolution, DNA sequencing technology, and recent laboratory experiments that have enabled direct observations of evolutionary processes. Examine the challenges in predicting the rate of evolution, the dynamics of large populations, and the role of rare events. Investigate simplified models like the fitness staircase and snowscape to understand complex biological systems. Consider the evolutionary-ecological dynamics of bacterial populations and the puzzling prevalence of sexual reproduction. Learn about cutting-edge research in microbial evolutionary dynamics and efforts to make evolutionary biology more quantitative, akin to condensed matter physics. Engage with thought-provoking questions and gain insights into the future prospects of evolutionary biology research.

DATE :06 March 2018, 16:00 to
Introduction
Can evolution be understood quantitatively?
Basic Laws of Evolution
Source of New Heritable Variation
Evidence for Evolution
Phylogeny
DNA Sequencing
Phylogeny from DNA Sequences
Basic Laws =Anything Can Evolve. But How Fast?
Who Cares About Quantitative Understanding?
Dynamics: What Determines Rate of Evolution?
Evolution & Population Size
Questions and puzzles
Difficulties
Learn to Love Bacteria & other microbes
Bacteria and Colossal Numbers
Large Populations and Rare Events
Can One Ever Predict Rate of Real Evolution?
Simplest "Toy" Landscape: Fitness Staircase
Ascending fitness staircase
Large populations: =many mutations each generation
Quantitative Experiment: Speed of Asexual Evolution
Connection to nature?
Simple evolution experiment:
Evolutionary-Ecological Dynamics
Comprehensive Bacterial & Ecological Evolution
Evolutionary-Ecological Dynamics Population of Organisms
Simplifying complex biology?
Toy models: "high-dimensional" Key caricature: approximate complexities by randomness
Fitness "snowscape" model
Sexual Evolution: Why Is Sex So Popular? Costs of sex:
Bacterial have only occasional sex Lateral gene transfer rate R per
Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics: Future Prospects Natural:
Make Evolutionary Biology Like Condensed Matter Physics - Experimental:
Laboratory evolution: Select for aggregation of yeast cells
Evolve: multicellular yeast reproduce by fragmentation
Q&A