This course aims to explore the quantitative understanding of evolution, focusing on the dynamical processes that drive it. The learning outcomes include grasping the basic laws of evolution, understanding the source of new heritable variation, and exploring the evidence for evolution. Participants will learn about DNA sequencing, phylogeny, population dynamics, and the challenges in predicting the rate of evolution. The course employs a lecture-based teaching method and is intended for individuals interested in evolutionary biology, physics, and quantitative analysis of biological processes.
Can Evolution Be Understood Quantitatively? by Daniel Fisher
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences via YouTube
Overview
Syllabus
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
Taught by
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
