Dr. Katie Ferris
Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University

WHEN:  Oct. 16th, 2020 at Noon
WHERE: Seminar will be presented via Zoom

Zoom Meeting
https://ucdenver.zoom.us/j/91048440693

Meeting ID: 910 4844 0693

Natural selection on sympatric Monkeyflower species: variation over space and time

Divergent natural selection can contribute to reproductive isolation between sympatric species. However, the strength and direction of natural selection can vary in space and over time. How does this temporal and spatial variation in selection contribute to or erode species barriers? To address this question we have performed repeated reciprocal transplants over multiple years using advanced generation hybrids between two closely related sympatric Mimulus species: Mimulus guttatus and Mimulus laciniatus. In each year, we measured natural selection on quantitative traits contributing to adaptive divergence and reproductive isolation between species such as flowering time, mating system, and leaf morphology. We also examine the genetic basis of these adaptive and reproductively isolating traits and find that their divergence between species is due to few, large effect and pleiotropic loci. We compare how phenotypic selection varies between the species native habitats and between years and reflect on how this might influence the long term evolutionary trajectory of these species.

Everyone is welcome to join the seminar, please see the Zoom link above.