Joshua Plotkin

University of Pennsylvania, USA

On the role of epistasis in molecular evolution

[When and where]

The phenotypic effect of an allele at one genetic site may depend on alleles at other sites, a phenomenon known as epistasis. Epistasis can profoundly influence the process of evolution in populations and shape the patterns of divergence across species. I will discuss the role of epistasis in the evolution of proteins under either directional or purifying selection; and also in the evolution of micro-organisms in laboratory conditions. I will highlight examples where the inference of epistasis is possible and has been validated by subsequent experiments. I will also discuss theoretical limitations on our ability to infer epistasis from several types of commonly reported measurements of evolving populations.

Keynote

Updated July 5, 2015, by Minus