Wednesday Nite at the Lab
press release: For the fall semester, WN@TL goes hybrid both with Zoom and with in-person (Room 1111) presentations. The zoom registration link is still go.wisc.edu/240r59. You can also watch a live web stream at on YouTube.
On August 10 Jesse Weber of the Department of Integrative Biology will speak on “How a Fish Lost (and Regained) Its Worm: Evolutionary Genetics of Host-parasite Interactions.”
Description: Marine threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are highly susceptible to Schistocephalus solidus tapeworms, but freshwater populations across the globe have evolved to resist the parasite. Interestingly, freshwater fish in different areas evolved resistance via different mechanisms, and parasites evolved to counter the resistance of their local hosts.
We can replicate the parasite's complex life cycle in the lab. This allows us to perform thousands of controlled exposures between different host and parasite populations. These experiments allow us to pursue pivotal questions in parasitism, including:
What genetic changes underlie host-parasite coevolution?
How often are new genes or strategies deployed, as opposed to recycling existing variation?
How does gene flow among many populations impact the rate and trajectory of (co)evolution?
Explore More: https://adaptationmatters.