Research Arthur Zwaenepoel

Abstract

Determining the genetic basis of speciation is a key goal of evolutionary biology, and uncovering the genetic loci responsible for reproductive isolation between incipient species is central to that goal. Large-scale population genomic data sets for pairs of diverging lineages potentially provide a wealth of information on the genetic architecture underlying reproductive isolation (i.e. the number of loci involved, their fitness effects and their genomic organization). However, efficiently extracting this information remains a key challenge in contemporary evolutionary genetics. Furthermore, we currently lack an understanding of how much information on the genetic basis of speciation one could in principle obtain from such data. In this research project, I propose to develop new model-based statistical inference methods to determine the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation from population genomic data, and to use these methods to characterize the limits to such inference.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Svardal Hannes
• Fellow: Zwaenepoel Arthur

Research team(s)

• Evolutionary ecology group (EVECO)

Project type(s)

• Research Project