Abstract. Many
natural populations are geographically structured and selection varies
spatially due to environmental heterogeneity. Population subdivision is known
to have numerous important evolutionary consequences. For instance, it has the
capacity to maintain genetic variation, it may lead to ecological
specialization and, eventually, to speciation. The effects of geographic
structure, dispersal, and spatially varying selection are reasonably well
understood only if a single locus is under selection. Most ecologically and
evolutionary important traits, however, are quantitative and are determined by
many gene loci.
This project is devoted to the analysis of
population-genetic models that describe evolution under the combined action of
migration, recombination, and selection on multilocus genotypes. Such models
are usually formulated in terms of systems of (nonlinear) difference or
differential equations. There are two interrelated goals that shall be
achieved. The first is the identification of conditions under which multilocus
polymorphism can be maintained by a balance between migration and selection,
especially when this is impossible in a panmictic population. The second is the
identification of conditions that generate or enhance local adaptation and
genetic diversification at multiple loci. Both goals require the determination
of the pattern and amount of genetic variation at evolutionary equilibrium.
This shall be achieved by concentrating research on three ecologically
motivated scenarios: a spatially heterogeneous environment but no population
structure (the Levene model), antagonistic directional
selection in a population distributed over two demes connected by migration,
and stabilizing selection on a quantitative trait, where the optimum may vary
among demes.
Methodologically,
this shall be achieved by applying techniques from the theory of dynamical
systems to explore the equilibrium, stability, and bifurcation structure of the
underlying models. Comprehensive computational studies will complement the
analytical work.
Persons
funded by this project:
·
Stephan Peischl: PhD student
from 01.01.2009 – 30.04.2010, Postdoc
from 01.05.2010 – 30.09.2010
·
Ada Akerman: research
stipend from 01.01.2009 – 31.01.2009, PhD student from 01.02.2010 – 31.12.2012
·
Sebastian Novak: PhD student from 01.10.2010 –
31.12.2010
·
Peter Kepplinger: research
stipend from 01.12.2010 – 30.6.2011
·
Simon Aeschbacher: Postdoc
from 01.10.2011-15.12.2012
Publications
1. Peer reviewed
·
Aeschbacher S, Beaumont MA, Futschik A (2013) Approximate
Bayesian computation for modular inference problems with many parameters: the
example of migration rates. Molecular Ecology 22, 987–1002, doi:
10.1111/mec.12165
·
Akerman
A, Bürger R (2013) The
consequences of gene flow for local adaptation and differentiation: a two-locus
two-deme model. J. Math. Biol. (online), doi:
10.1007/s00285-013-0660-z
· Bank C, Bürger R, Hermisson J (2012) The limits to parapatric speciation: Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities in a continent-island model. Genetics 191, 845–863, pdf
·
Bürger R (2010) Evolution and polymorphism in the multilocus Levene model with no
or weak epistasis. Theoret. Popul. Biol. 78, 123-138,
pdf
·
Bürger R (2011) Some
mathematical models in evolutionary genetics. In: The Mathematics of Darwin’s Legacy, pp. 67-89, FACC Chalub and JF Rodrigues (eds), Birkhäuser, Basel, pdf
·
Bürger R, Akerman A (2011) The
effects of linkage and gene flow on local adaptation: A two-locus
continent-island model. Theoret.
Popul. Biol.
80, 272-288, pdf
·
Jones AG, Bürger R, Arnold SJ, Hohenlohe PA, Uyeda JC (2012) The effects of
stochastic and episodic movement of the optimum on the evolution of the
G-matrix and the response of the trait mean to selection. J. Evol. Biol. 25, 2210–2231, pdf
·
Novak S (2011) The number of equilibria in the diallelic Levene model with multiple demes. Theoret. Popul. Biol. 79, 97-101, doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2010.12.002
·
Peischl S (2010) Dominance and the maintenance of polymorphism in multiallelic migration-selection models with two demes. Theor. Popul. Biol.78, 12-25, doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2010.03.006
·
Schneider K, Peischl S
(2011) Evolution of assortative mating in a
population expressing dominance. PLoS ONE 6(4): e16821, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016821
· Akerman A, Bürger R (2013): The consequences of gene flow for local
adaptation and differentiation: a two-locus two-deme model. J. Math. Biol., pdf, doi: 10.1007/s00285-013-0660-z
· Urban MC, Bürger R, Bolnick DI (2013): Asymmetric selection and the
evolution of extraordinary defences. Nature
Communications 4:2085, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3085
2. Preprints and
manuscripts in preparation
·
Aeschbacher
S, Bürger R (2013): Invasion properties of beneficial mutations in a two-locus
continent-island model. To be submitted
3. Diploma and PhD
thesis
·
Akerman A (2010) A two-locus two-allele migration-selection model. Diploma
thesis, University of Vienna, pdf
·
Peischl S (2010) Mathematical models of frequency-dependent selection with
dominance. PhD
thesis, University of Vienna, pdf