Darwin’s Evolution…and evolution at the IGC

Evolution is one of several research areas of the IGC, and over the last 10 years, the research groups below have made several new and, in some cases, surprising discoveries into the genetic mechanisms underlying evolution by natural selection:

• Variation: Development and Selection – concerned with identifying the genes which underly the adaptive evolution of butterfly wing patterns and their role in the developmental processes whereby the wing patterns are formed.
• Evolution and Development – look at the appendages of Drosophila (fly) eggshells as a model to understand how alternative and new physical features arise in evolution.
• Evolutionary Biology – follow evolution in real-time, using the bacterium E. coli as a model organism to test theoretical predictions about the evolution of mutation rates. Ultimately, the group aims to better understand the forces that shape variation in natural populations.
• Evolutionary Genetics – also follow evolution in real time, in populations of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) and C. elegans (worm). Their aim is to integrate the study of variation of phenotypes (observable features) with the study of variation of genotypes (genetic and DNA level).
• Population and Conservation Genetics – uses genetic data to address how habitat destruction and fragmentation affects population size and, subsequently, the gene pool of endangered species, such as orangutans in Northern Borneo and lemurs in North-West Madagascar.