#666 Luana Maroja: Gene Exchange, Adaptation, Speciation, and Phylogeography
RECORDED ON MAY 25th 2022.
Dr. Luana Maroja is Professor of Biology at Williams College. She is interested in the evolution of barriers to gene exchange, speciation, population genetics and phylogeography. Her study systems are crickets (Gryllus), artic plants and butterflies (heliconius).
In this episode, we talk about gene exchange, adaptation, speciation, and phylogeography. We start with gene exchange, and talk about how it occurs, gene transfers between species, and barriers to gene exchange. We talk about modular expression of genes. We discuss adaptations, how we can understand their evolution, and how to identify genes associated with them. We talk about speciation, and how we know it is occurring. We also talk about phylogeography, landscape genetics, and what leads to more diversity of species.
Time Links:
Intro
Gene exchange, how it occurs, and its barriers
Modular expression of genes
Understanding how adaptations evolve
Identifying genes associated with particular adaptations
Speciation, and how we know when it is occurring
Phylogeography
What leads to species diversity
Landscape genetics
Follow Dr. Maroja’s work!
Follow Dr. Maroja’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/37xYC1x
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3MFd0XM