[Seminars] PSB event reminder

[contact at psb.vib-ugent.be]

Calendar Name: seminars
Scheduled for: Friday, September 6 2013, 10:00 - 11:30
Event text:    Prof J. Chris Pires
	       
	       University of Missouri
	       
	       Columbia
	       Missouri
	       USA
Details:       “Whole genome duplications and the origin of novelty”
	       
	       ABSTRACT
	       Ancient whole genome duplications (WGDs) are ubiquitous
	       throughout the evolutionary history of higher eukaryotic
	       lineages. These events have been hypothesized to be the
	       basisfor major evolutionary transitions, including the
	       origin of novel traits in large species radiations
	       across plants, fungi, protozoa, and animals. Repeated
	       rounds of WGDs, or polyploid events, have been best
	       documented among the flowering plants, and tend to be
	       phylogenetically near the origin of speciose clades.
	       However, the mechanism driving diversification remains
	       poorly understood. We analyzed the impact of the two
	       most recent WGDs in Arabidopsis on diversification rates
	       and the origin of novel phenotypes. Phylogenetic
	       analyses of these two WGDs show thatboth events occurred
	       following mass extinction events. The origin of two
	       novel classes of chemical defenses, indole and met-
	       derived glucosinolates (i.e. mustard oils), are
	       associated with duplicated regulatory and biosynthetic
	       pathways that arose via WGDs. Our analyses suggest that
	       the origin of these novel defense compounds spurred
	       anevolutionary arms-race with insect herbivores,
	       resulting in massive co-radiations of both the host
	       plant and predatory insects.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://maillist.psb.ugent.be/mailman/private/seminars/attachments/20130904/0f6b531d/attachment.html>