Speaker: Manyuan Long, Ph.D., Edna K Papazian Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago

Time: 15:00~16:30 p.m., July 4, 2024, GMT+8

Venue: Youcai Deng Lecture Hall, School of Life Sciences, PKU 

Abstract: 

The biology of the 20th century was all categorized to study one single problem: What is a gene? A natural extension of this problem can be defined as such: how is a gene created? It was not until the early 1990s, however, that this new scientific problem became empirically approachable. Thanks to the progresses made by molecular, genomic and evolutionary biology, a little have been achieved from generality to functionality showing what was thought impossible more than possible. However, a new conceptual problem raised new challenges: What evolutionary forces drive origins of new genes with novel biological functions? The conventional understanding was based on the adaptation-based theory of Darwin, which is predicted to create molecular functions toward a progressive and eventually perfect functional worlds within cells between individuals and sexes. We empirically falsified this prediction and the Darwinian theory in the new gene evolution for the derived biological traits at various levels. We proposed the sexual conflict drive that predicts coevolution of sexes modelled by trigonometric modeling. We will discuss about implications of these discoveries and theoretical models in understanding of functional and gene evolution.

Source: School of Life Sciences, PKU