Event Category

PhD Appraisal

Date

May 6, 2026

Time

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Location

Ramsay Wright Laboratories, RW 432

Population genetic theory predicts that mutation rate and effective population size contribute to the input and maintenance of molecular genetic variability in a species under ideal scenarios.
Empirically, however, diverse biological factors associated with genomes, and species ecology may influence genetic diversity in ways we do not fully understand.

Invertebrates, especially Caenorhabditis nematodes, provide powerful systems for studying links between genetic diversity
and biological features because they exhibit extensive disparities of within-species genetic diversity and diverse biological features in their genomics and ecology. Previous comparative studies of
invertebrate genetic diversity, however, either compared distantly related species or focused on specific biological traits (e.g., reproductive mode).

Using mostly Caenorhabditis but also Nudibranchia, my dissertation aims to answer how and why different species differ in their
population genomic variation by examining how ecological and genomic features influence population genetic variation across phylogenies. It will provide a multifaceted, phylogenetically informed view of genomic variation in invertebrates and unravel how diverse biological features influence the amount of genetic diversity species contain.

Supervisor: Asher Cutter

Committee chair: Aneil Agrawal