Event Category

Exit Seminar

Date

September 22, 2026

Time

9:00 am

Location

UTM, KNL 1220

Mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation and provides the fuel for evolutionary change through natural selection and genetic drift. Despite its central role in evolution, our ability to predict how traits evolve in the presence of mutational input remains limited. This uncertainty stems largely from an incomplete understanding of both the magnitude of mutational variance and the proportion of variation maintained within and between natural populations. Bridging the relationship between mutational input, standing genetic variation, and long-term divergence therefore proves essential for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of complex traits.

In Balogun’s thesis, the author first integrates transcriptomic data with mutation accumulation (MA) experiments to investigate how mutation contributes to gene expression variation and the consequences of transcriptomic change for organismal fitness. Second, they examine the relative roles of adaptive and nonadaptive processes in shaping gene expression variation in
natural populations. Finally, they investigate the evolutionary mechanisms underlying variation in the behavioural life-history trait phototaxis.

Together, this work, which uses the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism, provides new insight into how mutation, selection, and drift interact to shape variation in gene expression and complex traits across evolutionary timescales.

Supervisor: Rob Ness