What limits rapid adaptation? Insights from a wild insect system?

Dr Nathan Bailey from the University of St Andrews will be delivering a seminar talk titled "What limits rapid adaptation? Insights from a wild insect system?". Hosted by Dr Nick Royle A male-silencing genetic variant very recently invaded the cricket genome, resulting in widespread pleiotropy, genomic hitchhiking, disrupted patterns of sexual conflict and loss of developmental homeostasis. This genomic and phenotypic chaos illustrates unexpected evolutionary consequences of recent, abrupt adaptation. I will also present data showing that silent male crickets in Hawaii have evolved not once or twice, but at least four times independently and through unique morphological, as opposed to behavioural, changes. The talk will explore how a geographic mosaic of adaptive variants may be interacting under selection in the wild, and how our results can help to predict responses to novel selection and patterns of macroevolutionary change more generally.