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SUMMARY:How Space Constrains Evolution: Lessons from Microbes and Bacterio
 phage  - Dr Diana Fusco\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20190313T141500Z
DTEND:20190313T151500Z
UID:TALK108850@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lisa Masters
DESCRIPTION:Spatially growing populations are ubiquitous across scales\, r
 anging from microbial biofilms in the soil to expanding tissues in develop
 ing organs and the spreading of diseases. In spatial settings\, individual
 s experience inhomogeneities in the surrounding environment that result in
  different growth rates across the population. Since replication is necess
 ary to transmit the genetic information from mother to daughter\, the grow
 th dynamics determined by the spatial constraints can deeply affect the sp
 reading of mutations in a population and thus its evolution.\n \nHere\, I 
 will present two examples in which the simple spatial constraints associat
 ed with two-dimensional growth affect both the genetic diversity and the a
 daptation of microbial and viral populations\, respectively. Population se
 quencing and fluorescence imaging show that microbial colonies exhibit an 
 excess of mutational jackpot events compared to a well-mixed population of
  the same size. At the same time\, they also carry a large number of rare 
 mutations that are homogeneously distributed across the population and con
 tinuously generated during the growth process. A very different growth and
  evolutionary dynamics is instead observed in ecoliphage T7 two-dimensiona
 l plaques. Here the phage has to find an optimal incubation time\, which p
 rovides a sufficient offspring number without excessively delaying its dif
 fusion.\n
LOCATION:Department of Chemistry\, Cambridge\, Unilever lecture theatre
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