Dr. Timothy Healy Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Marine Biology University of California, San Diego Tuesday, November 19 10:30am – 11:30am Humphrey Auditorium Fitness-related physiological traits play key roles in both the adaptive responses of organisms to environmental change, and the formation of reproductive barriers between locally adapted populations. Therefore, identifying the mechanistic basis for variation in these traits is a critical aspect of understanding local adaptation and early-stage reproductive isolation. My research addresses this need by integrating comparative physiology, genetics and genomics to provide novel insights into the mechanisms that underlie intraspecific variation in tolerance limits, metabolic rate and oxidative phosphorylation. In this talk, I demonstrate these approaches using my graduate work on adaptive responses to anthropogenic climate change in the Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus), and my postdoctoral work on hybrid breakdown, mitochondrial performance and mitonuclear compatibility in Californian tiger copepods (Tigriopus californicus). Taken together, these studies reveal the immense complexity and polygenic nature of the physiological and genetic mechanisms that underlie population divergence and local adaptation, and illustrate the power of my integrative approach for studying the evolution of physiological systems. My research not only highlights the pivotal role that physiological traits play in adaptive processes, but also addresses a fundamental goal of modern biology: mechanistically linking genotype to phenotype.
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