Sequence evolution in phenotypic space: An overview

by Luca (Naples), Prof. PELITI (Naples)

Tuesday 6 May 2008, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

Nordita seminar room

While most of the genetic information is coded in the DNA sequence, the selection process acts on phenotypic traits. It may well be the case that, while mutations affect independently these traits, the selective effect (fitness) is a nonlinear function of the traits themselves. I shall recall a general approach to the description of this two-layered evolution process, and I shall discuss recent works in which evidence has been collected for it to take place in the evolutionary dynamics of transcription factor binding sites.