Mutation, Mating Systems, and the Rate of Adaptation

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Mutation plays a fundamental role in the generation of genetic variation within populations, adaptation to novel environments, and the evolution of sexual reproduction and mating systems. Using predictions based on theoretical models, this project investigates how changing levels of mutational input affect the transition between different forms of sexual reproduction and adaptation to novel temperatures in the well-studied nematode model system, Caenorhabditis elegans. These predictions will be tested experimentally using direct genetic manipulation of mutation rate and an individual's propensity to produce male offspring.This research should further our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for generating the tremendous variation in mating systems in both plants and animals, as well as illuminating the contrast between the creative and constraining roles of mutation in natural populations. The processes studied here are fundamental to describing variation and change in agricultural and natural systems, especially in endangered species of plants and animals. Nematodes themselves are one of the most numerous, yet understudied, groups of organisms on earth and are important human, animal, and plant pathogens.