Population genomics of evolutionary conflicts

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Despite being found within the same genome, the evolutionary interests of different genes, and even  mutations within single genes can conflict with each other. In plants for example, mutations that confer a competitive advantage to pollen for reproductive success may have harmful side-effects on other phases of the plant's life-cycle. Similarly, selfish genetic elements, which enhance their own ability to transmit themselves, can spread through populations, despite the potential for harmful fitness effects on the organism. While these cases have been well characterized theoretically, and the growing availability of whole genome sequences has revealed the predominance of selfish genetic elements across genomes, the evolutionary importance of these conflicts for maintaining genetic diversity and driving genome evolution remains poorly understood, and is a focus of this grant. This proposal aims to address several major open questions including: 1) How much genetic variation is there for pollen competition, and how does natural selection act on this variation? 2) Do selfish genetic elements play an important role in the degeneration of Y chromosomes in plant populations?, 3) Do evolutionary transitions in mating system and ploidy (the number of genome copies an individual has) influence the evolutionary fate of selfish genetic elements?, and 4) Do mutations that increase the expression of genes spread through populations by masking harmful mutations? By studying patterns of genome and gene expression variation, we hope to gain important new insights into the importance of evolutionary conflicts in maintaining genetic diversity and structuring the evolution of genomes.