You are cordially invited to attend the upcoming ONLINE seminar of the Special Topic Network Polygenic Adaptation (STN-PolyAdapt) funded by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology which will take place on 28th May, 2026, 4 pm CET.
Our speaker for this seminar is Dr. Samuel Yeaman from University of Calgary, Canada.
Title: What can we learn by studying the repeatability of adaptation?
Abstract: Genotypic redundancy is a basic parameter of fundamental importance in evolutionary biology, yet we know very little about its magnitude. If the mapping from genotype to phenotype to fitness involves considerable redundancy, then there are many different ways that species can adapt to a given environment, and evolution is highly flexible. On the other hand, if this mapping involves minimal redundancy, evolution is highly constrained as only certain genes can contribute to adaptation. We may naively expect that traits that integrate across many developmental or molecular pathway or tissue types may involve more redundancy, but we have very limited understanding of this parameter in nature. Studying the repeatability of adaptation provides an indirect way to quantify redundancy, as high repeatability should only happen when redundancy is minimal (and vice versa). This presentation will explore we can study and interpret observations about the repeatability of adaptation, starting with a brief review of theoretical models of adaptation and some recent results. I will then discuss projects studying the genomic basis of local and global adaptation to climate in plants, which show some significant signals of repeated adaptation, but also imply considerable flexibility. Interestingly, genes that contribute to local vs. global adaptation tend to have different characteristics, consistent with theoretical predictions. Much remains to be learned about the genetic basis of adaptation before we can understand the extent to which evolution is flexible vs. constrained, but data is rapidly accumulating that will help answer this question.
Meeting details:
Date: May 28, 2026
Time: 4 PM CET
Zoom link to join the seminar:
https://eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/63438967177?pwd=uAl2uZ01cEc3BcdXdgd3aNaHsBLgaj.1
If you would like to get on our mailing list and take part in our upcoming events, please visit our website (https://polygenic-adaptation-network.org/)for more information.
Sincerely,
Neda Barghi on behalf of the Special Topic Network Polygenic Adaptation (STN-PolyAdapt) organizing committee
ESEB-funded Special Topic Network " Polygenic Adaptation"
https://polygenic-adaptation-network.org/
https://eseb.org/prizes-funding/special-topic-networks/

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