Recent technical developments have led to broader application possibilities for molecular genetic techniques, which in turn lead to novel ways to integrate different research areas within biology. Increased collaboration between biologists belonging to different disciplines is crucial for solving worldwide problems such as global climate change, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, pandemics and lack of sufficient food for a growing human population. Uppsala Centre of Evolution and Genomics aims to play a world-leading role in this integration process.
We study the genomic basis for variation in key phenotypes (i.e. traits underlying important adaptations that enable organisms to survive and reproduce) at the population, species and interspecies level. This strategy allows us to investigate how evolution at the molecular genetic level relates to evolution at the different phenotypic levels. By studying these problems from an evolutionary prospective we can uncover fundamental underlying principles from an historic perspective. Since we are mainly interested in the raw material that natural selection acts upon - genetic diversity – most of our study targets are natural populations, ranging from unicellular micro-organisms to large multicellular plants and animals.
Our completed and planned research is described below under the following main themes:
- Genomics of fitness differences in and among natural populations
- Genomics of speciation
- Origins of multicellularity and genomics of large-scale morphological evolution