Research The Evolution of Cooperation & Conflict: Selection Within & Among Groups While selection within groups generally favors 'anti-social' behaviors such as cheating, meiotic drive & selfishness, selection among groups can favor traits beneficial to the group such as policing, restraint & cooperation. I examine these conflicting forces in much of my work: I have constructed an explicit population genetic model of the evolution of policing and competition (with Mike Wade, 5). With David Haig, (2) I investigated the evolution of genomic imprinting under different plant mating systems. Currently, I am studying the genetics and development of seed size variation in tomatoes with Leonie Moyle. Mating System Evolution: Causes & Consequences Some species are predominantly asexual while others are sexual, some are predominantly self-fertilizing or inbreeding, while other are predominantly outcrossing or even dioecious. Different systems of mating influence the variation within families as well as the levels of additive genetic variation. The prior influences the efficacy of selection within and among groups (above), while the later is a function of the amount epistatic variation which appears heritable. I have investigated the latter case as it relates to the transfer of mitochondrial genes to the nucleus (3) in angiosperms. I am also interested in which ecological and genomic forces influence the evolution of mating systems. Host-Symbiont Coevolution The intimate relationship between hosts and their symbionts can be one of conflict or cooperation (above). The transmission of symbionts can influence the level of conflict betweeen host and symbiont as well as the efficacy of selection of host-symbiont combinations, much like how systems of mating (above) influence the efficacy of selection on gene combinations. With Mike Wade, I am working on how selection can influence male-specific effects of matrineally transmitted symbionts. Teaching
Publications 5) Brandvain Y & MJ Wade. The evolution of competition and policing: opposing selection within and among groups. BMC Evolutionary Biology 7:203. Link. 4) Flurkey K, Y Brandvain, SE Klebanov, SN Austad, RA Milled, R Yuan & DE Harrison. PohnB6F1: a cross of wild and domestic mice that is a new model of extended female reproductive life span. Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences 62: 1187-1198 3) Brandvain Y, MS Barker & MJ Wade. Gene co-inheritance and gene transfer. Science 315: 1685. Director's cut. 2) Brandvain Y & D Haig. 2005. Divergent matings systems and parental conflict as a barrier to hybridization in flowering plants. American Naturalist 166: 360-366. Link. Appendix. 1) Salinas S, Y Brandvain, R Anderson, J Martin, RL Preston, GW Kidder III & CW Petersen. 2004. Reproductive ecology of Fundulus heteroclitus and Fundulus diaphanus in a New England watershed. The Bulletin of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory 43: 115-117. Link. |