Most organisms alive today have exchanged genes with organisms of their own species in their recent evolutionary history. However, the reasons for the evolutionary success of genetic exchange are unclear. This research will investigate the possibility that genetic exchange selects for types of interactions between genes that, in turn, select for continued genetic exchange. The overarching goal is to develop new empirical and modeling frameworks for studying the evolution of genetic exchange. The research will (1) extend an existing mathematical model of virus replication to capture the short-term evolutionary dynamics of experimental virus populations, (2) determine whether gene interactions evolve in the virus model as predicted from simpler, less realistic, models, and (3) experimentally test the predictions obtained from the mathematical model in real virus populations.
The evolution of genetic exchange is one of the oldest and most intractable problems in biology. In addition, the nature of gene interactions is a central focus for several areas of biology, including physiology and systems biology. The study of gene interactions will have far-reaching consequences for understanding complex biological processes, including human diseases. The completion of this work will generate new software tools that can be used to test a variety of additional hypotheses about evolutionary processes. Finally, this award will be used to expand a Pen Pal Program piloted in 2013 in which graduate students engage middle school students in the process of scientific discovery by writing back and forth about their research and other scientific interests.
