Theoretical Principles of Evolution

All living things are shaped by the events of the past. Their evolutionary history determines both the traits that we see in them today, and their ability to respond to natural and artificial selection. The past evolutionary pressure on genome structure has created organisms that are more or less sensitive to perturbations in the environment and mutations in their own genetic code. Our research has focused on some of the fundamental aspects of the evolutionary process.

A major aspect of our research program has been to consider how variable conditions alter the evolutionary process. We know that organisms face an environment that is always changing, that their competitors evolve and respond behaviorally, and that conditions vary from place to place. Each of these factors can alter the way that natural selection operates. A current research interest is the evolution of transcription control in response to fluctuating environments and the evolution of genetic architecture in response to migration between habitats.