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The 4th IFB Seminar

Hirohisa Kishino

The 4th IFB Seminar took place in the conference room of the Institute of Freshwater Biology.

Title: Molecular and phenotypic evolution

Lecturer: Hirohisa Kishino

Affiliation: Visiting Researcher at Chuo University, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo

Abstract: Phenotypes change in response to the environment. Sometimes they undergo convergent evolution, so it is not easy to accurately estimate the evolution of phenotypes. In this context, genomic information has become a powerful explanatory variable in the form of molecular evolution rate and genetic diversity. Molecular evolution rate is affected by mutation rate and functional constraints on genes, but we focus on the variation in functional constraints among lineages. This is extracted from the molecular phylogenetic tree of a large number of genes. As mammalian ancestors changed from nocturnal to diurnal, sensors such as hearing, smell, and touch seem to have weakened, the importance of genes related to infectious diseases seems to have increased in humans, and in the process of differentiation and spread of plants, in some aspects they responded to various stimuli, in other aspects they increased their photosynthetic ability and affected flower development. In this seminar we would like to convey this interesting fact.