Trudy Mackay of North Carolina State University is in town next Monday to talk about “Systems Genetics of Complex Traits in Drosophila.”  The seminar is at noon in Hutch 473.  The Mackay Lab has a great web page, check it out for more details on their research.

Sarah Kingan’s seminar on “Divergence population genomics of the Drosophila simulans clade” has been postponed due to Spring break.  Sarah is working to re-schedule this seminar now, hopefully for date later this semester.

Tom Eickbush will be talking about “Concerted evolution and the maintenance of mobile elements in rRNA gene loci” at EEB seminar this Friday afternoon.  See you there!

piRNA partners binding to a chromosome from http://www.biopps.com/index.php?topic=Genomic&page=4 and D. virilis sperm from http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery/year/2001/13

Tomorrow’s EEB seminar will feature talks from two current PhD students.  Jeffrey Vedanayagam from the Garrigan Lab will kick things off with a talk titled “Evolutionary genomics of piRNA mediated transposon silencing in Drosophila.”  Yasir Ahmed from the Orr Lab will follow with a talk on “The genetics of postmating, prezygotic reproductive isolation in the virilis group of Drosophila.”

This Friday at 3PM, Bruce MacFadden will be giving a joint EEB/EES seminar about “Miocene Mammals from Panama: Tropical Refugium or Cradle of Biodiversity?”  MacFadden is an expert on “paleobiology, macroevolution, and paleoecology of Neogene mammals (particularly herbivores) of the Americas.”  His diverse research efforts have produced important insights on the biotic impacts of global climate change (DeSantis et al. 2009), discovery and description of new fossil taxa (MacFadden 2009), and a high profile review of the evolutionary history of iconic fossil horses (MacFadden 2005).

A phylogeny from the Pritham Lab's recent Gene paper on the distribution of Helitrons in vesper bats.

Ellen Pritham of UT Arlington will be here on Monday to present her work on the evolution of the genome and transposable elements.  Her talk on “Genetic plasticity, selfish DNA and the dynamic genome” will be at noon in Hutch 473.

Dan Scantlebury will be talking about his work on dwarf geckos at tomorrow’s EEB seminar.  The title of his talk is “Radiation under your nose: a comparative analysis of adaptive radiation in West Indian Sphaerodactylus geckos.”