EEB Tuesday Seminar Series- Empirical Evaluation of Evolutionary Hypotheses Using Biobank-scale Human Data

Description: A great number of hypotheses have been proposed in evolutionary genetics, but empirical tests of these hypotheses remain underpowered until the advent of large biobanks with genotype and phenotype data from hundreds of thousands of humans. Using biobank-scale human data, my dissertation proposal tests important evolutionary hypotheses on sexual antagonism of mitochondrial DNA mutations, similarity between genetic and phenotypic correlations, and intersexual selection in humans. In this seminar, I will focus on a test of the mother's curse hypothesis, which posits that maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA mutations that exclusively harm males evade purifying selection.