Butterflies, pollution and sexual selection

My talk will be a short introduction to my research on sexual selection and sexual conflict using the humble fruit fly as a model. But I will also give an overview of the importance of sex in evolution and how interactions between the sexes shape biodiversity.

Mercury is a natural element and at the same time a global pollutant. Emissions from human activities can reach even remote regions such as the Arctic Ocean. In the Ocean, microbes can transform mercury into a highly toxic form that poses a threat to wildlife and humans: In this neurotoxic form, mercury accumulates in living organisms. Nonetheless, mercury is a trace element in the ocean and its low concentrations make studying its distribution and especially transformation processes in the water column very challenging. At Pint of Science, I would like to speak about mercury in the Arctic Ocean from an ecosystem perspective, exploring the interplay of the living and non-living parts of the mercury cycle in the Arctic Ocean and sharing impressions from an expedition to the Arctic Ocean last summer.

When studying evolution, we would sometimes like to manipulate the genes and see what happens. One methodology for that is CRISPR/Cas9. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. It is a component of bacterial immune systems that can cut DNA, and has been repurposed as a gene editing tool. It acts as a precise pair of molecular scissors that can cut a target DNA sequence, directed by a customizable guide. However, using CRISPR/Cas9 in a new species is not always easy. I will tell about the technology and how we tested it in a butterfly by targeting a gene necessary for the production of their dark color. Will we manage to cut the gene and see color changes in the butterfly? Come and see the talk and you will find out