Algal views on sex determination

Date

Jan 18, 2024

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Susana Coelho

Affiliation

Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen

Series

MPI-CBG Thursday Seminar

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Anne Grapin-Botton

Description

Sexual reproduction is an ancient and conserved feature of life on earth, but the mechanisms that determine the sex of an individual are mesmerizingly diverse and have had rapid turnover rates during evolution. Do sex determination genetic pathways converge in different organisms? What drives sex chromosome evolution? What are the mechanisms underlying switches between sex determination systems? Are all sex chromosomes equal in terms of origin and evolutionary trajectories? The answers are complex but the ongoing genomic revolution and the use of ‘alternative’ model organisms is shedding new light on sex determination molecular mechanisms, sex chromosome diversity and evolution. I will describe how brown algae, which have been evolving independently from animal and plants for more than a billion years, are contributing to this dynamic field of research.

Last modified: Jan 19, 2024, 7:38:24 AM