GELIFES Seminars - Hannah Dugdale
| When: | Th 03-12-2020 13:00 - 14:00 |
| Where: | Online |
Hannah Dugdale (GELIFES-BPE)
Why do individuals senesce differently?
Individuals clearly senesce differently, for example, the biological ages of 38-year-old humans can range from 28–61 years. However, fundamental gaps in our understanding of the evolution of senescence remain. We do not yet know what factors cause the differences in senescence observed among individuals. We do not fully comprehend what drives the evolution of senescence – what trade-offs underlie senescence, and what are the patterns of selection on senescence? This is important as senescence impacts the health and fitness of individuals and their offspring, with widespread consequences for mate-choice, life-histories, selection, demography and medicine. Understanding the evolution of senescence will provide insight into how individuals can live longer, healthier lives. In this talk, I will introduce my group’s research on senescence. I will outline the work we are commencing on senescence using two human archive datasets from rural Finland and the Swiss canton of Glarus. I’ll then present our work on telomere dynamics in European badgers and finally on trans-generational effects and the genomics of senescence in Seychelles warblers.