Understanding natural selection in molecular networks

Aula: 5CG - COMPLESSO AGRIPOLIS - Edificio CA' GIALLA.

Molecular evolution has provided powerful theoretical frameworks and tools to study genome variation within and between species, in order to reconstruct past evolutionary histories of the genomes and to reveal where adaptation took place. However, despite the identification of the selective pressures acting on a high number of genes at different timescales and the identification of a considerable number of genes putatively under positive selection, the genetic and molecular basis of the majority of the adaptive processes still remain unsolved. The most challenging issue is still the understanding of selection in relation to the function performed by the gene products. A natural way of approaching it is by considering that cellular functions are the outcome of the combined action of groups of genes, whose gene products interact in complex, entangled networks. Here I will present some case studies in which natural selection acting on protein coding genes has been studied within the context of the molecular networks in which genes participate to perform their function.