In this talk, Professor James McInerney journeys through the tangled evolutionary history of life on Earth, exploring the pivotal role of symbiosis, horizontal gene transfer and the merging of evolving objects with other evolving objects, and how this has shaped the living world.
He hopes to persuade you that this is a compelling narrative that challenges traditional views of evolution having a purely tree-like history. Instead, life has had a history of partnerships and integrations particularly at the genomic level. From the very start of life, where cycles of divergence and merging have taken place, to the far more recent merger of prokaryotic cells that gave rise to eukaryotes, to the complex conflicts, co-operations and compromises between genes in pangenomes today. He will also talk about how cycles of mergers have been a driving force in the diversification of life.
This talk should be of interest to anyone interested in understanding life's intricate network and how collaborative genomic ventures have been, and continue to be, central to the evolution of life on our planet.
Professor McInerney, an Irish-born scientist is the Head of the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour at the University of Liverpool, is renowned for his work in evolutionary biology
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