SISSA mathLab seminar, May 20, 2019 at 3PM, room A-133: Prof. Federico Toschi (TU/Eindhoven)

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

> */date: May 20, 2019/*
> */time: 3:00 PM/*
> */where: room A-133/*
> *Speaker: Prof. Federico Toschi, TU Eindhoven*
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> *Title: Genetic Competition in Weakly Compressible Turbulent Flows*
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> *Abstract:*
> The genetic competition for biological species living in marine 
> environments can be severely influenced by fluid advection. Very 
> often, in oceans and in lakes, cell generation times are precisely in 
> the inertial range of eddy turnover times and therefore the influence 
> of turbulence must be properly taken into account. We employ both an 
> off-lattice agent-based simulation as well as an on-site density-based 
> model to describe two competing populations in one and in two spatial 
> dimensions under the influence of advecting (turbulent) velocity 
> fields. The novel on-site density-based model allows to accurately and 
> efficiently describe the dynamics of the population and the genetics 
> of large number of individuals, making this the ideal tool to study 
> populations in two dimensions. We find that the presence of 
> compressible turbulent velocity fields can have a very strong effect 
> on genetic competitions. In particular, even in regimes where the 
> overall population structure is approximately unaltered, the flow can 
> significantly diminish the effect of a selective advantage on fixation 
> probabilities. We explain this effect in terms of the enhanced 
> survival of organisms born at the sources in the flow and the 
> influence of Fisher genetic waves. We find for both cases that even in 
> a regime where the overall population structure is approximately 
> unaltered, the flow can significantly diminish the effect of a 
> selective advantage on fixation probabilities. We understand this 
> effect in terms of the enhanced survival of organisms born at sources 
> in the flow and of the influence of Fisher genetic waves.
>
> Ref. "Fixation probabilities in weakly compressible fluid flows”, 
> Abigail Plummer, Roberto Benzi, David R. Nelson, and Federico Toschi, 
> PNAS January 8, 2019 116 (2) 373-378; 
> https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812829116
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> You are cordially invited to attend.
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