QLS Seminar - Thursday, 25 June at 11h00 "Fixation Probability in Complex Ecological Landscapes: When Does Heterogeneity Help?" by Kamran Kaveh (University of Minnesota)

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

Dear All,

On Thu. 25 June at 11:00 CET, Prof. Kamran Kaveh (University of 
Minnesota) will give a seminar titled:

*"Fixation Probability in Complex Ecological Landscapes: When Does 
Heterogeneity Help?"
_
_ *_Abstract:_

A central question in theoretical population biology is whether spatial 
ecological heterogeneity helps or hinders the evolutionary success of 
mutants. Here I present a unified framework for selection on lattice 
graphs with arbitrary environmental heterogeneity, spanning two regimes: 
constant selection and frequency-dependent evolutionary games. In the 
first part, I calculate the fixation probability of advantageous 
mutants. I observe that the genotype specificity of the environment 
determines whether heterogeneity amplifies or suppresses selection, 
while spatial correlation in environmental states acts as a secondary 
determinant of its magnitude. In the second part, I extend the framework 
to the evolution of cooperation under spatially varying payoffs, where 
spatial correlation becomes the primary determinant, predicting both the 
fixation probability of cooperators and the timescales of selection. I 
discuss applications to the evolution of drug resistance, cooperation in 
microbial communities, and somatic evolution in epithelial tissues.

_The seminar will take place in the Common Area, 2nd floor, old SISSA 
building (Via Beirut, 2)._

You are all most welcome to attend!

Best regards,

Erica

Erica Sarnataro
Group Secretary
Quantitative Life Sciences
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Trieste,  Italy
Tel. +39-040-22404623 (NEW PHONE NUMBER)
www.ictp.it/research/qls.aspx
e-mail:qls at ictp.it