On October 9, Roger Butlin, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Sheffield and visiting professor at the University of Gothenburg, gave the lecture “Adaptation and Speciation in Littorina.”
Roger Butlin collaborates with Emilio Rolán and Juan Galindo from the Population Genetics and Cytogenetics research group, aiming to study the genetic basis of divergence and the degree of reproductive isolation in the hybrid zone of L. saxatilis along the Galician and Swedish coasts. The project, known as BARRIERS, is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant, and its experimental work is being carried out at the EMBRC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre) facilities in Vigo (ECIMAT; EMBRC-Spain) and Roscoff (Station Biologique Roscoff; EMBRC-France).
During his lecture, R. Butlin presented the analyses being conducted in the hybrid zone between divergent ecotypes of L. saxatilis and explained how cline analysis can help determine the genetic architecture of loci influenced by natural selection, which is fundamental to the evolution of reproductive isolation.
