On Thursday June 14th, researcher and Genetics Professor at University of Vigo Dr. Emilio Rolán, given a talk under the conference cycle Café con Sal: “Shell color polymorphism in the sea snail Littorina fabalis: an evolutionary perspective”. He unraveled the biological processes responsible for an extreme color polymorphism observed in the shell of natural Galician populations of the intertidal sea snail L.fabalis. In addition to the known effect of selective predation by certain species, the research uncovers a novel process, not known until now in nature: the tendency of individuals to mate with those that exhibit a different shell color. The conference explored this novel process, how it occurs and how it might have evolved.
Dr. Emilio Rolán leaded a project under the title “Causes and consequences of preference in the choice of partner in natural populations”, funded by the Spanish government and co-directed by Dr. Antonio Carvajal. Several researchers from the University of Vigo, as well as other universities from outside Spain, participated in the project.
The conference will took place at the conference room of ECIMAT at 11:00 hrs. It was broadcasted live at http://tv.uvigo.es/es/directo/1.html and is available in UVigoTV website:
Videoconference:
- Presentation (Cristina Secades, ECIMAT, CIM-UVigo)
- Conference (Emilio Rolán, CIM-UVigo)
- Questions (Emilio Rolán, CIM-UVigo)