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It is a challenge to explain biological phenomena that appear to arise from the complex interaction of many genes in response to natural selection acting through the mechanisms of mutation and recombination. The proportions of a large population that have various genotypes form a probability measure on the space of possible genotypes and, under suitable assumptions, it is reasonable to model this probability measure as evolving in time according to a relativelysimple, continuous-time, measure-valued dynamical system. I will explore the structure of this dynamical system and its equilibria with a view to shedding light on evolutionary explanations of the similar patterns of senescence and mortality seen in many multi-cellular organisms. In particular, I will point out how the non-linear nature of the dynamical system causes problems with a popular explanation of the Gompertz-Makeham mortality curve and requires a reformulation of Haldane's Principle, one of the cornerstones of the theory of mutation accumulation. This is joint work with David Steinsaltz (Oxford) and Kenneth W. Wachter (Berkeley).

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Prof. Steven N. Evans, University of California at Berkeley
Lecture Hall, Cologne Biocenter
Contact: not specified