During his PhD studies, Sebastian Riedelbauch investigated the rapid divergence of an essential genetic network in flies. Genes involved in pathogen defense are often found to be changing faster than one might expect. Sebastian Riedelbauch compared interactions of such a defense network between several closely related fruit fly species and found evidence for functional adaptations and varying degrees of interaction stabilities. He could show that different species evolved independent routes of protein recruitment in a fixed set of components.

The new findings contribute our understanding of how host-pathogen conflicts lead to adaptations in host species. Furthermore, the results allow to propose a hypothesis on how fruit flies can shift their target focus among parasitic elements which try to duplicate in host genomes.

The PhD study was completed at the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.
This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Wednesday, 29 May 2024 at 13:00

Place: Building 1870, room 816, Faculty club, Department of Molecular Biology & Gentics, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen 81, 8000 Aarhus C

Title of PhD thesis: Functional consequences of rapid evolution in the Drosophila piRNA pathway

Contact information: Sebastian Harald Riedelbauch, e-mail: seri@mbg.au.dk, tel.: +45 50315082

Members of the assessment committee:
Director of Research Dr. Sandra Duharcourt, CNRS and Institut Jacques Monod, Université Paris Cité, France
Professor Peter Brodersen, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Associate Professor Anni H. Andersen (chair), Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Main supervisor:
Associate Professor Christian Kroun Damgaard, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Aarhus University

Co-supervisor:
Assistant Professor Peter Ebert Andersen, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Aarhus University

Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS, Jens Baggesens Vej 53, building 5221, 8200 Aarhus N.