The Role of Environmental Variation in the Evolution of Microbes

What is the “infinitesimal model”? How has our understanding of complex traits changed recently?

On this episode, we talk with Nick Barton, an evolutionary quantitative geneticist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Quantitative genetics has changed a lot in the past 30 years, driven by massive advances in DNA sequencing power and by new statistical and computational approaches to harnessing the data flood. Nick works at the forefront of the field, developing and testing new theory, and we discuss both his research and his perspectives on these changes. We end by asking Nick about his advice for early career researchers who want to navigate the complex landscape composed of theory, computation, and data.

Cover art by Keating Shahmehri
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