Brian Charlesworth

Last updated

Brian Charlesworth
FRSE, FRS
BrianCharlesworth DougVernimmen.jpg
Born
Brian Charlesworth

(1945-04-29) 29 April 1945 (age 79) [1]
Citizenship British
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Spouse
(m. 1967)
Children1 daughter
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Evolutionary biology
Institutions
Thesis Genetic variation in viability in Drosophila melanogaster  (1968)
Doctoral students Michael R. Rose
Other notable students Gilean McVean (postdoc) [3] [4]

Brian Charlesworth FRS FRSE (born 29 April 1945) [1] is a British evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, [5] and editor of Biology Letters . Since 1997, he has been Royal Society Research Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IEB) in Edinburgh. [6] [7] [8] [9] He has been married since 1967 to the British evolutionary biologist Deborah Charlesworth.

Contents

Education

Charlesworth gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological Sciences from Queens' College, Cambridge, [1] followed by a PhD in genetics in 1969 for research into genetic variation in viability in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster . [10]

Career

Following his PhD, Charlesworth did postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, University of Liverpool 1971–1974 and the University of Sussex under John Maynard Smith [11] [12] 1974–82. He returned to Chicago, to be professor of ecology and evolution from 1985 to 1997 after which he moved to Edinburgh. [5]

Research

Charlesworth has worked extensively on understanding sequence evolution, [13] using the fruit fly as a model species, and has also contributed theoretical work on aging, the evolution of recombination and the evolution of sex chromosomes. [14]

In April 2010, the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B was dedicated to honour Brian's contribution to the field of population genetics. [15]

Awards and honours

Charlesworth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1991, [16] and won its Darwin Medal in 2000. He won the 2006 Frink Medal, of the Zoological Society of London and in 2010 was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnean Society. His nomination for the Royal Society reads:

Distinguished for his theoretical and experimental studies of population genetics and evolutionary biology. He extended the theory of selection in age-structured populations which provides the genetical foundation for the study of the evolution of life-history patterns and ageing, and demonstrated experimentally genetic variation in such traits. He made major contributions to the theory of the related topics of selection for the rate of genetic recombination, the evolution of complexes of tightly linked genes and the evolution of separate sexes and outbreeding, and showed experimentally that recombination rates could be changed by selection. He has developed a theory for the population dynamics of transposable genetic elements which provide standard models for the analysis and interpretation of data on transposable element frequencies. [16]

In 2015, the Genetics Society of America awarded Charlesworth its Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal. This award is give to recognize "lifetime achievement in the field of genetics. It recognizes the full body of work of an exceptional geneticist," according to the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal webpage.

Related Research Articles

<i>Drosophila</i> Genus of flies

Drosophila is a genus of fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit. They should not be confused with the Tephritidae, a related family, which are also called fruit flies ; tephritids feed primarily on unripe or ripe fruit, with many species being regarded as destructive agricultural pests, especially the Mediterranean fruit fly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Maynard Smith</span> English biologist and geneticist (1920–2004)

John Maynard Smith was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution with George R. Price, and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.

Selfish genetic elements are genetic segments that can enhance their own transmission at the expense of other genes in the genome, even if this has no positive or a net negative effect on organismal fitness. Genomes have traditionally been viewed as cohesive units, with genes acting together to improve the fitness of the organism. However, when genes have some control over their own transmission, the rules can change, and so just like all social groups, genomes are vulnerable to selfish behaviour by their parts.

Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and population structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic variation</span> Difference in DNA among individuals or populations

Genetic variation is the difference in DNA among individuals or the differences between populations among the same species. The multiple sources of genetic variation include mutation and genetic recombination. Mutations are the ultimate sources of genetic variation, but other mechanisms, such as genetic drift, contribute to it, as well.

Experimental evolution is the use of laboratory experiments or controlled field manipulations to explore evolutionary dynamics. Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as individuals/populations adapt to new environmental conditions by natural selection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromosomal inversion</span> Chromosome rearrangement in which a segment of a chromosome is reversed

An inversion is a chromosome rearrangement in which a segment of a chromosome becomes inverted within its original position. An inversion occurs when a chromosome undergoes a two breaks within the chromosomal arm, and the segment between the two breaks inserts itself in the opposite direction in the same chromosome arm. The breakpoints of inversions often happen in regions of repetitive nucleotides, and the regions may be reused in other inversions. Chromosomal segments in inversions can be as small as 1 kilobases or as large as 100 megabases. The number of genes captured by an inversion can range from a handful of genes to hundreds of genes. Inversions can happen either through ectopic recombination between repetitive sequences, or through chromosomal breakage followed by non-homologous end joining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obaid Siddiqi</span> Indian geneticist (1932–2013)

Obaid Siddiqi FRS was an Indian National Research Professor and the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) National Center for Biological Sciences. He made seminal contributions to the field of behavioural neurogenetics using the genetics and neurobiology of Drosophila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Ashburner</span> English biologist (1942–2023)

Michael Ashburner was an English biologist and Professor in the Department of Genetics at University of Cambridge. He was also the former joint-head and co-founder of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Deborah Charlesworth is a population geneticist from the UK, notable for her important discoveries in population genetics and evolutionary biology. Her most notable research is in understanding the evolution of recombination, sex chromosomes and mating system for plants.

Nicholas Hamilton Barton is a British evolutionary biologist.

Background selection describes the loss of genetic diversity at a locus due to negative selection against deleterious alleles with which it is in linkage disequilibrium. The name emphasizes the fact that the genetic background, or genomic environment, of a mutation has a significant impact on whether it will be preserved versus lost from a population. Background selection contradicts the assumption of the neutral theory of molecular evolution that the fixation or loss of a neutral allele can be described by one-locus models of genetic drift, independently from other loci. As well as reducing neutral nucleotide diversity, background selection reduces the fixation probability of beneficial mutations, and increases the fixation probability of deleterious mutations.

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Gilean Alistair Tristram McVean is a professor of statistical genetics at the University of Oxford, fellow of Linacre College, Oxford and co-founder and director of Genomics plc. He also co-chaired the 1000 Genomes Project analysis group.

Martin Edward Kreitman is an American geneticist at the University of Chicago, most well known for the McDonald–Kreitman test that is used to infer the amount of adaptive evolution in population genetic studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurence Hurst</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Keightley</span>

Peter D. Keightley FRS is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laboratory experiments of speciation</span> Biological experiments

Laboratory experiments of speciation have been conducted for all four modes of speciation: allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, and sympatric; and various other processes involving speciation: hybridization, reinforcement, founder effects, among others. Most of the experiments have been done on flies, in particular Drosophila fruit flies. However, more recent studies have tested yeasts, fungi, and even viruses.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "CHARLESWORTH, Prof. Brian" . Who's Who . Vol. 2015 (online Oxford University Press  ed.). A & C Black.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Lande, R (2007). "2006 Sewall Wright Award. Brian Charlesworth". The American Naturalist. 169 (1): iii. doi:10.1086/510731. PMID   17209244. S2CID   82746856.
  3. Charlesworth, D.; Charlesworth, B.; McVean, G. (2001). "Genome sequences and evolutionary biology, a two-way interaction". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 16 (5): 235–242. doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(01)02126-7. PMID   11301152.
  4. McVean, G. A.; Charlesworth, B (2000). "The effects of Hill-Robertson interference between weakly selected mutations on patterns of molecular evolution and variation". Genetics. 155 (2): 929–44. doi:10.1093/genetics/155.2.929. PMC   1461092 . PMID   10835411.
  5. 1 2 "Brian Charlesworth at the University of Edinburgh". University of Edinburgh. 2015. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015.
  6. Viegas, J (2015). "Profile of Brian Charlesworth". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (6): 1652–3. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.1652V. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1423862112 . PMC   4330764 . PMID   25564667.
  7. Charlesworth, B. (1994). Evolution in Age-Structured Populations. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511525711. ISBN   9780511525711.
  8. Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (with Deborah Charlesworth) Oxford University Press ISBN   0-19-280251-8
  9. Elements of Evolutionary Genetics (with Deborah Charlesworth) ISBN   978-0-9815194-2-5
  10. Charlesworth, Brian (1969). Genetic variation in viability in Drosophila melanogaster (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  11. Charlesworth, B.; Harvey, P. (2005). "John Maynard Smith. 6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004: Elected F.R.S. 1977". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society . 51 (3): 253–265. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2005.0016. PMC   1448785 . PMID   15579672. S2CID   85622626.
  12. Charlesworth, B. (November 2004). "Anecdotal, historical and critical commentaries on genetics. John Maynard Smith: January 6, 1920 – April 19, 2004". Genetics. 168 (3): 1105–9. doi:10.1093/genetics/168.3.1105. PMC   1448785 . PMID   15579672.
  13. Brian Charlesworth's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  14. "Evolution - the Molecular Landscape Interview with BRIAN CHARLESWORTH interviewed by Matt Ridley" Archived 9 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 23 June 2009
  15. Loewe, L.; Hill, B. (2010). "Mutations and Brian Charlesworth". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 365 (1544): 1151. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0319. PMC   2871825 . PMID   20308089.
  16. 1 2 "EC/1991/08: Charlesworth, Brian". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019.