Dr. Tadeas Jan Priklopil

I develop and analyse mathematical models in ecology and evolutionary biology. The general focus of my work is to understand how selection shapes genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations. Of special interest to me are dynamical models that depict the evolution of phenotypes of interacting organisms in their biotic and abiotic environment.

I received an M.S. in mathematical analysis from the University of Helsinki, and then went on to do a PhD in biomathematics with a specific focus on speciation theory. Then, as a postdoctoral researcher, I worked on the evolution of cooperation and the evolution of genetic architecture in self-incompatibility genetic recognition systems in plants. Major focus of this work was to understand whether selection on individual behavior can influence the population genetic patterns seen in natural populations. This work combined approaches from population dynamics, population genetics and evolutionary game theory, and required research in various branches of mathematics including deterministic and stochastic dynamical equations, multiple timescale analysis and optimal control theory.

My current work in the research groups of Professors Kirsten Bomblies and Alex Widmer is directed at a finer understanding of the link between evolutionary changes in phenotypic traits and their genetic sequences. Because traits of all organisms are composed of the actions and properties of proteins, all of which are constrained by physical and chemical laws, an integrated knowledge of the sequence-protein-organism map can generate new understanding that may otherwise not be accessible. For instance, and perhaps counterintuitively, a trait expression may appear to be under stabilizing selection across different populations, and yet the genetic sequence associated with this trait may show levels of differentiation. One potential reason for this is adaptive evolution acting on physico-chemical properties of the underlying proteins: folding stability of a protein is known to be sensitive to its environment, and so for a trait expression to be maintained across different environments the underlying proteins had to diverge. Such a mechanistic understanding of the evolutionary change will be missed without looking at this intermediate molecular scale. Research on the physical and chemical properties of proteins is especially important for understanding adaptation to changing environments.

Read more about my work on my external page website.