Life

How does change influence basic life processes?

Life on earth acts as both drivers of change and sustainers of ecosystems and societies. Understanding the mechanisms underlying  responses to changing environmental conditions is key to establishing how resilient populations may be to change and how they adapt to new environments. Sometimes adaptation is beneficial, for example, allowing conservation of species, ecosystem services, crop and herd improvement. Sometimes it is detrimental, for example the evolution of antimicrobial resistance or the emergence of new virus variants  or invasive pest species.

We use a range of techniques to assess adaptive responses: from genomics to study changes to levels of gene expression key health to measuring lifetime fitness across populations.   What are the common drivers underlying these adaptive processes ?