Pomiankowski Lab: Research Projects

The Evolution of Sex and its Consequences

How did life arise from abiotic precursors? Because life seems to have little to say about the time before its own emergence, the study of abiogenesis demands an examination of prebiotic chemistry and the naturally occurring conditions under which modern carbon-based biochemistry could have emerged. The project builds on the ‘metabolism-first’ theory that energy flow in the form of dynamic proton gradients across inorganic barriers could ultimately yield complex organics including the first polymers and proto-membranes. 

The project also integrates computational modelling and experimental chemistry to systematically test conditions that could favour the emergence of life, including those similar to hydrothermal vents. This award was featured on BBSRC News as one of ‘four ground-breaking new projects set to expand the frontiers of bioscience knowledge’ funded by the BBSRC in 2020.

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• Genome expansion in early eukaryotes drove the transition from lateral gene transfer to meiotic sex
• The need for high-quality oocyte mitochondria at extreme ploidy dictates germline development

Sexual Selection, Condition Dependence and Meiotic Drive

Meiotic drivers are genetic variants that selfishly manipulate the production of gametes to increase their own rate of transmission, often to the detriment of the rest of the genome and the individual that carries them. In male flies the meiotic drive results in the production of only female offspring. This project, funded by the National Environment Research Council, has made a new discovery that adaptive change takes place in male flies in order to correct this issue.

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• X-linked meiotic drive boosts population size and persistence
• Meiotic Drive does not cause condition-dependent reduction of the sexual ornament in stalk-eyed flies
• Meiotic Drive reduces egg-to-adult viability in stalk-eyed flies
• Ejaculate sperm number compensation in stalk-eyed flies carrying a selfish meiotic drive element 

Sexual selection: the handicap principle does work - sometimes

Zahavi’s ‘handicap principle’ proposes that females prefer males with handicaps (mating characters that reduce survival chances) because handicaps are indicators of heritable viability. We showed that there are conditions under which the ‘handicap principle’ causes the runaway exaggeration of male handicaps and female mating preferences. We used theoretical and experimental approaches to study the evolution of female mate preferences for exaggerated male sexual traits used in courtship display. These ideas were tested with stalk-eyed flies, and this experimental work in turn inspired new theories about the signaling value of sexual traits, sperm competition and fertility, male choice of mating partners, female preference and meiotic drive.

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• Sexual Selection: The Handicap Principle Does Work -- Sometimes
• The evolution of costly mate preferences II. The "handicap" principle