June 25
López-García to Deliver Next WALS on Biological Evolution
Dr. Purificación López-García will deliver the final Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) talk of the 2024-2025 season on Wednesday, June 25 at 2 p.m., ET in Lipsett Amphitheater and on videocast. Her talk is titled, “A Microbial World’s View on Biological Evolution.”
Molecular approaches including sequencing of amplified marker genes, metagenomics and single-cell genomics have uncovered an astounding diversity of prokaryotes and microbial eukaryotes in natural ecosystems. Many of these correspond to previously unknown lineages lacking cultured representatives.
Functional predictions from genomic sequences often reveal unsuspected metabolic capabilities. The integration of this information is valuable toward understanding the ecology of these lineages and their role in biogeochemical cycles.
López-García is a research director in the ecology, systematics and evolution unit at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. She will discuss selected examples from her lab of newly identified lineages across the three domains of life that shed new light on major evolutionary diversifications.
To watch the videocast of this lecture, see: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=55042.
For more information or to request reasonable accommodation, email WALSoffice@od.nih.gov.