29 June 2025 to 3 July 2025
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Europe/Berlin timezone

Dominance of resistance mutations in diploid and polyploid organsims

1 Jul 2025, 11:30
1h
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

August-Thienemann-Strasse 2 24306 Plön Germany

Speaker

Alica Merkens

Description

The evolution of resistance is a major challenge in medicine and agriculture. Organisms can evolve resistance through a variety of mechanisms, including target modification, metabolic changes, and efflux systems. In diploid or polyploid organsims, the dominance of resistance mutations has a strong influence on the dynamics of resistance evolution. The dominance of an allele can differ across environmental conditions and may depend on the pesticide or the drug dose. A particularly intriguing phenomenon is dominance reversal, where resistance alleles are recessive or dominant depending on the environment. This poster provides an overview of common resistance mechanisms, explains the concept of dominance reversal, and discusses its potential implications for the evolution and management of resistance. By highlighting both classical and emerging perspectives, this work aims to stimulate discussion on how integrating context-dependent dominance can improve our understanding of resistance evolution in diploid (and polyploid) organisms and inform more effective intervention strategies.

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