This past Friday (August 29th. 2014) I enjoyed the great fortune of visiting the Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo. A colleague from the Chicago years, Lee Hsiang Liow was our host.

The title of our talk was "On rapid and repeated evolution via transcriptional cooption and decay" and the abstract reads like:

The function and evolution of gene regulatory mechanisms and networks has implications for development, diseases and ecology. In this talk I will describe our work on transcriptional evolution, drawing on studies in two systems. I will outline population genetic, morphometric and transcriptomic analyses of parallel evolution of recently evolved dwarfism and associated phenotypes in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus). Secondly I will focus on naturally occuring deletions of transcription factor bindings sites in characterized enhancers of the even-skipped gene in Drosophila melanogaster. Lastly I will outline musings about general principles of evolution by gene recruitment and transcriptional decay, and predictions that follow.

The talk summarized the Arctic charr work that we participate in and two projects on regulatory evolution. I got great questions and had wonderful conversations while in Oslo. Hopefully I can visit again soon.