Profile of the supervisor
Prof. dr. Martijn Egas obtained a PhD in biology at the University of Amsterdam and after a post-doc period at the IIASA institute (Vienna) he got a tenure position at the University of Amsterdam to study the role of behaviour in eco-evolutionary dynamics both in theory and experiment. In particular he studies social behaviour in spider mites and humans. In 2023 he moved to the GELIFES Institute, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Here Egas is heading a research group on evolution and behaviour, focusing on the combined experimental and theoretical study of evolutionary dynamics, i.e., feedbacks between evolutionary and ecological processes — nowadays called eco-evolutionary dynamics. In this context he has mainly worked on 1) the evolution of specialization in herbivorous arthropods, and 2) the evolution of cooperation and altruism in humans and arthropods. Also, he is involved in the larger NWA projects “Predicting Evolution” (based at the University of Amsterdam) and “Metahealth” (a consortium on health in a microbial, sociocultural and care context in the first 1000 days of life, wherein we collaborate with microbiologists and bio-informatics to analyze eco-evolutionary coexistence in oral and gut microbiomes). Since the COVID pandemic unfolded, he started an online collaborative research group with international colleagues, within the theme “Predicting Evolution”, on the evolution of the genetic code, ie the way in which DNA information is translated via mRNA and tRNA into proteins. In this group, we study variation in the use of tRNA gene repertoires within and among the three domains of life.
Expertise
Evolutionary Biology, Theoretical Biology, spider mites, tRNA, genetic code.
Profile of the research group
TRÊS (Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Λife Sciences) develops theory in evolutionary ecology, the behavioural sciences and evolutionary systems biology. Current research projects focus on adaptive variation (animal personalities, phenotypic plasticity, genetic diversification), the causes and consequences of sexual reproduction (sex determination, sex allocation, sexual selection), evolutionary game theory (conflict and cooperation), cultural versus genetic evolution, the interaction of evolution and self-organization, the relationship between (molecular) mechanisms, adaptation and constraints, non-equilibrium processes in ecology and evolution, and dynamic community assembly theory. Most of these projects are based on a general theoretical question but also closely related to a specific empirical problem in the ‘real world’. We try to develop mechanistic models whose predictions can be tested in the lab or in the field. To this end, we closely collaborate with empirical biologists from various departments. TRÊS is a cooperative assembly of the theoretical research units within the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES).
