BRAENDLE

Environmental variation is a key force shaping the function and evolution of developmental mechanisms. Therefore, it is essential to understand how environmental variation modulates developmental processes and resulting phenotypic variation. Much of our research therefore addresses the questions of how developmental systems respond to environmental variation and how such responses evolve. Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and related species, we aim to answer four main questions: How does development integrate variable environmental information to alter phenotypic outcomes? How do developmental responses to environmental variation evolve? How do quantiative developmental traits evolve within species? What are developmental changes underlying adaptive evolution of life histories? We investigate these questions by focusing on molecularly well-characterized processes, such as vulval cell fate patterning, germline development and dauer formation.

Although genotype-by-environment interactions are common and important determinants of phenotypic variation, the mechanisms by which genetic and environmental variation interact to generate trait variation remain poorly understood. Our projects thus aim to characterize the molecular and developmental basis of genotype-by-environment interactions, how such interactions evolve and how they in turn may impact the evolutionary process itself. In our research, we use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and related species as model organisms, and we integrate quantitative experimental approaches from developmental and evolutionary genetics.