Michael J. Wade

Distinguished Professor of Biology. Contributed to our understanding of the role of population structure and nonadditive gene action in evolution, from both an empirical and theoretical perspective. Work bears on central issues concerned with both adaptive evolution and speciation.In particular, the work emphasizes the unique evolutionary dynamics of indirect genetic effects, wherein genes in one individual affect the phenotype of another. Maternal genetic effects are an ubiquitous example of indirect genetic effects, since transcripts from the maternal genome guide early development in all eukaryotes. The coevolution of host genomes and the genomes of the members of the microbiome are another common example.