UNIverse - Public Research Portal

Evolutionary Biology

I am broadly interested in evolution seen through a multivariate lens. My research experience has involved studying natural and sexual selection in a field and lab setting, through which I have studied relationships between traits across and within life stages and sexes. My current project involves studying the causes of species' range limits through the lens of evolutionary constraints. I combine quantitative genetics experiments and theory to investigate to the genetic architecture across species' elevational ranges, and to what extent genetic covariances constrain the evolutionary niche. I also work with multiple species to answer this question, lending a more comparative view to this problem and the possibility to investigate how micro- and macroevolution are linked.

Selected Publications

Narasimhan, A., Kapila, R., Meena, A., & Prasad, N. G. (2023). Consequences of adaptation to larval crowding on sexual and fecundity selection in Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 36(4), 730–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14168

URLs

Gómez-Llano, M., Narasimhan, A., & Svensson, E. I. (2020). Male-male competition causes parasite-mediated sexual selection for local adaptation. American Naturalist, 196(3), 344–354. https://doi.org/10.1086/710039

URLs

Selected Projects & Collaborations

Genetic constraints at species' range limits

Research Project | 2 Project Members

Species commonly have fairly distinct limits to spatial occurrences. The evolutionary causes of these range limits may be manifold. Often, small population size, genetic drift opposing selection or genetic constraints reducing evolvability may be involved. Previous macroevolutionary work on elevational range limits in Brassicaceae detected the importance of trade-offs involving the speed of growth under heat, acquisition capacity (SLA) and plant size to be important (Maccagni & Willi 2022). The current research builds upon these results. We investigate whether the same type of trade-offs exist on a microevolutionary scale, within species. In 6 species of Brassicaceae, we compare the genetic architecture of traits across populations of the elevational gradient. Furthermore, we assess the role of dispersal on range limits by using population genomics tools.