Martin Kapun

As an evolutionary biologist, I am interested in the evolutionary and ecological factors that maintain and shape genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations. Moreover, I want to better understand the eco-evolutionary dynamics of host-symbiont interactions. In my research, I combine bioinformatics, biostatistics, population genomics, experimental evolution and quantitative phenotyping. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and dung flies of the genus Sepsis as my focal model systems, I investigate patterns and mechanisms of in neutral and adaptive evolution in natural populations: My main research questions are centered around:

1. the demographic history of world-wide fruit fly populations and sym- and allopatric dungfly species
2. the genetic and phenotypic basis of sexual trait dimorphisms and adaptation along environmental gradients
3. the evolution of chromosomal inversion polymorphisms
4. the influence of ecology and evolution on host-symbiont interactions