When: Thursday, September 25, 2025 | 11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Where: Room CAWP 2916 (Caseroom)
This event is open to all and will be held in person only.
Seminar Abstract
Conifers are arguably the most important group of species in Canada. They dominate boreal ecosystems, providing habitat for innumerable species and underpinning ecosystem services across the country. Many species of conifers in Canada have large ranges that span wide environmental gradients. Of the many features that distinguish conifers (and the whole clade of gymnosperms) from other seed plants is the size of their genomes. Conifer genomes are extremely large, typically five times larger than the human genome. Such large genomes have evolutionary consequences and I will describe several of them. Until very recently, we have been limited in our ability to study large genomes, but technological advances are rapidly changing that. In this talk, I’ll describe our recent work on conifer genomes and how their large genomes are related to important aspects of their evolution.
Speaker
Tom Booker is an assistant professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Science. His interests include population genomics, evolution and bioinformatics and how these can be applied to forest tree species. He has two kids under five and is often really tired, whether those two things are related has not been resolved.