Mutation and Evolution

Michael Lynch

Michael Lynch is Distinguished Professor of Biology at Indiana University. He has broad research interests and contributions in research areas ranging from early works in ecology, to genetics and evolution of quantitative traits, to conservation biology, and now to genome evolution.

He is a leader in understanding the origins and mechanisms of genome complexity. By using population genetics as the underpinning principle, he studied the mechanisms and process of duplicate genes, introns, mobile-genetic elements and regulatory regions complexity in finite populations. He showed that mutation rate is higher in larger organisms, such as human, with relatively smaller population size. Together with evidence from duplicate genes and introns, he argued that much of eukaryotic genome complexity initially evolved as passive indirect response to reduced population size. His concepts about the molecular mechanisms by which new genes are created and novel functions evolve have changed the field of molecular evolution.

Professor Lynch has a very impressive publication record with over 180 papers. He published two highly acclaimed books of Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits (with Bruce Walsh) and The Origins of Genome Architecture. He has served as President of the American Genetics Association, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. For his contributions, he was elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and in 2009 was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.