Damian Dowling

We have long been taught that evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest individuals. Damian Dowling’s research shakes the foundations of this paradigm: females might have an evolutionary advantage simply because of their gender.

Most of our genes lie well protected within the cell’s nucleus. But a small fraction is located in the mitochondria, the energy power plant of the cell.
For a long time, scientists for various reasons have believed that those genes already have been optimized and that all mutations therefore would result in a poorer ability to survive. However, this theory has been overturned. Mitochondrial genes differ between individuals, and those differences seem to be of great importance.

Dowling’s goal is a better understanding of the forces driving evolution of mitochondrial genes. Recently, his work provided support for the existence of a phenomenon called “mother’s curse” (published in Science in 2011). When an egg becomes fertilized, the sperm’s mitochondria are left out. A child therefore only inherits its mother’s mitochondrial genes, and those genes will only be subject to selection pressures that affect females. A genetic mutation that is advantageous to the survival of females, but bad for males, will therefore live on in the population. This could in part explain why males live shorter lives on average.

Dowling currently heads a research group at Monash University in Australia, but as a Wallenberg Academy Fellow he is offered to move his activities to Uppsala University.

Photo: Monash University