The Institute of Evolution is the largest theoretical evolutionary biology scientific centre in Hungary, with research interests spanning all levels of biological organisation. We investigate the origin of life, transitions in evolution involving large increases in complexity (including the origin of human language and cooperation), evolutionary aspects of neural networks, the relationship between learning and evolution, and evolutionary-ecological processes, with a particular focus on the dynamics of emerging infectious diseases under the impact of climate change.
Priority Areas
- Chemical evolutionary processes before the appearance of life.
- The appearance of life on Earth, the study of processes leading to the first protocells.
- Modelling evolutionary steps involving major increases in complexity.
- Modelling the co-evolution of cooperation and communication at different levels of organization from bacterial communities to human societies.
- Investigating the mechanisms that maintain human and animal cooperation.
- Cooperation and competition in microbial communities, evolutionary ecology of microbiomes.
- Evolutionary ecology and behavioural ecology of parasites and pathogens.
- Evolutionary study of the coexistence of hosts and internal parasite species.
- Effects of climate change and environmental degradation on emerging pathogens, prevention options, the application of the DAMA (Document, Assess, Monitor, Act) protocol
- Epidemiological and ecological study of arthropod vectors, mainly ticks and of the pathogens they transmit.
- Evolutionary processes working on neural networks, and the study of the relationship between evolution and learning.
Priority publications
Demeter, M.; Derényi, I.; Szöllősi, G. Trade-off between reducing mutational accumulation and increasing commitment to differentiation determines tissue organization. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 13(1):1-10.
2022
Ocaña-Pallarès, E.; Williams, TA.; López-Escardó, D.; Arroyo, AS.; Pathmanathan, JS.; Bapteste, E.; Tikhonenkov, DV.; Keeling, PJ.; Szöllősi, GJ.; Ruiz-Trillo, I. Divergent genomic trajectories predate the origin of animals and fungi. NATURE 609(7928):747-753
2022
Zachar, István Eukaryotic origins: Closing the energetics gap. NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 6:1254-1255
2022
Scheuring István; Rasmussen Jacob A.; Bozzi Davide, Limborg Morten T. A strategic model of a host–microbe–microbe system reveals the importance of a joint host–microbe immune response to combat stress-induced gut dysbiosis FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY 13: Paper 912806
2022
Földvári Gábor; Szabó Éva; Tóth Gábor Endre; Lanszki Zsófia; Zana Brigitta; Varga Zsaklin; Kemenesi Gábor Emergence of Hyalomma marginatum and Hyalomma rufipes adults revealed by citizen science tick monitoring in Hungary TRANSBOUNDARY AND EMERGING DISEASES Paper: 14563 , 25 p.
2022
Vásárhelyi, Zsóka; Scheuring, István; Avilés, Leticia. The Ecology of Spider Sociality: A Spatial Model AMERICAN NATURALIST. 199: 776-788
2022
