Author Archives: Kelle Freel

Fantastic beasts…and Canada is where to find them

Posted on 19 Nov, 2018 by Kelle Freel

Understanding how organisms are related to each other in the grand scheme of things has been a main goal of taxonomists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists for centuries. While traditionally, what things look like (morphological characters) and what they eat or … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The eyes have it!

Posted on 20 Jul, 2018 by Kelle Freel

Eyes are pretty darn complicated, which makes them cool models for studying complex trait evolution.  Maybe the first time I realized how interesting eyes are when I saw this by the oatmeal about the amazing-ness of the mantis shrimp (are they your … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What is DAS? A new tool to recover genomes from metagenomes

Posted on 8 Jun, 2018 by Kelle Freel

There are a lot of data out there, and if you haven’t already noticed the ‘omics train has steadily stayed its path through the fruitful (but challenging) world of metagenomics. Metagenomics offers the chance to unravel complex microbial communities without … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, genomics, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Found in translation: The evolutionary history of RNA viruses in vertebrates

Posted on 6 Apr, 2018 by Kelle Freel

I have to admit, viruses aren’t normally my thing, but this is pretty darn cool. In a study out by Shi and colleagues this week, researchers identified 214 new viruses that, as the authors so succinctly state, reveal “diverse virus-host … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, Coevolution, evolution, transcriptomics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What’s in a name? A review of cryptic species and species concepts

Posted on 2 Mar, 2018 by Kelle Freel

It is a contentious can of worms. Species concepts are both essential to understand and at the same time incredibly difficult to define. Species names allow us to discuss fundamental units of biodiversity in any ecosystem and study genome evolution, … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, speciation, species delimitation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Exploring the genomic diversity of tubeworm endosymbionts

Posted on 1 Feb, 2018 by Kelle Freel

Tubeworms are cool. (To be read only in your best (eleventh) Doctor Who voice). Although, depending on how close they are to a hydrothermal vent, they might be more on the hot side….Regardless, if you’re on the fence about how … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, Coevolution, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Retrieving a million sequences and avoiding primer bias, a new method that might have it all

Posted on 19 Jan, 2018 by Kelle Freel

We have come a long way since the early days when sequencing was a breakthrough method initially used to identify uncultured microbes from the environment. It is now been almost three decades, in fact, since the first microbial 16S rRNA … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Diving deep: Exploring microbial communities under the seafloor

Posted on 7 Dec, 2017 by Kelle Freel

As we all sat staring at three large monitors in the front of the room, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason hung on to a borehole observatory with one hydraulic arm as the other arm plugged our sampling equipment into … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, fieldwork, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, transcriptomics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

0.80994 leagues under the sea

Posted on 16 Nov, 2017 by Kelle Freel

After a month on the water (and a few weeks getting my land legs again), I’m happily settling back in at home. I just returned from an expedition to a site known as North Pond along the western flank of … Continue reading →

Posted in fieldwork, just for fun, microbiology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

We have the technology. Is sequencing getting better, smaller, faster?

Posted on 21 Sep, 2017 by Kelle Freel

Okay, I know some version of the phrase “recent developments in rapid and affordable sequencing have made blah blah blah possible…” is something you’ve probably read 10,000 times. However, third-generation sequencing platforms have turned out to be pretty darn astounding. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, fieldwork, genomics, methods, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment