Author Archives: Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Show me the power

Describing the patterns of genetic structure and mating system variation in presents challenges from the outset of sample collection to data analysis (see this post and this post). At the beginning of February, I had the pleasure to collaborate with Sean … Continue reading

Posted in conservation, evolution, genomics, interview, methods, population genetics, software, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Interspecific gene flow enhances vectorial capacity

There are charismatic cases of gene flow between species, such as Neanderthals (see also Arun’s posts here and here), but the role of introgression in evolution remains poorly documented. Recently diverged species have incomplete reproductive isolation and can hybridize. Rapid … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, phylogenetics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Many animals use visual signals to scope out potential mates. In a new paper in Molecular Ecology, Sandkam et al. (2015) demonstrate that the variation underlying preference in female guppies could be explained by simple changes in expression and coding of … Continue reading

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Rescue me

Whiteley et al. (2015) review genetic rescue (GR), or the increase in population fitness (growth) owing to immigration of new alleles, in a new paper in TREE. Genetic rescue is a controversial and hasn’t been applied to any great extent … Continue reading

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Night at the museum

Many population genetic and genomic studies document snapshots of a given population’s genetic diversity. Yet, there are many reasons to document changes over time in population parameters in response to perturbations, such as biological invasions (both in terms of the invader … Continue reading

Posted in DNA barcoding, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

From crocodiles to coconuts

The first plant trypanosomatids were discovered in plant tissues over 100 years ago, but we know very little about their biology, life cycle or how they have adapted to life inside plants. Jaskowska et al. (2015) provide a review of … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history | Leave a comment

The paludicolous life: peatmosses and pH

High dispersal should counteract local adaptation by continuously redistributing genetic variability.  In the bryophyte Sphagnum warnstorfii, the North Atlantic may not be as formidable a barrier as expected.  Spores may traverse the Atlantic Ocean to North America from Europe and vice … Continue reading

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Sex chromosome evolution … in haploids, that is

In diploid organisms, the rates of mutation and recombination played a pivotal role in the evolution of sex-determining regions and, thus, sex chromosomes.  We know quite a bit theoretically and empirically in XY systems in mammals and ZW systems in … Continue reading

Posted in evolution, mutation | Leave a comment

A population genetic R-evolution

Uphill, both ways, in the snow, without shoes … quite apt when thinking of the dark days, in the not too distant past, in which a separate input file was needed for each popgen analysis in order to use a … Continue reading

Posted in howto, methods, population genetics, R, software, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Species and sensibility

Pante et al. (2014) performed a literature review of marine population connectivity in order to illustrate the biased estimates of connectivity which can result from the failure to recognize an evolutionary-relevant unit, such as a species. When exploring the connectivity … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, DNA barcoding, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, theory | 6 Comments