Category Archives: adaptation

Evolution 2018 Day 1: From genomics in the wild, to new models of selection

It’s Evolution conference time! Evolution has long been my favourite fixture in the conference calendar, with its diverse mix of theoretical and empirical studies that span the full range of evolutionary biology. This year it’s the second Joint Congress on … Continue reading

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Just So Stories addendum: How the stickleback keeps getting its stickles

Model organisms have been essential tools for genetics research since the field was formed.  Kelle Freel discussed the characteristics that make for a good model organism in a previous TME post.  Briefly, traits like short generation time, lots of offspring, … Continue reading

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Field notes from city streets

I spent this morning in Los Angeles city parks, pulling up clover. This attracted less attention than you might expect. Angelenos are, as a group, not inclined to bother people who aren’t doing anyone else any obvious harm, and honestly … Continue reading

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La vie en rouge … l'algue rouge

Best laid plans of a #NewPI … what happens to them? Well, they often get triaged for more urgent things that were triaged earlier for more urgent things that were also triaged even earlier for more urgent things … and … Continue reading

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Chromosomal inversions and the maintenance of species barriers

Chromosomal inversions have long fascinated evolutionary biologists for their role in adaptation and speciation. These structural variants are abundant in natural populations and can have diverse evolutionary consequences. They can cause reproductive isolation through hybrid sterility or protect sets of … Continue reading

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The secret life of invaders

So I have this pet theory. And damn if the evidence doesn’t seem to be piling up. Am I living in the bubble of my own google alerts? Possibly. I’m an evolutionary ecologist and invasion biologist, and (surprise!) my pet … Continue reading

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Oh my ploidy … diploids evolve more slowly than haploids?

It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I last sat at my keyboard in a TME capacity (#NewPI chat doesn’t really count)! One year ago today, to be exact (writing this on 28 March, for publication on 29 March). Thus, … Continue reading

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Are population genomic scans for locally adapted loci too successful?

Last Friday, Molecular Ecology released an interesting new systematic review online ahead of print. Colin Ahrens and coauthors at a number of Australian research institutions compiled results from 66 papers reporting tests for locally adapted loci based on either FST … Continue reading

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DNA sequence data shows that this "living fossil" isn't so fossilized after all

Living fossils are a tricky concept for evolutionary biology. In principle it seems simple: living organisms that closely resemble creatures seen in the fossil record going back millions of years. Usually they’re a single representative of a fossil record containing … Continue reading

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Habitat-matching dispersal facilitates local adaptation

Migration disrupts local adaptation. At least, this is the first reaction I have when I consider these two processes. In fact, my initial thought is almost always: how strong does selection have to be to overcome gene flow? Gene flow … Continue reading

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