Category Archives: Coevolution

What's all the buzz about? Bees got microbiomes too!

Posted on 11 May, 2016 by Kelle Freel

So I know we are all blabbing about the human microbiome, who isn’t fascinated by the impressive roles tiny microbes have in our lives!? Trying to unravel what exactly our microbial communities do for us, and how they relate to … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A new (quantitative!) method for comparative phylogeography

Posted on 4 May, 2016 by Katie Everson

Comparative phylogeographic studies usually involve a) documenting a phylogeographic pattern and b) recognizing that the same pattern is congruent in multiple species. But what if species histories are only sortof congruent? Perhaps they share one major splitting event but not later … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, phylogeography, plants, software | Tagged , | 5 Comments

One of these things is not like the other……

Posted on 22 Apr, 2016 by Kelle Freel

While we know that bacteria are pretty scandalous with their DNA, not minding horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and such (which can be pretty confounding when trying to discuss species concepts), and although it’s clear that this kind of genetic material … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, genomics, horizontal gene transfer | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

When times are good or bad, happy or sad, viral quasispecies like to stay together

Posted on 15 Mar, 2016 by Kelle Freel

We’ve known for a long time that symbioses are important across all walks of life. Clownfish and sea anemones are obligate symbionts, and bacteria found in legume root nodules help fix nitrogen. In a nice review published recently in Evolutionary … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A race to the bottom with a new card from the coevolutionary deck

Posted on 29 Jan, 2016 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

I’m a sucker for a clever, amusing title, though I’ve recently read that amusing titles are cited less (see here). Alas, maybe a well placed metaphor can enliven a manuscript and also not get lost in a citation-less abyss? In basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, horizontal gene transfer, microbiology, selection | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Pre-adapted algal ancestors colonized land

Posted on 7 Dec, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

The colonization of land by plants 450 Mya marked a major transition on Earth and was one of the critical events that led to the emergence of extant terrestrial ecosystems. Chief among the challenges the terrestrial environment presented for these … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, plants, transcriptomics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bees brought to their knees

Posted on 27 Nov, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

As regular readers of TME will have read, this past summer was a whirlwind of sampling in which I took the briefest of holidays in the Southwest of England before attending the European Phycological Congress (read about the congress here and here). … Continue reading →

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

Anti-predatory adaptations in sticklebacks and butterflies

Posted on 23 Nov, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Two recent studies analyze character shifts in response to different selection regimes – (1) Mullerian mimicry wing patterns in Heliconius butterflies, and (2) anti-intraguild-predator adaptations in armor and shape of threespine sticklebacks. Hoyal Cuthill and Charleston 2015 Wing patterning genes … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, selection, speciation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

On background selection in Ficedula flycatchers

Posted on 8 Oct, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Several recent studies (including those I wrote about last week) use genome-wide scans of differentiation to understand evolutionary mechanisms behind high or low divergence. However, there has been contentious support for and against these differentiation islands being due to differential … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation, theory | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sweptaway – Part 3 – Adaptation genomics of White Sands Lizards

Posted on 24 Sep, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Recent colonization events offer juicy insights into the adaptive evolution of species in response to natural selection of novel habitats – however, they are confounded by demographic changes (eg. bottlenecks, differential migration). In a recent study, Laurent et al. (2015) … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history, population genetics, selection | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment