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Category Archives: evolution
Co-opting responses for old enemies
On Friday, Shelby Gantt introduced us to an unusual type of parasite, the brood parasite! As Shelby eloquently described, brood parasitism is when an individual’s offspring are raised by someone else who incurs a cost to raising these offspring. The … Continue reading
#StudentSciComm
I just submitted my four year review and in so doing listed out the students that had published blogs on The Molecular Ecologist. Seventeen students have not only received course credit, but also have a non-peer reviewed publication on their … Continue reading
Posted in blogging, career, chat, community, ecology, evolution, howto, methods, Molecular Ecology, the journal, Science Communication, science publishing
Tagged Blogging, ecology, Evolution, scicomm, student, StudentSciComm
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How to handle the burden of deleterious mutations
With the increasingly pressing matter of populations being threatened by fragmentation and isolation, and with progressively more efficient sequencing technologies and analytical tools at hand, conservation genetics is starting to turn the spotlight on the topic of genetic load. It … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, demography, ecology, evolution, genomics, mammals, population genetics
Tagged genetic load, genetic purging, ibex, mutation load
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The brief history of African Americans in Evolutionary Biology, and why that is the case.
Update, 11 June 2020: This post has been edited to clarify attributions. I remember the first day I met a Black faculty member in evolutionary biology. I had just finished my first year of graduate school and was attending the Workshop … Continue reading
The world through the senses of a pangolin
This Saturday, February 15, is World Pangolin Day, and thus it is a good time to do some PR for these fascinating animals. Continue reading
Posted in ecology, evolution, genomics, mammals, RNAseq, transcriptomics
Tagged pangolin, senses, transcriptomics
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Microbial mutualists parted ways with this host plant — multiple times
Posted in evolution, microbiology, phylogenetics, plants
Tagged Bradyrhizobium, legume-rhizobium symbiosis, mutualism
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The genomic & physiological basis of high altitude adaptation in North American deer mice
In biology, there are many ways to solve evolutionary ‘challenges’ so it always amazes me when organisms solve them in similar ways. And I love a good paper that adds to our attempts to dissect multi-trait adaptations. Recently, Schweizer et … Continue reading
Molecular ecology highlights at the American Naturalist 2020 meeting
Even-numbered years are distinguished by Olympic Games (summer or winter), U.S. Congressional elections, and the American Society of Naturalists biennial meeting at Asilomar, a retreat center embedded in a California state park near the northern tip of the Monterey Peninsula. … Continue reading
Posted in community, conferences, evolution, genomics
Tagged American Society of Naturalists
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