Category Archives: genomics

Chromosomal inversions and the maintenance of species barriers

Posted on 29 May, 2018 by Alex Twyford

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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DNA extraction for PacBio sequencing

Posted on 26 Apr, 2018 by Alex Twyford

PacBio is emerging as the favoured sequencing approach for assembling high-quality reference genomes. But the big issue with PacBio sequencing is that to get long sequence reads you need to start with high molecular weight DNA. For my first foray … Continue reading →

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Sequencing round-up 2018

Posted on 31 Mar, 2018 by Alex Twyford

The deluge of new sequencing approaches continues at a pace. It seems that you turn your back for five minutes and there’s a shiny new sequencing platform promising to deliver more for less. What is the current state of play … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Oh my ploidy … diploids evolve more slowly than haploids?

Posted on 29 Mar, 2018 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

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 →

Posted in adaptation, blogging, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, selection, yeast | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Major new microbial groups expand diversity and alter our understanding of the tree of life

Posted on 18 Mar, 2018 by Laetitia Wilkins

I still believe in revolutions. And sometimes they just happen, almost unnoticed. One such revolution happened on a boring 11th of April 2016 when Laura Hug et al. published their new tree of life in the journal of Nature Microbiology. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Are population genomic scans for locally adapted loci too successful?

Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 by Jeremy Yoder

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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Genomic signatures of ancient rendezvous and separation in elephant evolution

Posted on 5 Mar, 2018 by Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová

Evidence from various levels of the tree of life is showing that we’ve been picturing ancient encounters between related species all wrong and admixture events are probably more common than expected. Even rendezvous among primates, caniforms, and majestic proboscideans often … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, evolution, genomics, hybridization, natural history, Paleogenomics, phylogeography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Climate change and genomic vulnerability

Posted on 8 Jan, 2018 by Ethan Linck

As the world burns and we barrel heedlessly into an ever-smaller and uglier future, predicting how species will respond to climate change will be critical for conservation planning. Intuition suggests most organisms will shift their ranges up in latitude or … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, evolution, genomics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Molecular ecology, the flowchart

Posted on 2 Jan, 2018 by Jeremy Yoder

Update: You can now buy a poster print of the Flowchart, with proceeds going to support The Molecular Ecologist! Towards the end of last semester my department’s evolutionary genetics journal club read Rasmus Nielsen’s terrific 2005 review of tests for … Continue reading →

Posted in association genetics, bioinformatics, genomics, howto, infographic, linkage mapping, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, selection | 2 Comments