Category Archives: haploid-diploid

To the final estuaries

For the final stop on our Japanese sampling leg, we ventured to the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Tokyo was known as Edo (江戸), or estuary, until it became the imperial capital in 1868. An apt location to end our field expedition … Continue reading

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Three Views of Japan

By the time we reached Sendai, we were heading into our fourth week of sharing one tiny suitcase of clothes, while bags of silica were luxuriously spread across three large suitcases! Games of Jenga in the teeny rental cars were … Continue reading

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Along the Mackerel Road

We left Hokkaido and flew to Osaka where we collected our next rental car (our first teeny tiny one!) As our flight was delayed due to weather in Hokkaido, we decided to break the journey between Osaka and Obama (it … Continue reading

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In the northern biosphere

As regular readers will know, I’ve spent the summer traveling around the Northern Hemisphere sampling the red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla, an introduced alga in North America and Europe. I’ve rewound to the beginning of the summer in order to highlight our … Continue reading

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Dōmo arigatō

Along with my collaborators, Erik Sotka, Courtney Murren, Allan Strand and our battery of students, we have embarked on an intense summer field season. Erik and I are leading the effort of sampling populations of the introduced red seaweed Gracilaria … Continue reading

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Clonal conundrum, part deux

In the second installment of the clonal conundrum, one hallmark of clonality is one that surprisingly hasn’t been validated that many times using species that have both sexually and asexually reproducing populations. Theoretically, clonal reproduction should generate massive … Heterozygote excess … Continue reading

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Clonal conundrum, part un

Molecular ecologists are faced with a clonal conundrum when we wish to investigate the evolutionary ecology of clonal organisms. An attack of the clones is not something that should frighten one away …

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Haploid-diploidy, a (brief?) history

Haploid-diploid life cycles are not only good exercise for the brain, but they’re also fantastic study systems to investigate a myriad of questions. Yet, the majority of molecular studies have focused on the diploid-dominated life cycles of animal and plant … Continue reading

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