Category Archives: Molecular Ecology, the journal

Clinal genomic variation in Drosophila species

Posted on 12 Nov, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Two recent manuscripts describe adaptive evolutions to clinal/latitudinal variations in Drosophila species to supplement a growing wealth of recent studies on geographic variation and adaptive evolution in natural populations of fruitflies (eg. see Kao et al. 2015, Zhao et al. … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, population genetics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genetic distance predicts the spread of deadly fungal infections in bats

Posted on 14 Oct, 2015 by Rob Denton

You’ve probably heard about White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), the particularly nasty fungal pathogen that has decimated North American bat populations over the last decade. Not only has WNS been extremely deadly, but the speed at which it’s spread has been alarming. Really alarming: Understanding … Continue reading →

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Environmental association analyses: a practical guide for a practical guide

Posted on 2 Sep, 2015 by Rob Denton

Obtaining extensive SNP data for your organism of choice isn’t such a feat these days, but actually matching that breadth of data with appropriate analyses is still a challenge. Fortunately, there has been an avalanche of new methods to make … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, methods, Molecular Ecology, the journal | Tagged | 1 Comment

Where's your wine from?

Posted on 20 Aug, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Human-mediated selection of yeast cultures has played a huge role in the development of numerous unique strains of Sacchromyces cerevisiae, often attributed to production of a wide variety of wines the world over. Previous studies have indicated a single domesticated … Continue reading →

Posted in domestication, evolution, genomics, horizontal gene transfer, microbiology, Molecular Ecology, the journal, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, STRUCTURE, yeast | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Selection scans, and the genomics of adaptive/maladaptive introgression

Posted on 6 Aug, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Natural selection, and the adaptive evolution of hybrid reproductive incompatibilities post divergence are known to be major drivers of speciation. At the phenotype level, these manifest as fitness differences between introgressing populations. At the genomic level, speciation “genes” or “islands” … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, Molecular Ecology, the journal, mutation, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation, theory | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

When and how to "go for the genes"

Posted on 29 Jul, 2015 by Rob Denton

A new special issue of Molecular Ecology, entitled “Detecting selection in natural populations: making sense of genome scans and towards alternative solutions”, is coming down the line, and a few articles from that issue are starting to appear as newly-accepted. Seeing those … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, Molecular Ecology, the journal | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Adapting to the new wave of isolation by environment

Posted on 17 Jun, 2015 by Rob Denton

Isolation by environment, not distance, explains the genetic relationship between an avian taxon among Madrean Sky Islands, according to a new study appearing in Molecular Ecology by Manthey and Moyle. The authors throw the kitchen sink of new analyses at a combination … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Molecular Ecology, the journal, phylogeography | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The evolution of phylogeography in the next gen era: 20 years in review

Posted on 15 Jun, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

Phylogeographers have long known about the limitations of single locus studies (ie, the effects of selective sweeps, stochasticity in lineage sorting among loci) and that adding loci improves the accuracy of demographic parameter estimates. As we continue to shift towards collecting multi-locus datasets thanks to high throughput … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, genomics, Molecular Ecology, the journal, next generation sequencing, phylogeography, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Landscape genetics gets existential

Posted on 10 Jun, 2015 by Rob Denton

I had a lot of ideas for future posts, but “landscape genetics” keeps pulling me back. Beyond the new methodology, reviews, and empirical findings, I suppose someone has to pump the brakes and get more existential. Rodney Dyer does just … Continue reading →

Posted in Molecular Ecology views, Molecular Ecology, the journal, population genetics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Conversation starter: common mistakes in population genetics

Posted on 20 May, 2015 by Rob Denton

When interpreting the results, it is important to focus more on biological relevance than on statistical significance. That does not mean that significance is unimportant; results that have a straightforward interpretation but are not significant should not be considered. On the … Continue reading →

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