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Category Archives: Molecular Ecology, the journal
Landscape genetics gets existential
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
Conversation starter: common mistakes in population genetics
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
Posted in community, methods, Molecular Ecology, the journal
Tagged mistakes, opinion, study design
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Differential gene expression turns on salamander attack mode
The transcriptomics field is boomin’. Approaches like RNA-seq have opened the flood gates to hundreds and hundreds of investigations that compare gene expression between biologically-interesting phenotypes, variants, species, etc. Plastic phenotypes have been a fascinating area of study for decades … Continue reading
Migration on the brain
If you’ve watched any number of nature shows in your lifetime, you’ve seen the astounding migrations made by salmonid fishes. You can count on seeing a shot of salmon darting against the current and catapulting themselves over turbulent falls (like … Continue reading
Posted in Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, RNAseq, transcriptomics
Tagged migration, Salmon
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Molecular Ecology's best reviewers 2015
(Flickr: Kathrin & Stefan Marks) As a continuation of our post from last year, Molecular Ecology is publishing a list of our very best referees from the last two years (2013 and 2014). Our hope is that the people listed … Continue reading
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
Many animals use visual signals to scope out potential mates. In a new paper in Molecular Ecology, Sandkam et al. (2015) demonstrate that the variation underlying preference in female guppies could be explained by simple changes in expression and coding of … Continue reading
Harry Smith, the founder of Molecular Ecology, has died
We’ve received word that Harry Smith, the founder of Molecular Ecology, passed away yesterday. Smith had a prolific and well-regarded career studying the molecular basis of plants’ responses to their environments. In particular, he helped to demonstrate how plants perceive … Continue reading
Posted in community, Molecular Ecology, the journal, science publishing
Tagged Harry Smith, in memoriam
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Estimating the ticks and tocks of molecular clocks
Like many undergraduate students, I learned about the linear, universal molecular clock: the homogeneous rate of nucleotide change over time. When I sat down to actually do analyses of molecular data, I was confounded by the array of options to treat DNA … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, mutation, software
Tagged molecular clock
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