Category Archives: population genetics

The why's of sex

Posted on 25 Mar, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Sex isn’t quite what it seems – while superficially wasteful in an evolutionary sense (why inherit on only one half of your genes, when you can inherit all of them asexually, or why waste resources in mating when you don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, mutation, natural history, next generation sequencing, population genetics, selection, theory, yeast | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Truth

Posted on 17 Mar, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Spoiler Alert: I’ve taken plenty of care to try and not spill the beans on any plotlines, but you have been forewarned that there may be some aspects of the science that’s discussed on the show that I attempt to … Continue reading →

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Are genetic drift and inbreeding the same thing?

Posted on 14 Mar, 2016 by Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová

Does it ever happen to you that the more you try to understand something, the more difficult to understand it turns out to be? Recently, I’ve had such a problem with two of the very basic microevolutionary phenomena – genetic … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, evolution, population genetics, quantitative genetics, theory, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Annotations on a tweet-storm directed more-or-less towards Neil deGrasse Tyson

Posted on 14 Mar, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

So, Saturday afternoon, while I really should have been working on other things, this happened: Hi, @neiltyson, I am an actual evolutionary geneticist who probably did inherit such a gene, thanks. https://t.co/B9ATLu357L — Jeremy Yoder (@JBYoder) March 12, 2016 What … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, natural history, population genetics, selection | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Neanderthal admixture plot thickens…

Posted on 25 Feb, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Previous studies of archaic admixture from Altai Neanderthals and Denisovans into modern humans outside of Africa have put forth several lines of evidence for gene flow from Neanderthals into common ancestors of Eurasian populations, from Denisovans into ancestors of modern … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, mutation, natural history, next generation sequencing, Paleogenomics, population genetics, speciation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Supergenes and Sparrows with Four Sexes

Posted on 10 Feb, 2016 by Ethan Linck

Supergenes are groups of tightly-linked genes that influence suites of traits relevant to fitness. While long a fixture of evolutionary genetics theory, their role in empirical studies of non-model organisms has been relatively limited, due to limitations in both our … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, horizontal gene transfer, natural history, population genetics, selection | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How the White Sands lizards lost their stripes

Posted on 9 Feb, 2016 by Katie Everson

In molecular ecology, most of us work with study systems that are messy, uncooperative, or just plain difficult (note the fecal samples incubating on my lab bench). What I wouldn’t give for a nice, elegant study system — like the … Continue reading →

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Single dispersal of modern humans to Eurasia

Posted on 8 Feb, 2016 by Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová

In a typical ancient DNA study where the number of authors exceeds the number of specimens (actually, equals this time), Cosimo Posth and colleagues sequenced 35 pre-Neolithic modern humans from Europe. By sequencing 35 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes, Posth et … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, genomics, natural history, Paleogenomics, population genetics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

How to build a mimic

Posted on 4 Feb, 2016 by Rob Denton

The history of evolutionary and ecological studies on mimic species is deep and chock-full of familiar names (Bates, Darwin, Muller, Wallace are just a few). There has also been no limit on the number of jaw-droppingly gorgeous species that have been under … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, population genetics, speciation | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Genomics of Hybridization – Part II, Top three of 2015

Posted on 28 Jan, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Death Valley pupfishes (Cyprinodon) are among the most endangered vertebrates on earth, with small inbred populations, with heavy risks of extinction in extreme environments. Martin et al. (2016) in a recent publication quantify diversity and adaptability in a very small population … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, conservation, genomics, methods, natural history, next generation sequencing, population genetics, R, software, speciation, STRUCTURE, theory | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment