Category Archives: selection

Quantifying risks of consanguineous mating in humans

Posted on 30 Apr, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

The efficacy of selection in purging a deleterious mutation from a randomly mating population depends on numerous factors, including dominance effects of alleles – see my previous posts. Simplistically, most new mutations are expected to be heterozygotic, and be purged … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, mutation, pedigree, population genetics, selection, societal structure | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

d(N)eutralist < d(S)electionist Part 4

Posted on 2 Apr, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Continuing our discussion of the neutralist-selectionist debate, recent findings by Schrider et al. (2015) bring us to the topic of selective sweeps, and their genomic signatures in a population. As we have discussed in previous posts, numerous studies (since the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, mutation, population genetics, selection, theory | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Haploid-diploidy, a (brief?) history

Posted on 20 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

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 →

Posted in DNA barcoding, domestication, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

dN(eutralist) = dS(electionist) Part 3

Posted on 19 Mar, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

In a previous post, I discussed the phenomenon of background selection, which results in rapid expungement of neutral alleles linked to loci under purifying or negative selection, and conversely, the rapid fixation of neutral variants that are linked to loci of … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, natural history, plants, population genetics, selection | Tagged , | Leave a comment

To sequence a genome or not to sequence a genome, that is the question

Posted on 16 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

In a paper out last month in the Journal of Phycology, Bhattacharya et al. (2015) provide a perspective on the need for more algal genomes. [A] relevant question on the minds of many phycologists might be: do we really need more algal … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, horizontal gene transfer, mutation, next generation sequencing, selection | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mating systems

Posted on 13 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

In a new paper, published online in Molecular Ecology, Pannell (2015) reviews the literature on the evolution of mating systems and dispersal in colonizing species as component of a special issue called Invasion Genetics: The Baker and Stebbins Legacy.  This issue is … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, conferences, evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, selection | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Speciation by selection (and drift) in the sea

Posted on 9 Mar, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

Marine systems challenge the view that speciation is the result of geographic isolation. Many marine taxa have large effective population sizes, which slows lineage sorting, larval dispersal phases that may extend for days, weeks, and sometimes months, potentially connecting far flung populations, … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, next generation sequencing, selection, speciation | 1 Comment