Category Archives: theory

dN(eutralist) < dS(electionist) Part 5

Posted on 16 Apr, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

The neutral theory predicts that species with small census (and effective) population sizes are subject to greater drift (or allele frequency fluctuations), and vice versa. In other words, species with larger population sizes are expected to maintain more neutral diversity … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, mutation, natural history, plants, population genetics, theory | 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

How (not) to review papers on inclusive fitness

Posted on 30 Mar, 2015 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

There are few evolutionary concepts as polarizing as Hamilton’s rule. Some researchers feel that there is no mathematical grounding for it, while others beg to differ. Yet empirical evidence in support of Hamilton’s rule is scarce (but check out this … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, population genetics, societal structure, theory | Leave a comment

dN(eutralist) > dS(electionist)? Part 2

Posted on 5 Mar, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Last week’s post dealt with the debate over differences in the efficacy of purifying selection across human genomes. This week, we’ll look at the differences in de novo mutation rates across populations. The human de novo mutation rate has gone … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, mutation, theory | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

dN(eutralist) > dS(electionist)? Part 1

Posted on 26 Feb, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

In a new series of posts, I will now proffer neutralist and selectionist reviews of recent publications. I point readers to an excellent review of the debate by Masatoshi Nei (2005). Besides being a fun exercise in PoV’s, I hope … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, genomics, mutation, population genetics, theory | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Genome-wide effects of artificial selection

Posted on 12 Feb, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Humans have been artificially selecting for favorable traits in crops, pets, and livestock over millennia. Years of theoretical predictions and experimental evolution studies have shown the detrimental effects of increased homozygosity, and the population-wide advantages of artificially maintaining heterozygosity. Two … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, methods, mutation, population genetics, theory | Leave a comment

Incorporating phenotype and genotype in model-based species delimitation

Posted on 26 Jan, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

  Species are the fundamental unit of biology but identifying them is a challenging task that receives a lot of theoretical and empirical attention. In a recent Evolution paper, Solís‐Lemus et al. (2015) introduce a new model-based method that integrates phenotypic and genetic data … Continue reading →

Posted in methods, speciation, species delimitation, theory | 2 Comments

Species and sensibility

Posted on 9 Jan, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Pante et al. (2014) performed a literature review of marine population connectivity in order to illustrate the biased estimates of connectivity which can result from the failure to recognize an evolutionary-relevant unit, such as a species. When exploring the connectivity … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, DNA barcoding, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, theory | 6 Comments

The Evolution of Recombination

Posted on 4 Dec, 2014 by Arun Sethuraman

In a recent publication, Lesecque et al (2014). provide key evidence that fills in some of the blanks to an age old question – how do recombination hotspots evolve? Their analyses of major PRDM9 (a polymorphic zinc finger protein with … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, genomics, mutation, population genetics, theory | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Identifying and quantifying fitness effects across loci

Posted on 17 Apr, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

The following guest post by Ethan Jewett is cross-posted from the is cross-posted from the CEHG blog at Stanford. Enjoy! The degree to which similarities and differences among species are the result of natural selection, rather than genetic drift, is … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, genomics, population genetics, theory | 1 Comment