Tag Archives: Evolution

The Butterfly Effect

Posted on 9 Jul, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

This might just take the prize for the ‘spiciest’ story in molecular co-evolution for 2015, yet. While a lot of the press coverage sounds like caterpillar thanksgiving, the science behind this study stands for the almost incredible power of molecular phylogenetics … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation, transcriptomics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Societal constructs, and Genetic diversity

Posted on 2 Jul, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

While we grapple with numerous discoveries of variation in genomic diversity in humans, interest has subsequently risen in understanding their causes/results. Two recent papers describe experiments to determine (a) the effects of marital rules (who gets to marry whom) on … Continue reading →

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Rooting eukaryotes in the Arctic Ocean

Posted on 14 May, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

While the general consensus has centered around the evolution of eukaryotes within the TACK superphylum of Archaea (Thaum-, Aigar-, Cren-, and Kor-archaeota), considerable controversy yet remains with (a) the rooting of the eukaryote common ancestor, and (b) ‘missing’ links in … Continue reading →

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Sous les mers: cradles or museums of biodiversity?

Posted on 2 May, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

While thinking about environmental genomics and writing this post on a recent article in Heredity, I interviewed Eric Pante.

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The brave new world of environmental genomics

Posted on 17 Apr, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

A new special issue of Heredity reflects on the recent advances in environmental genomics (see other posts about eDNA here and here) and highlights the ways NGS can aid in characterizing complex biological systems. The cryptic, as well as the rare but active … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, Coevolution, DNA barcoding, evolution, genomics | Tagged , , , | 1 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 →

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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

Phonemes and Genomes

Posted on 5 Feb, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Human phonemes and genomes are thought to have evolved hand-in-glove out of Africa. Several recent studies have attempted to capture a picture of this global variation in languages and peoples, often supporting (and rejecting) a serial founder model (eg. see … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, phylogenetics, population genetics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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

#EntSoc14, a quick review

Posted on 20 Nov, 2014 by Arun Sethuraman

I have had a wonderful time at my first big bug conference – the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Amid secretive (or not so secretive) break-out sessions to Voodoo Doughnuts, … Continue reading →

Posted in conferences, genomics, phylogenetics, population genetics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment