What we're reading: Landscape genomics in Evolution, tracking evolution with more than two alleles, and the value of the selfish gene meme

Book
In the journals
Petren, K. 2013. The evolution of landscape genetics. Evolution 67:3383–5 doi: 10.1111/evo.12278.

Evolutionary landscape genetics is the study of how migration and population structure affects evolutionary processes. As a field it dates back to Sewall Wright and the origin of theoretical population genetics, but empirical tests of adaptive processes of evolution in natural landscapes have been rare. Now, with recent developments in technology, methodology, and modeling tools, we are poised to trace adaptive genetic variation across space and through time.

And see the entire Special Section.
Caballero A, A García-Dorado. Allelic diversity and its implications for the rate of adaptation. Genetics 195: 1373-84. doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.158410.

… allelic-diversity variables are better predictors of long-term adaptation than gene-frequency variables. This observation is also extended to unlinked neutral markers as a result of the information they convey on the demographic population history.

In the news
David Dobbs goes looking for new metaphors in a world of non-Mendelian genetics. But see also; and also.
Want to buy an authorship? Apparently doing that is shockingly direct.
Bad news gets worse: On funding rates for the NIH.

About Jeremy Yoder

Jeremy B. Yoder is an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University Northridge, studying the evolution and coevolution of interacting species, especially mutualists. He is a collaborator with the Joshua Tree Genome Project and the Queer in STEM study of LGBTQ experiences in scientific careers. He has written for the website of Scientific American, the LA Review of Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Awl, and Slate.
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