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Monthly Archives: January 2014
What we're reading: Convergent evolution of thrifty yeast, the surprising history of amphibian-killing fungus in Brazil, and novels as biology homework
In the journals Hong J, Gresham D. 2014. Molecular specificity, convergence and constraint shape adaptive evolution in nutrient-poor environments. PLoS Genetics 10(1):e1004041. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004041. The identification of repeatedly selected variation at functionally related loci that interact epistatically suggests that gene network … Continue reading
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Caught in the act: how drug-resistance mutations sweep through populations of HIV
The following guest post by Meredith L. Carpenter is cross-posted from the CEHG blog at Stanford, and it describes recent work by Pleuni Pennings, who was featured in last week’s interview. Enjoy! It has been over 30 years since the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, medicine, population genetics
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What we're reading: The heritability of flammability, genomics of adaptation to climate, and when to take a break already
In the journals Moreira B., MC Castellanos, and JG Pausas. 2014. Genetic component of flammability variation in a Mediterranean shrub Molecular Ecology. doi: 10.1111/mec.12665. Our general hypothesis is that flammability-enhancing traits are adaptive; here we test whether they have a … Continue reading
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People behind the Science: Dr. Pleuni Pennings
For the first Molecular Ecologist Q&A feature of 2014, I’m excited to present Dr. Pleuni Pennings. Dr. Pennings is a postdoc with Dmitri Petrov at Standord University, where she’s studying the evolution of drug resistance in HIV. In addition to … Continue reading
What we're reading: Human population growth rates, canine population genomics, and things Hope Jahren will not do
In the journals Gazave E, L Ma, D Chang, A Coventry, F Gao, D Muzny, E Boerwinkle, RA Gibbs, CF Sing, AG Clark, and A Keinan. 2013. Neutral genomic regions refine models of recent rapid human population growth PNAS doi: … Continue reading
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What we're reading: Landscape genetics of pikas, a genetic link between larval and adult behavior, and the saddest quest story of the year so far
In the journals Castillo JA, CW Epps, AR Davis, SA Cushman. 2014. Landscape effects on gene flow for a climate-sensitive montane species, the American pika. Molecular Ecology doi: 10.1111/mec.12650. Pikas are heat intolerant and restricted to cool microclimates, thus range … Continue reading
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What we're reading: MHC heterozygote advantage in wolves, isolation by environment versus distance, and the case against college sports
In the journals Niskanen AK, LJ Kennedy, M Ruokonen, I Kojola, H Lohi, M Isomursu, E Jansson, T Pyhäjärvi, J Aspi, J. 2014. Balancing selection and heterozygote advantage in MHC loci of the bottlenecked Finnish wolf population. Molecular Ecology doi: … Continue reading
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