Monthly Archives: July 2014

What we're reading: The creosote-eating gut microbes of wood rats, the molecular taxonomy of bats' diets, and drift in experimental evolution

Posted on 25 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Kohl, K. D., Weiss, R. B., Cox, J., Dale, C., Denise Dearing, M. (2014), Gut microbes of mammalian herbivores facilitate intake of plant toxins. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.12329. Creosote toxins altered the population structure of the gut … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Experimental evolution of beetles' immunity, adaptive introgression in mussels, and sexual harassment in the field

Posted on 18 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Joop G., O. Roth, P. Schmid-Hempel, and J. Kurtz. 2014. Experimental evolution of external immune defences in the red flour beetle. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 27: 1562–1571. doi: 10.1111/jeb.12406. Intriguingly, we found indication for an interme- diate … Continue reading →

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Peer review, reviewed

Posted on 16 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Rebecca Schuman, who has almost single-handedly turned Slate into one of best big websites for coverage of the many trials and tribulations of academia, turns to peer review for scholarly journals, in which an author’s academic peers volunteer to weigh … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Sexual selection and fish placentas, SNPs versus observational pedigrees, and the stupidest statement ever on replication

Posted on 11 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Pollux BJA, RW Meredith, MS Springer, DN Reznick. 2014. The evolution of the placenta drives a shift in sexual selection in livebearing fish. Nature. doi: 10.1038/nature13451. We show that post-zygotic maternal provisioning by means of a placenta … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Fish gut microbes, Denisovan origins of Tibetan altitude adaptation, and the curious costs of journal subscriptions

Posted on 4 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Bolnick, D. I., L. K. Snowberg, P. E. Hirsch, C. L. Lauber, R. Knight, J. G. Caporaso, and R. Svanbäck. 2014. Individuals’ diet diversity influences gut microbial diversity in two freshwater fish (threespine stickleback and Eurasian perch). … Continue reading →

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Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo in population genetics

Posted on 1 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

This is a guest post by Arun Sethuraman, a postdoctoral associate with Jody Hey, studying statistical models for divergence population genetics in the Department of Biology at Temple University. You can also find him on Twitter, and on his short story blog. Prompted by the great response … Continue reading →

Posted in methods, population genetics, software | Tagged , | 3 Comments