Author Archives: Elin Videvall

Microbes can rapidly evolve host-protective traits

One of the coolest studies I’ve come across so far this year is the fascinating story about microbe-mediated protection in worms by Kayla King et al. The bacterium Enterococcus faecalis normally causes mild disease in worms (Caenorhabditis elegans). After a week … Continue reading

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

Poorly updated databases will affect your results

If you’re anything like me, your research is heavily dependent on the many wonderful database resources available online. NCBI, UniProtKB, Ensembl, Swiss-Prot, EMBL-EBI, and many other sites and organizations offer highly useful (and often curated) molecular information. Can you imagine … Continue reading

Posted in bioinformatics, genomics, next generation sequencing, software | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Results of the Molecular Ecologist's Survey on High-Throughput Sequencing

Some days ago, we asked our readers to fill in a survey (now closed) on your use of high-throughput sequencing techniques. We got a lot of responses, a total of 260 people filled in the form. Thank you! Here are the results of your answers. The … Continue reading

Posted in bioinformatics, genomics, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Molecular Ecologist's Survey on High-Throughput Sequencing

Last week we updated the Field Guide to Next Generation DNA Sequencers to better reflect the sequencing techniques of 2016. The NGS Field Guide is one of the most popular resources on the Molecular Ecologist web site, but we don’t know much about how our readers use … Continue reading

Posted in bioinformatics, genomics, methods, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Chromosomal inversion determines male morphs in the ruff

The ruff is a wading bird where the male becomes especially spectacular during mating season with its colorful and variable breeding plumage. Two papers published together in Nature Genetics in November have now identified the genetic source of the large variation … Continue reading

Posted in evolution, genomics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The 2016 Workshop on Genomics summary

I recently had the pleasure to spend two and a half weeks in the beautiful medieval town of Český Krumlov, Czech Republic. The reason was the popular Workshop on Genomics that was running and I was one of the TAs … Continue reading

Posted in bioinformatics, genomics, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment