Category Archives: hybridization

Genetic Rescue – Fitness and genomic consequences

As a PhD student studying the effects of genetic diversity overall and immunogenetic diversity specifically on survival and reproductive success in an endangered primate in captive and wild populations, I thought a lot about the potential effects of inbreeding and … Continue reading

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Yeast 2-Hybrid: Discovering Protein-Protein Interactions from Yeast to West

Thomas Detchemendy wrote this post as part of Dr. Stacy Krueger-Hadfield’s Science Communication course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a PhD student under the mentorship of Dr. Shahid Mukhtar. He is currently studying plant-microbial interactions in efforts to … Continue reading

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Hybridization in the depths of the last glacial period created a world-conquering clover

Plants’ flexibility with the structure of their genome — able to cope with proliferating transposons, whole-genome duplications, or even acquisition of complete sets of chromosomes from another species — is a big source of evolutionary novelty. Duplication of a single gene … Continue reading

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Chromosomal inversions and the maintenance of species barriers

Chromosomal inversions have long fascinated evolutionary biologists for their role in adaptation and speciation. These structural variants are abundant in natural populations and can have diverse evolutionary consequences. They can cause reproductive isolation through hybrid sterility or protect sets of … Continue reading

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The secret life of invaders

So I have this pet theory. And damn if the evidence doesn’t seem to be piling up. Am I living in the bubble of my own google alerts? Possibly. I’m an evolutionary ecologist and invasion biologist, and (surprise!) my pet … Continue reading

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Genomic signatures of ancient rendezvous and separation in elephant evolution

Evidence from various levels of the tree of life is showing that we’ve been picturing ancient encounters between related species all wrong and admixture events are probably more common than expected. Even rendezvous among primates, caniforms, and majestic proboscideans often … Continue reading

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In the aftermath of fire, bluebird species boundaries may blur

One of the most clear-cut reasons that species evolve to fill different ecological niches is competition. Two otherwise similar species that use the same resources experience strong selection favoring the use of less-similar resources, if they have the option. The … Continue reading

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