Tag Archives: hybridization

Large predators, large data, large conservation issues

We are a diverse group here at The Molecular Ecologist. Melissa writes love letters to sponges. Stacy takes you on exotic kelp road trips. Arun gives you another excuse to spend the afternoon playing with R. I feel that it is … Continue reading

Posted in conservation, Molecular Ecology, the journal, pedigree | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Genomics of domestication in chicken and cattle

Two recent studies attempt to understand the process of adaptive evolution in domestication and artificial selection by characterizing (a) sweeps, and their association with phenotypes in extant hybrid lines (Sheng et al. 2015), and (b) phylogenomic position of an extinct … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, domestication, evolution, genomics, natural history, Paleogenomics, phylogeography, population genetics, selection, speciation, STRUCTURE | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On background selection in Ficedula flycatchers

Several recent studies (including those I wrote about last week) use genome-wide scans of differentiation to understand evolutionary mechanisms behind high or low divergence. However, there has been contentious support for and against these differentiation islands being due to differential … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation, theory | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paternity matters in polyploid plants

In the most basic definition, polyploidy is a numerical increase in whole chromosome number. The effects of this increase in genomic material often produce novel morphologies compared to parental species, and polyploids have become both a huge part of explaining the … Continue reading

Posted in pedigree, plants | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Dispersal and the rainbow trout takeover

I’m going to keep rolling on the dispersal theme from last week and share a new paper by Ryan Kovach and colleagues that demonstrates the balance between dispersal and selection. Specifically, the authors show that this balance dictates the hybridization … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Just like an elephant and a manatee …

There is a positive correlation between the time since two lineages have diverged and the strength of the reproductive barriers between them. Rothfels et al. (2015) have described a natural hybridization event between two fern genera that diverged from one … Continue reading

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, natural history, speciation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment