Monthly Archives: April 2016

New branches on the tree of life

Posted on 12 Apr, 2016 by Kelle Freel

(Trees from Darwin (1837), Haeckel (1866), and Woese (1990)) We’ve come quite a long way since Darwin sketched out his tree in 1837 connecting, with branch tips representing animals and microbes currently in existence and branches and trunks their ancestors. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on 11 Apr, 2016 by Elin Videvall

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

Searching for heroic MHC genes in the fight against fungal takeover

Posted on 6 Apr, 2016 by Rob Denton

Frogs have been disappearing all around the world in the past few decades. The reasons for these declines have been complex, but one of the biggest players is a nasty disease with an even nastier-sounding name: chytridiomycosis. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, selection | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

hyRAD and museum genomics

Posted on 5 Apr, 2016 by Ethan Linck

While the RAPTURE may have arrived, the development of novel restriction digest-based library prepartation techniques — and portmanteaus — continues unabated. In a paper published in PLoS ONE last month (and previously available as a preprint on bioRxiv), Tomasz Suchan … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, methods, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

A note about e-mail subscriptions

Posted on 4 Apr, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

If you recieve The Molecular Ecologist by e-mail, you’re far from alone — we have almost 650 subscribers recieving e-mailed posts via the Feedburner service. (How do you know if you’re one of them? You are if you’re reading this … Continue reading →

Posted in housekeeping, technical | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to Clone a Mammoth: When science fiction becomes reality

Posted on 4 Apr, 2016 by Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová

The Molecular Ecologist receives a small commission for purchases made on Bookshop.org via links from this post. When I explain that I study the woolly mammoth, sooner or later (and usually right away) comes the question, “Are you going to clone a mammoth?” … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Paleogenomics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

What makes a range?

Posted on 1 Apr, 2016 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Why do species have restricted geographic distributions? Classic ecological perspectives tell us distribution limits occur where ecological parameters coincide with the boundaries of ecological niches. Evolutionary perspectives, on the other hand, surmise distribution boundaries reflect a failure of niche evolution. Though small … Continue reading →

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