Author Archives: Jeremy Yoder

About Jeremy Yoder

Jeremy B. Yoder is an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University Northridge, studying the evolution and coevolution of interacting species, especially mutualists. He is a collaborator with the Joshua Tree Genome Project and the Queer in STEM study of LGBTQ experiences in scientific careers. He has written for the website of Scientific American, the LA Review of Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Awl, and Slate.

The "sieve" of selection—and of scientific discovery

Posted on 12 Feb, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

One of the many fundamental insights to come out of the early days of population genetics in the first decades of the 20th Century was J.B.S. Haldane’s discovery that, when it comes to natural selection, population size matters. As Haldane … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, population genetics | 2 Comments

What we're reading: Arabidopsis and global warming, the species tree of chickadees, and Open Science's profit motive

Posted on 7 Feb, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Li Y, R Cheng, KA Spokas, AA Palmer, and JO Borevitz. 2014. Genetic Variation for Life History Sensitivity to Seasonal Warming in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics 196:569-77. doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.157628. The identified genetic architecture allowed accurate prediction of flowering … Continue reading →

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On “triangulation” in genome scans

Posted on 4 Feb, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Guest contributor K.E. Lotterhos is a marine biologist at Wake Forest University, who studies evolutionary responses to fishing and climate change. You can find her on Twitter under the handle @dr_k_lo. A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the genetic … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, genomics, methods, population genetics, quantitative genetics | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

What we're reading: Convergent evolution of thrifty yeast, the surprising history of amphibian-killing fungus in Brazil, and novels as biology homework

Posted on 31 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Hong J, Gresham D. 2014. Molecular specificity, convergence and constraint shape adaptive evolution in nutrient-poor environments. PLoS Genetics 10(1):e1004041. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004041. The identification of repeatedly selected variation at functionally related loci that interact epistatically suggests that gene network … Continue reading →

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Caught in the act: how drug-resistance mutations sweep through populations of HIV

Posted on 28 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

The following guest post by Meredith L. Carpenter is cross-posted from the CEHG blog at Stanford, and it describes recent work by Pleuni Pennings, who was featured in last week’s interview. Enjoy! It has been over 30 years since the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, medicine, population genetics | 3 Comments

What we're reading: The heritability of flammability, genomics of adaptation to climate, and when to take a break already

Posted on 24 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Moreira B., MC Castellanos, and JG Pausas. 2014. Genetic component of flammability variation in a Mediterranean shrub Molecular Ecology. doi: 10.1111/mec.12665. Our general hypothesis is that flammability-enhancing traits are adaptive; here we test whether they have a … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Human population growth rates, canine population genomics, and things Hope Jahren will not do

Posted on 17 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Gazave E, L Ma, D Chang, A Coventry, F Gao, D Muzny, E Boerwinkle, RA Gibbs, CF Sing, AG Clark, and A Keinan. 2013. Neutral genomic regions refine models of recent rapid human population growth PNAS doi: … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Landscape genetics of pikas, a genetic link between larval and adult behavior, and the saddest quest story of the year so far

Posted on 10 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Castillo JA, CW Epps, AR Davis, SA Cushman. 2014. Landscape effects on gene flow for a climate-sensitive montane species, the American pika. Molecular Ecology doi: 10.1111/mec.12650. Pikas are heat intolerant and restricted to cool microclimates, thus range … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: MHC heterozygote advantage in wolves, isolation by environment versus distance, and the case against college sports

Posted on 3 Jan, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Niskanen AK, LJ Kennedy, M Ruokonen, I Kojola, H Lohi, M Isomursu, E Jansson, T Pyhäjärvi, J Aspi, J. 2014. Balancing selection and heterozygote advantage in MHC loci of the bottlenecked Finnish wolf population. Molecular Ecology doi: … Continue reading →

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Why genetic tests are different

Posted on 31 Dec, 2013 by Jeremy Yoder

In yesterday’s New York Times, Kira Peikoff reported what happened when she took genetic tests for disease risks from three different providers—she got three very different results. 23andMe said my most elevated risks — about double the average — were … Continue reading →

Posted in association genetics, medicine, methods | 5 Comments