Category Archives: adaptation

dN(eutralist) = dS(electionist) Part 3

Posted on 19 Mar, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

In a previous post, I discussed the phenomenon of background selection, which results in rapid expungement of neutral alleles linked to loci under purifying or negative selection, and conversely, the rapid fixation of neutral variants that are linked to loci of … Continue reading →

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

Mating systems

Posted on 13 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

In a new paper, published online in Molecular Ecology, Pannell (2015) reviews the literature on the evolution of mating systems and dispersal in colonizing species as component of a special issue called Invasion Genetics: The Baker and Stebbins Legacy.  This issue is … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, conferences, evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, selection | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sometimes selection gives you more bang for your buck

Posted on 2 Mar, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

Most species experience many environmental stressors simultaneously which means the direction and magnitude of evolutionary responses will depend on trade-offs between traits whose relationship may prevent them from being simultaneously optimized. Multiple sources of stress may act in opposing ways, for … Continue reading →

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Bigger on the inside

Posted on 24 Feb, 2015 by Jeremy Yoder

The Molecular Ecologist receives a small commission for purchases made on Bookshop.org via links from this post. Evolutionary biology is, fundamentally, the study of how populations of living things change over time. Different creatures live different lives, and at any given point in … Continue reading →

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Coral conservation through assisted evolution

Posted on 23 Feb, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

Coral reefs occupy a tiny portion of the world’s oceans (see map below) but their biodiversity is hugely disproportionate to their size. More than 450 million people from 109 countries live in close proximity to coral reefs and depend upon the … Continue reading →

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Interspecific gene flow enhances vectorial capacity

Posted on 20 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

There are charismatic cases of gene flow between species, such as Neanderthals (see also Arun’s posts here and here), but the role of introgression in evolution remains poorly documented. Recently diverged species have incomplete reproductive isolation and can hybridize. Rapid … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, phylogenetics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Twice Mixed? Testing hypotheses of Neanderthal Introgression

Posted on 19 Feb, 2015 by Arun Sethuraman

Human migration in, and out of Africa was wrought with complex patterns of admixture (see my previous post summarizing the story so far). Of note were some recent findings on the disparity in amounts of Neanderthal introgression/ancestry between East Asians … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, mutation, Paleogenomics, population genetics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Rescue me

Posted on 6 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Whiteley et al. (2015) review genetic rescue (GR), or the increase in population fitness (growth) owing to immigration of new alleles, in a new paper in TREE. Genetic rescue is a controversial and hasn’t been applied to any great extent … Continue reading →

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From crocodiles to coconuts

Posted on 30 Jan, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

The first plant trypanosomatids were discovered in plant tissues over 100 years ago, but we know very little about their biology, life cycle or how they have adapted to life inside plants. Jaskowska et al. (2015) provide a review of … Continue reading →

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Species and sensibility

Posted on 9 Jan, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Pante et al. (2014) performed a literature review of marine population connectivity in order to illustrate the biased estimates of connectivity which can result from the failure to recognize an evolutionary-relevant unit, such as a species. When exploring the connectivity … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, DNA barcoding, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, theory | 6 Comments