Category Archives: genomics

The genomic & physiological basis of high altitude adaptation in North American deer mice

In biology, there are many ways to solve evolutionary ‘challenges’ so it always amazes me when organisms solve them in similar ways. And I love a good paper that adds to our attempts to dissect multi-trait adaptations. Recently, Schweizer et … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, evolution, genomics, mammals, population genetics, RNAseq, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Molecular ecology highlights at the American Naturalist 2020 meeting

Even-numbered years are distinguished by Olympic Games (summer or winter), U.S. Congressional elections, and the American Society of Naturalists biennial meeting at Asilomar, a retreat center embedded in a California state park near the northern tip of the Monterey Peninsula. … Continue reading

Posted in community, conferences, evolution, genomics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Genomic data reveal links between demography and adaptation in experimental host-virus coevolution

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, ecology, evolution, genomics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Loki and behold: one microbial culture that brings us one leap closer to understanding the origins of eukaryotic cells

What were you doing 10 years ago? Can you remember? Were you, perhaps, trying to sort out the origins of eukaryotic life? A pre-print (yet to be peer-reviewed) was released earlier this month by Imachi et al., describing a 12 … Continue reading

Posted in ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, hybridization, speciation | Tagged | 1 Comment

Move or adapt to changing climate? These chipmunks have had to do both

Climate change threatens to land many, many species in conditions for which they’re not adapted — too warm, too dry, too stormy, too flood-prone — and traditionally the ways that living things might respond to this are framed as a … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, comparative phylogeography, genomics, mammals | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Luck be a Korarchaeota tonight

Some tiny microbes are making a pretty big splash, and not just in the hot springs they call home in Yellowstone National Park. Recently, there was an interesting article published in Nature Microbiology about some amazing archaea, which are generally … Continue reading

Posted in community ecology, ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Where credit is due

I am trying to keep this short. You might remember my recent blog post on data sharing. I basically wanted to point out that data acquisition can be an art on its own. It can take months of planning, applying … Continue reading

Posted in bioinformatics, career, community, data archiving, genomics, science publishing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Towards unrestricted use of public genomic data

Last week, a friend sent me this policy forum article published in Science. Fifty co-authors, mostly tenured and from prestigious universities, some of them among my dearest idols, have written this piece to call for publicly available genome data. What … Continue reading

Posted in career, community, data archiving, genomics, science publishing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Is taxonomy still relevant to innovative science?

Elise Keister wrote this post as a final project for Stacy Krueger-Hadfield’s Conservation Genetics course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Elise studies the impact of climate change on corals as a PhD student in Dr. Dustin Kemp’s lab. Elise … Continue reading

Posted in blogging, ecology, evolution, genomics, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment