Category Archives: genomics

Evolution 2018: assortative mating, combinatorial speciation and genome dynamics

Posted on 24 Aug, 2018 by Alex Twyford

The Evolution conference in Montpellier is over, and as the sun, wine and great science become a memory, here is my recap of some conference highlights following on from a great first day: Sharon Strauss (University of California Davis) gave … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, conferences, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Evolution 2018 Day 1: From genomics in the wild, to new models of selection

Posted on 19 Aug, 2018 by Alex Twyford

It’s Evolution conference time! Evolution has long been my favourite fixture in the conference calendar, with its diverse mix of theoretical and empirical studies that span the full range of evolutionary biology. This year it’s the second Joint Congress on … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community, conferences, evolution, genomics, population genetics, speciation, theory | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Just So Stories addendum: How the stickleback keeps getting its stickles

Posted on 6 Aug, 2018 by Katharine Coykendall

Model organisms have been essential tools for genetics research since the field was formed.  Kelle Freel discussed the characteristics that make for a good model organism in a previous TME post.  Briefly, traits like short generation time, lots of offspring, … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, natural history, selection, stickleback | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

They joy of genome sequencing: when genomics meets natural history

Posted on 30 Jul, 2018 by Alex Twyford

When I have a massive pile of papers that I need to read, I can’t help but look at the ones with interesting natural history first. There’s something exceptionally satisfying about using modern tools to dig deeper into the features … Continue reading →

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The eyes have it!

Posted on 20 Jul, 2018 by Kelle Freel

Eyes are pretty darn complicated, which makes them cool models for studying complex trait evolution.  Maybe the first time I realized how interesting eyes are when I saw this by the oatmeal about the amazing-ness of the mantis shrimp (are they your … Continue reading →

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What is DAS? A new tool to recover genomes from metagenomes

Posted on 8 Jun, 2018 by Kelle Freel

There are a lot of data out there, and if you haven’t already noticed the ‘omics train has steadily stayed its path through the fruitful (but challenging) world of metagenomics. Metagenomics offers the chance to unravel complex microbial communities without … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, genomics, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Chromosomal inversions and the maintenance of species barriers

Posted on 29 May, 2018 by Alex Twyford

Chromosomal inversions have long fascinated evolutionary biologists for their role in adaptation and speciation. These structural variants are abundant in natural populations and can have diverse evolutionary consequences. They can cause reproductive isolation through hybrid sterility or protect sets of … Continue reading →

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DNA extraction for PacBio sequencing

Posted on 26 Apr, 2018 by Alex Twyford

PacBio is emerging as the favoured sequencing approach for assembling high-quality reference genomes. But the big issue with PacBio sequencing is that to get long sequence reads you need to start with high molecular weight DNA. For my first foray … Continue reading →

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Sequencing round-up 2018

Posted on 31 Mar, 2018 by Alex Twyford

The deluge of new sequencing approaches continues at a pace. It seems that you turn your back for five minutes and there’s a shiny new sequencing platform promising to deliver more for less. What is the current state of play … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Oh my ploidy … diploids evolve more slowly than haploids?

Posted on 29 Mar, 2018 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I last sat at my keyboard in a TME capacity (#NewPI chat doesn’t really count)! One year ago today, to be exact (writing this on 28 March, for publication on 29 March). Thus, … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, blogging, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, selection, yeast | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment