Category Archives: natural history

Gorillas (genomes) in the mist

Posted on 10 Apr, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Mountain gorillas are an endangered great ape subspecies that number around 800 individuals, inhabiting mountain ranges in central Africa. They have been the subject of numerous field studies, but few genetic analyses have been carried out. Xue et al. (2015) sequenced … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, conservation, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, primates | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

l'oliva di mare: disturbance and genetic diversity

Posted on 27 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Seagrasses are important ecosystem-engineers of coastal regions around the world. Previous work has demonstrated the correlation of high genotypic diversity with resistance (e.g., Hughes and Stachowicz 2004) and resilience (e.g., Reusch et al. 2005). In a recently accepted paper in Molecular Ecology, Jahnke, … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, natural history, plants | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Haploid-diploidy, a (brief?) history

Posted on 20 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Haploid-diploid life cycles are not only good exercise for the brain, but they’re also fantastic study systems to investigate a myriad of questions. Yet, the majority of molecular studies have focused on the diploid-dominated life cycles of animal and plant … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA barcoding, domestication, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, natural history, population genetics, selection, speciation | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Socially structured gut microbiomes in wild baboons

Posted on 17 Mar, 2015 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

“You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.” Well, that old adage may still be true, but baboons certainly pick (up) their friends’ gut microbes. A new study by Jenny … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, genomics, metagenomics, natural history, primates | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

sedaDNA sleuths: embracing your inner Sherlock

Posted on 6 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Awhile back fellow TME contributor Rob Denton posted about a recent review on environmental DNA by Pedersen et al. (2015). Environmental DNA (eDNA) is obtained from samples such as sediments, ice or water and can provide scientific sleuths with tantalizing clues about past … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, domestication, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, Paleogenomics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Just like an elephant and a manatee …

Posted on 27 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

There is a positive correlation between the time since two lineages have diverged and the strength of the reproductive barriers between them. Rothfels et al. (2015) have described a natural hybridization event between two fern genera that diverged from one … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, natural history, speciation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Posted on 13 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Many animals use visual signals to scope out potential mates. In a new paper in Molecular Ecology, Sandkam et al. (2015) demonstrate that the variation underlying preference in female guppies could be explained by simple changes in expression and coding of … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Night at the museum

Posted on 5 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Many population genetic and genomic studies document snapshots of a given population’s genetic diversity. Yet, there are many reasons to document changes over time in population parameters in response to perturbations, such as biological invasions (both in terms of the invader … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA barcoding, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution, genomics, natural history | Leave a comment