Category Archives: Uncategorized

Island-Hopping with an E.I.D.

Posted on 18 Apr, 2016 by Bryan McLean

If you live in the U.S. and feel like Zika virus is getting closer to home, that’s because it is. Although there are no known cases of Zika transmission by natural vectors in the lower 48, experts have stressed that … Continue reading →

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Neglected mycoplankton, no more

Posted on 15 Apr, 2016 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Taylor and Cunliffe (2016) provide a window into the world of the plankton in which they focus on a rarely studied component, the planktonic fungi (mycoplankton). Marine mycoplankton exist as free-living filamentous and yeast forms or as parasite of other … Continue reading →

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How to make the most out of your phylogenetic study

Posted on 14 Apr, 2016 by Christine Ewers-Saucedo

Phylogenetic studies are crucial for ecology and evolution. However, their usefulness for comparative biology or meta-analyses can vary considerably. Especially the inclusion of unidentified species (“Balanus sp.”) obstructs their use in comparative studies. How can I attach life history or morphological data … Continue reading →

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To find duplicated loci in vertebrate polyploids, try thinking small

Posted on 23 Mar, 2016 by Rob Denton

Big sequencing efforts have gone a long way to help understand the complexities of polyploidy. However, the bioinformatic approaches to sorting and scoring alleles in next-gen data are generally designed for easy of use in diploid species. Unlike a diploid species, where … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, methods, next generation sequencing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Genomic Islands of Speciation… are real?

Posted on 22 Mar, 2016 by Reid Brennan

I really want genomic islands of speciation to be real. Those great studies that seemed so convincing over the last ~10 years have been squashed due to, among other things, the trickiness of low genetic diversity (stay with me, I’ll … Continue reading →

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Are genetic drift and inbreeding the same thing?

Posted on 14 Mar, 2016 by Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová

Does it ever happen to you that the more you try to understand something, the more difficult to understand it turns out to be? Recently, I’ve had such a problem with two of the very basic microevolutionary phenomena – genetic … Continue reading →

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Coral clonal chimeras

Posted on 9 Mar, 2016 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

We are all too aware of the threats ecosystem engineers, such as corals, face in light of global climate change. However, a new study by Rinkevich et al. (2016) suggest chimerism may be a a weapon to combat climate change. … Continue reading →

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The Evolution of Molecular Dating

Posted on 7 Mar, 2016 by Bryan McLean

Molecular dating is a key tool in deciphering the history of life. In a recent Molecular Biology and Evolution paper, Sudhir Kumar and Blair Hedges have reviewed the state of the subject, summarizing the philosophical and methodological history of this … Continue reading →

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Haute cuisine: what mystery meat did the Explorers Club dine on in 1951?

Posted on 18 Feb, 2016 by Noah Snyder-Mackler

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve eaten? Grubs? Alligator? Kudu? I bet nothing you’ve ever eaten comes close to what was purportedly on the menu at at the 47th Explorers Club Annual Dinner in 1951 — Wooly Mammoth.

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Top three of 2015 – Melissa DeBiasse

Posted on 25 Jan, 2016 by Melissa DeBiasse

Following Rob’s lead, today I am sharing my top 3 posts of 2015 based on the number of pageviews they received. I’m also throwing in one of the posts I had the most fun researching and writing. Thank you to all … Continue reading →

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