Tag Archives: genomics

There are more microbes than meet the eye: exploring the genomic diversity in an aquifer

Posted on 8 Nov, 2016 by Kelle Freel

First: it’s Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 – before you even think about putting your feet up and reading this post, I hope you’ve managed to wrangle yourself one of those highly prized “I voted” stickers. Now, on to more microbial … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, metagenomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Making ecology “count”: a review of the why and how of molecular ecology  

Posted on 25 Oct, 2016 by Kelle Freel

It’s likely that everyone has been asked by either a friend or family member “What do you do?” Which, depending on what level of detail you shoot for, might be relatively straight forward. The follow-up question, however, can be a … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community, community ecology, metagenomics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Divergence and Linked Background Selection

Posted on 22 Sep, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

We have widely discussed the reduction in neutral diversity due to demography and linked selection effects (e.g. selective sweeps and hitchhiking, or background selection) in several previous posts (e.g see here, here, and here). However, how linked selection affects neutral divergence … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, genomics, methods, selection, speciation, theory | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The trouble with PCR duplicates

Posted on 25 Aug, 2016 by Reid Brennan

The sequencing center just sent your lane of Illumina data. You’re excited. Life is great. You begin to process the data. You align the data. You check for PCR duplicates. 50 percent. Half of your data is garbage. Everything is … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, genomics, methods, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Understanding diverse microbial communities: An interview with A. Murat Eren (Meren)

Posted on 2 Aug, 2016 by Kelle Freel

It’s clear that microbes play a crucial role in practically every aspect of ecosystems globally. From the deepest, most remote and unexplored regions of the ocean, to the human oral cavity, there are diverse microbial assemblages driving Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, metagenomics, methods | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Ice-Age Euro-trips

Posted on 19 May, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Recent works that attempt to get at human migrations inside Europe paint a complex portrait of migratory events, admixture with archaic hominids, and adaptive evolution to new geographies, and a changing global climate. Analyzing whole genomes of 51 ancient humans … Continue reading →

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

What does the island fox say?

Posted on 5 May, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Small populations are characterized by large drift and reduced efficacy of selection effects, which result in fixation of both advantageous and deleterious alleles, accumulation of homozygosity, and often reduction in population fitness. What with plummeting mammal populations across biota, understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, mutation, natural history, population genetics, selection | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sweeps and Demographic Inference

Posted on 25 Apr, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Population genetics presents us with numerous conundrums – several of which have to do with how the same genomic disposition can be “reached” over evolutionary time with multiple alternate demographic or selective processes. I have discussed several of these issues … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, population genetics, selection, theory | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The why's of sex

Posted on 25 Mar, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Sex isn’t quite what it seems – while superficially wasteful in an evolutionary sense (why inherit on only one half of your genes, when you can inherit all of them asexually, or why waste resources in mating when you don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, mutation, natural history, next generation sequencing, population genetics, selection, theory, yeast | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Truth

Posted on 17 Mar, 2016 by Arun Sethuraman

Spoiler Alert: I’ve taken plenty of care to try and not spill the beans on any plotlines, but you have been forewarned that there may be some aspects of the science that’s discussed on the show that I attempt to … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, next generation sequencing, population genetics, TV shows | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment