BOL: Related items

Rolland-Lagan lab

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 12:57:57 -0500

The Rolland-Lagan lab at the University of Ottawa is specializing in computational and developmental biology. We use a combination of experimental work, microscopy, image analysis and computer simulations to explore developmental mechanisms in two and three dimensions.

Research Area

Developmental biology, Computational biology, Simulation modeling, Image data analysis

Link @ http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/arolland/index.html

Claus-Peter Stelzer Lab

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 15:24:41 -0500

Interested in various topics at the intersection of ecology and evolution. In my research I use rotifers as model organisms for experimental studies at the individual and population level. Rotifers are ideally suited for this, because populations of thousands can be kept in small containers in the lab, while single individuals can still be handled conveniently.

More at https://www.uibk.ac.at/limno/personnel/stelzer/index.html.en#research

Yannick Wurm Lab

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:02:37 -0500

Evolutionary genomics of social insects. Extensive theoretical work has explained how and why complex societies evolve. However, only little is known about the genes and molecular mechanisms responsible for social phenotypes. We have been identifying genes and mechanisms involved in the evolution of insect societies using modern genomics tools (Illumina, RNAseq, RADseq...). For example we recently:

1. sequenced and analyzed the genome of the invasive red fire ant Solenopsis invicta (PNAS 2011)

2. discovered that a fundamental social trait in this species (how many queens are accepted in the colony) is determined by variants of a social chromosome (Nature 2013).

3. described the gene expression changes that occur in a virgin queen when she is given the opportunity of replacing her mother (Mol Ecol 2010).

Homepage: http://yannick.poulet.org/

Postdoctoral Research Assistant at RVC

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:47:38 -0500

This is a fixed term post for 24 months.

We wish to recruit a highly motivated, postdoctoral scientist to carry out a BBSRC funded project in the laboratory of Dr. Denis Larkin. The project is focused on developing and applying new methods and algorithms to study genome and chromosome evolution in mammals and other animals using whole-genome sequences and existing algorithms (e.g., Damas et al. Genome Res. 2017. 27(5):875-884; Kim et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2013. 110 (5)). The post holder will use cutting edge computational and laboratory approaches to generate chromosomal assemblies for sequenced genomes, study chromosomal structures and differences between mammalian and other vertebrate genomes in attempt to identify species- and clade-specific genome signatures.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. and a track record of success, as indicated by first-author publications in international journals. They must possess excellent organisation skills and be capable of individual initiative and of interacting as part of a team. Applicants with extensive practical experience in bioinformatics or computer science, programming, visualization, handling of large data sets, high-performance computing are encouraged to apply. The post will involve collaboration with a wide range of academic partners both within the EU and worldwide.

Experience in programming, bioinformatics and comparative genome analysis is essential. Applicants should have a minimum of a degree and preferably a higher degree in a relevant subject.

The Royal Veterinary College has the largest range of veterinary, para-veterinary and animal science undergraduate and postgraduate courses of any veterinary school in the world and is one of the largest veterinary schools in Europe.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact Dr. Denis Larkin, Comparative Biomedical Sciences Department on +442071211906 or email: dlarkin@rvc.ac.uk

We offer a generous reward package.

For further information and to apply on-line please visit our website: www.rvc.ac.uk
Job reference CBS-0084-18

https://jobs.rvc.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=CBS-0084-18

PostDoc in Germany @ EvolutionaryTheory

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 06:50:26 -0500

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the group of Jonathan Henshaw at the University of Freiburg in Germany (https://www.henshaw-lab.com/). We are a primarily theoretical lab working on a broad set of topics in evolutionary biology, with a particular focus on the evolution of animal behaviour. We develop both individual-based simulations and mathematical models (e.g., using evolutionary game theory, adaptive dynamics and quantitative genetics). We put a strong emphasis on a supportive and inclusive working environment. As a postdoc in our lab, you would have considerable freedom to shape the direction of your projects within these broad areas of interest.

More at https://evoldir.net/brian/evoldir/PostDocs//UniFreiburg_Germany.EvolutionaryTheory

Online resources on must-read papers in evolutionary biology

BioStar — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 01:39:14 -0500

Online resources on must-read papers in evolutionary biology, for a literature club.

Below is a summary of all answers that we received.

All the best,

Jana and Xiaoyan

1.       *Nick Barton:*

- The textbook "Evolution" by Nick Barton, with resources for
  exploring the literature: Barton, N. H., Briggs, D. E. G., Eisen, J.
  A., Goldstein, D. B., & Patel, N. H. (2007). Evolution. Cold Spring
  Harbor Laboratory Press.

- Papers from a course named "Classics in Evolutionary Biology":

Evolutionary Synthesis
1. Haldane, J. B. S. 1932. The causes of evolution. Longmans. New York.
   (esp. Ch. IV).
2. Fisher, R. A. 1930. The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford
   University Press, Oxford. Selected Sections - Fundamental Theorem.

Genetic Variation
1a. Lewontin, R. C., and J. L. Hubby. 1966. A molecular approach to
the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. II. Amount
of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of
Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics. 54:595-609.

1b. Sachidandam et al. 2001. A map of human genome sequence variation
containing 1.42 million single nucleotide polymorphisms. 409: 928-33.

2. Wright S., Dobzhansky T., Hovanitz W. 1942 Genetics of natural
populations VII The allelism of lethals in the third chromosome of
Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 27: 363-394.

Recombination and evolution
1. Hill, W. G., and A. Robertson. 1966. The effect of linkage on limits
to artificial selection. Genet. Res. 8:269-294.

2. Maynard Smith and Haigh. 1974. The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable
gene. Genet. Res. 23: 23-35.

Understanding sequence variation
1. Begun D. J., Aquadro C. F., 1992 Levels of naturally occurring DNA
polymorphism correlate with recombination rate in Drosophila melanogaster.
Nature 356: 519-520.

2. Green R. E., Reich D., Pääbo S., 2010 A draft sequence of the
Neandertal genome. Science 328: 710-722.

Quantitative Genetics:  variation in complex traits
1. Galton F., 1877 Typical laws of heredity. Nature 15: 492-495-
512-514- 532-533.

2. Turelli M., 1984 Heritable genetic variation via
mutation-selection balance: Lerch's Zeta meets the abdominal
bristle. Theor. Popul. Biol. 25: 138-193.

Quantitative Genetics:  finding the genes
1. Shrimpton A. E., Robertson A., 1988 The Isolation of polygenic factors
controlling bristle score in Drosophila melanogaster II Distribution of
third chromosome bristle effects within chromosome sections. Genetics
118: 445-459.

2. Boyle E. A., Li Y. I., Pritchard J. K., 2017 An expanded view of
complex traits: from polygenic to omnigenic. Cell 169: 1177-1186.

Neutral Evolution
1. Kimura, M. 1968. Evolutionary rate at the molecular level. Science.
217:624-626.

2a. Kern A. D., Hahn M. W., 2018 The Neutral Theory in Light of Natural
Selection. Molecular Biology and Evolution 110: 21077-6.

2b. Jensen J. D., Payseur B. A., Stephan W., Aquadro C. F., Lynch M.,
Charlesworth D., Charlesworth B., 2018 The importance of the Neutral Theory
in 1968 and 50 years on: a response to Kern and Hahn 2018. Evolution 112:
2109-4.

2c. Ellegren & Galtier. 2016. Determinants of genetic diversity. Nature
Reviews Genetics.

Mutation and Genetic Variability
1. Luria, S. E., and M. Delbrück. 1943. Mutations of Bacteria from Virus
Sensitivity to Virus Resistance. Genetics. 28(6):491-511.

2. Hill, W G. 1982. "Rates of Change in Quantitative Traits From Fixation
of New Mutations." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.)
79: 142-45.

Testing for selection
1. McDonald & Kreitman. 1991. Adaptive protein evolution at the Adh locus
in Drosophila. Nature.

2. Begun, et al. Mol. Biol. Evol. 16, 1816-1819 (1999).

3. Siddiq et al. 2016. Experimental test and refutation of a classic case
of molecular adaptation in Drosophila melanogaster.  Nature Ecology &
Evolution.

The shifting balance
1. Wright, S. 1932. The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding and
selection in evolution. Proceedings of the VI International Congress of
Genetics: 1. pp 356-366.

2. Coyne, J.A., N.H. Barton, and M. Turelli. 1997. A critique of Wright's
shifting balance theory of evolution.  Evolution 51: 643-671.

3. Barton. 2016. Sewall Wright on Evolution in Mendelian Populations and
the "Shifting Balance". Genetics.

Evolution of Sex
1.  Muller, H.J. 1964. The relation of recombination to mutational advance.
Mutation Res. 1(1):2-9

2. McDonald et al. 2016. Sex speeds adaptation by altering the dynamics of
molecular evolution. Nature.

Kin Selection, Cooperation, and Conflict
1. Hamilton, W. D. 1964. The genetical evolution of social behaviour I.
Journal of Theoretical Biology. 7:1-52.

2. Trivers, R. L. 1974 Parent-offspring conflict. American Zoologist.
14(1):249-264.

Sexual Selection
1. Zahavi, A. 1975. Mate selection - a selection of a handicap. J. Theor.
Biol. 53:205-214.

2. Kirkpatrick, M., and Ryan, M.J. 1991. The evolution of mating
preferences and the paradox of the lek. Nature. 350:33-38.

Fitness Landscapes
1. Dean, A. 1995. A Molecular Investigation of Genotype by Environment
Interactions. Genetics. 139:19-33.

2. Costanzo et al. 2010. The Genetic Landscape of a Cell. Science.

Speciation
1. Coyne, J. A., and H. A. Orr. 1989. Patterns of speciation in Drosophila.
Evolution. 43:362-381.

2. Corbett-Detig et al. 2013. Genetic incompatibilities are widespread
within species. Nature.

2.       *Marcos Antezana:*

Valen, L. v. 1975. Energy and Evolution. University of Chicago, Department
of Biology.

3.       *Remco Folkertsma:*

1. The work by Hopi Hoekstra on local adaptation and oldfield mice

2. Poelstra, J. W., Vijay, N., Bossu, C. M., Lantz, H., Ryll, B., Müller,
I., ... & Wolf, J. B. (2014). The genomic landscape underlying phenotypic
integrity in the face of gene flow in crows. Science, 344(6190), 1410-1414.

4.       *Joshka Kaufmann and Leslie Turner*

They offer us a link to 'papers every evolutionary biologist should read',
the papers are collected by Leslie Turner.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53e8cb7ce4b02c4bc3aeeee4/t/5ab8fcb670a6ad55c67fcdf4/1522072758665/EvoBioClassicsRefList.pdf

5.       *Sarah Stockwell*

Matt Ridley collected classic papers in evolutionary biology and printed
part of these papers in his book Evolution (see Matt Ridley. Evolution
(Univ. of Oxford Press, 2nd edition, 2004))

SOWDHAMINI Lab

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 09:19:12 -0500

Genome sequencing projects have enormous potential for benefiting human endeavors. However, just as acquiring a language's vocabulary does not enable one to speak it, databases that list the amino acid composition of proteins do not directly tell us much about these proteins' higher-level structure and function. The most productive way to indirectly exploit these databases has been to start with the small number of proteins that are fully-characterised and to assume that other "similar" proteins will have a related structure and function. Proteins with very similar amino acid sequence are "no-brainers", but the real test, which our group largely focuses on, is to detect the "essential" similarity in proteins whose non-critical sections have experienced random rearrangements during evolution. In such cases functionally similar proteins may have less than 25% sequence overlap.

More @ http://www.ncbs.res.in/sowdhamini/groups_sowdhamini.htm

MimicrEE2: Genome-wide forward simulations of Evolve and Resequencing studies

Jit — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 09:21:14 -0500

MimicrEE2, a multi-threaded Java program for genome-wide forward simulations of evolving populations. MimicrEE2 enables the convenient usage of available genomic resources, supports biological particulars of model organism frequently used in E&R studies and offers a wide range of different adaptive models (selective sweeps, polygenic adaptation, epistasis). MimicrEE2 runs on any computer with Java installed. It is distributed under the GPLv3 license at https://sourceforge.net/projects/mimicree2/.

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mimicree2/

ALF--a simulation framework for genome evolution.

Jit — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 22:05:58 -0500

Artificial Life Framework (ALF) simulates a root genome into a number of related genomes. Result files include the resulting gene sequences, true tree and true MSAs. A description of ALF can be found in the following article:

Daniel A Dalquen, Maria Anisimova, Gaston H Gonnet, Christophe Dessimoz: ALF - A Simulation Framework for Genome Evolution. Mol Biol Evol, 29(4):1115-1123, April 2012.
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/4/1115

Address of the bookmark: http://alfsim.org/#index

"IdeasLab"* workshop !

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 06:13:48 -0600

A new, grant-funded opportunity seeks early career researchers interested
in life's origins: https://templetonideaslab.umbc.edu/

Applications are invited to an all-expenses paid position at a 5-day
"IdeasLab"* workshop to be held near Prague CZ in June 2022. Thirty
successful applicants will be drawn in equal number from the relevant
sectors biological evolution, A-Life anbd theoretical physics. The week's
activities will lead these thirty to form interdisciplinary teams which
each propose how they can advance frontiers of abiogenesis research. Up to
$5 million total funding will be available for developing these ideas
produced by the week's activities. Further details of the event,
including the online application form, are found at the link posted above