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Population genetics

Changes in population size and gene flow between populations or the lack thereof are key processes in the evolutionary history of all species and often linked to environmental changes. Research during the last years has shown that species are much more dynamic entities than previously assumed, both with regard to population size changes and, as is currently becoming more and more apparent, also with regard to interpopulational and interspecific gene flow. Thus, this topic is linked both to phylogenetics and adaptation in cases when adaptively relevant alleles get transferred between species or populations.

Recent selected publications

  1. Hempel, E., Faith, J.T., Preick, M., de Jager, D., Barish, S., Hartmann, S., Grau, J.H., Moodley, Y., Gedman, G., Morrill Pirovich, K., Bibi, F., Kalthoff, D.C., Bocklandt, S., Lamm, B., Dalén, L., Westbury, M.V. and Hofreiter, M. (2024) Colonial-driven extinction of the blue antelope despite genomic adaptation to low population size. Current Biology, 34 (9), 2020-2029.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.051. Epub 12th April 2024.
  2. Lucena-Perez, M., Paijmans, J.L.A., Nocete, F., Nadal, J., Detry, C., Dalén, L., Hofreiter, M., Barlow, A. and Godoy, J.A. (2024) Recent increase in species-wide diversity after interspecies introgression in the highly endangered Iberian lynx. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 8 (2), 282-292. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02267-7. Epub 15th January 2024.
  3. Bergström, A., Stanton, D.W.G., Taron, U.H., Frantz, L., Sinding, M.S., Ersmark, E., Pfrengle, S., Cassatt-Johnstone, M., Lebrasseur, O., Girdland-Flink, L., Fernandes, D.M., Ollivier, M., Speidel, L., Gopalakrishnan, S., Westbury, M.V., Ramos-Madrigal, J., Feuerborn, T.R., Reiter, E., Gretzinger, J., Münzel, S.C., Swali, P., Conard, N.J., Carøe, C., Haile, J., Linderholm, A., Androsov, S., Barnes, I., Baumann, C., Benecke, N., Bocherens, H., Brace, S., Carden, R.F., Drucker, D.G., Fedorov, S., Gasparik, M., Germonpré, M., Grigoriev, S., Groves, P., Hertwig, S.T., Ivanova, V.V., Janssens, L., Jennings, R.P., Kasparov, A.K., Kirillova, I.V., Kurmaniyazov, I., Kuzmin, Y.V., Kosintsev, P.A., Lázničková-Galetová, M., Leduc, C., Nikolskiy, P., Nussbaumer, M., O'Drisceoil, C., Orlando, L., Outram, A., Pavlova, E.Y., Perri, A.R., Pilot, M., Pitulko, V.V., Plotnikov, V.V., Protopopov, A.V., Rehazek, A., Sablin, M., Seguin-Orlando, A., Storå, J., Verjux, C., Zaibert, V.F., Zazula, G., Crombé, P., Hansen, A.J., Willerslev, E., Leonard, J.A., Götherström, A., Pinhasi, R., Schuenemann, V.J., Hofreiter, M., Gilbert, M.T.P., Shapiro, B., Larson, G., Krause, J., Dalén, L., Skoglund, P. (2022) Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs. Nature, 607 (7918), 313-320. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04824-9. Epub 29th June 2022.
  4. Librado, P., Khan, N., Fages, A., Kusliy, M.A., Suchan, T., Tonasso-Calvière, L., Schiavinato, S., Alioglu, D., Fromentier, A., Perdereau, A., Aury, J.M., Gaunitz, C., Chauvey, L., Seguin-Orlando, A., Der Sarkissian, C., Southon, J., Shapiro, B., Tishkin, A.A., Kovalev, A.A., Alquraishi, S., Alfarhan, A.H., Al-Rasheid, K.A.S, Seregély, T., Klassen, L., Iversen, R., Bignon-Lau, O., Bodu, P., Olive, M., Castel, J.C., Boudadi-Maligne, M., Alvarez, N., Germonpré, M., Moskal-Del Hoyo, M., Wilczyński, J., Pospuła, S., Lasota-Kuś, A., Tunia, K., Nowak, M., Rannamäe, E., Saarma, U., Boeskorov, G., Lōugas, L., Kyselý, R., Peške, L., Bălășescu, A., Dumitrașcu, V., Dobrescu, R., Gerber, D., Kiss, V., Szécsényi-Nagy, A., Mende, B.G., Gallina, Z., Somogyi, K., Kulcsár, G., Gál, E., Bendrey, R., Allentoft, M.E., Sirbu, G., Dergachev, V., Shephard, H., Tomadini, N., Grouard, S., Kasparov, A., Basilyan, A.E., Anisimov, M.A., Nikolskiy, P.A., Pavlova, E.Y., Pitulko, V., Brem, G., Wallner, B., Schwall, C., Keller, M., Kitagawa, K., Bessudnov, A.N., Bessudnov, A., Taylor, W., Magail, J., Gantulga, J.O., Bayarsaikhan, J., Erdenebaatar, D., Tabaldiev, K., Mijiddorj, E., Boldgiv, B., Tsagaan, T., Pruvost, M., Olsen, S., Makarewicz, C.A., Valenzuela Lamas, S., Albizuri Canadell, S., Nieto Espinet, A., Iborra, M.P., Lira Garrido, J., Rodríguez González, E., Celestino, S., Olària, C., Arsuaga, J.L., Kotova, N., Pryor, A., Crabtree, P., Zhumatayev, R., Toleubaev, A., Morgunova, N.L., Kuznetsova, T., Lordkipanize, D., Marzullo, M., Prato, O., Bagnasco Gianni, G., Tecchiati, U., Clavel, B., Lepetz, S., Davoudi, H., Mashkour, M., Berezina, N.Y., Stockhammer, P.W., Krause, J., Haak, W., Morales-Muñiz, A., Benecke, N., Hofreiter, M., Ludwig, A., Graphodatsky, A.S., Peters, J., Kiryushin, K.Y., Iderkhangai, T.O., Bokovenko, N.A., Vasiliev, S.K., Seregin, N.N., Chugunov, K.V., Plasteeva, N.A., Baryshnikov, G.F., Petrova, E., Sablin, M., Ananyevskaya, E., Logvin, A., Shevnina, I., Logvin, V., Kalieva, S., Loman, V., Kukushkin, I., Merz, I., Merz, V., Sakenov, S., Varfolomeyev, V., Usmanova, E., Zaibert, V., Arbuckle, B., Belinskiy, A.B., Kalmykov, A., Reinhold, S., Hansen, S., Yudin, A.I., Vybornov, A.A., Epimakhov, A., Berezina, N.S., Roslyakova, N., Kosintsev, P.A., Kuznetsov, P.F., Anthony, D., Kroonen, G.J., Kristiansen, K., Wincker, P., Outram, A. and Orlando, L. (2021) The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes. Nature, 598 (7882), 634-640. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9. Epub 20th October 2021.
  5. Paijmans, J.L.A., Barlow, A., Becker, M.S., Cahill, J.A., Fickel, J., Förster, D.W.G., Gries, K., Hartmann, S., Havmøller, R.W., Henneberger, K., Kern, C., Kitchener, A.C., Lorenzen, E.D., Mayer, F., Obrien, S.J., von Seth, J., Sinding, M.S., Spong, G., Uphyrkina, O., Wachter, B., Westbury, M.V., Dalén, L., Bhak, J., Manica, A. and Hofreiter, M. (2021) African and Asian leopards are highly differentiated at the genomic level. Curr Biol., 31 (9), 1872-1882. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.084. Epub 12th April 2021.
  6. Barlow, A., Paijmans, J.L.A., Alberti, F., Gasparyan, B., Bar-Oz, G., Pinhasi, R., Foronova, I., Puzachenko, A.Y., Pacher, M., Dalén, L., Baryshnikov, G. and Hofreiter, M. (2021) Middle Pleistocene genome calibrates a revised evolutionary history of extinct cave bears.  Curr Biol., 31 (8), 1771-1779.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.073. Epub 15th February 2021.