Runs of homozygosity reveal past bottlenecks and contemporary inbreeding across diverging populations of an island-colonizing bird.

Genomes retain evidence of the demographic history and evolutionary forces that have shaped populations and drive speciation. Across island systems, contemporary patterns of genetic diversity reflect population demography, including colonization events, bottlenecks, gene flow and genetic drift. Here, we investigate genome-wide diversity and the distribution of runs of homozygosity (ROH) using whole-genome resequencing of individuals (>22× coverage) from six populations across three archipelagos of Berthelot's pipit (Anthus berthelotii)-a passerine that has recently undergone island speciation.

Genomic inference of contemporary effective population size in a large island population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis).

Due to its central importance to many aspects of evolutionary biology and population genetics, the long-term effective population size (N ) has been estimated for numerous species and populations. However, estimating contemporary N is difficult and in practice this parameter is often unknown. In principle, contemporary N can be estimated using either analyses of temporal changes in allele frequencies, or the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between unlinked markers.

Footprints of adaptive evolution revealed by whole Z chromosomes haplotypes in flycatchers.

Detecting positive selection using genomic data is critical to understanding the role of adaptive evolution. Of particular interest in this context is sex chromosomes since they are thought to play a special role in local adaptation and speciation. We sought to circumvent the challenges associated with statistical phasing when using haplotype-based statistics in sweep scans by benefitting from that whole chromosome haplotypes of the sex chromosomes can be obtained by resequencing of individuals of the hemizygous sex.

Sex-biased gene expression, sexual antagonism and levels of genetic diversity in the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) genome.

Theoretical work suggests that sexual conflict should promote the maintenance of genetic diversity by the opposing directions of selection on males and females. If such conflict is pervasive, it could potentially lead to genomic heterogeneity in levels of genetic diversity an idea that so far has not been empirically tested on a genomewide scale. We used large-scale population genomic and transcriptomic data from the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) to analyse how sexual conflict, for which we use sex-biased gene expression as a proxy, relates to genetic variability.

Life History Traits, Protein Evolution, and the Nearly Neutral Theory in Amniotes.

The nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution predicts that small populations should accumulate deleterious mutations at a faster rate than large populations. The analysis of nonsynonymous (dN) versus synonymous (dS) substitution rates in birds versus mammals, however, has provided contradictory results, questioning the generality of the nearly neutral theory. Here we analyzed the impact of life history traits, taken as proxies of the effective population size, on molecular evolutionary and population genetic processes in amniotes, including the so far neglected reptiles.

PSMC analysis of effective population sizes in molecular ecology and its application to black-and-white Ficedula flycatchers.

Climatic fluctuations during the Quaternary period governed the demography of species and contributed to population differentiation and ultimately speciation. Studies of these past processes have previously been hindered by a lack of means and genetic data to model changes in effective population size (Ne ) through time. However, based on diploid genome sequences of high quality, the recently developed pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent (PSMC) can estimate trajectories of changes in Ne over considerable time periods.

Temporal Dynamics of Avian Populations during Pleistocene Revealed by Whole-Genome Sequences.

Global climate fluctuations have significantly influenced the distribution and abundance of biodiversity. During unfavorable glacial periods, many species experienced range contraction and fragmentation, expanding again during interglacials. An understanding of the evolutionary consequences of both historical and ongoing climate changes requires knowledge of the temporal dynamics of population numbers during such climate cycles.

Demographic divergence history of pied flycatcher and collared flycatcher inferred from whole-genome re-sequencing data.

Profound knowledge of demographic history is a prerequisite for the understanding and inference of processes involved in the evolution of population differentiation and speciation. Together with new coalescent-based methods, the recent availability of genome-wide data enables investigation of differentiation and divergence processes at unprecedented depth. We combined two powerful approaches, full Approximate Bayesian Computation analysis (ABC) and pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent modeling (PSMC), to reconstruct the demographic history of the split between two avian speciation model species, the pied flycatcher and collared flycatcher.

The genomic landscape of species divergence in Ficedula flycatchers.

Unravelling the genomic landscape of divergence between lineages is key to understanding speciation. The naturally hybridizing collared flycatcher and pied flycatcher are important avian speciation models that show pre- as well as postzygotic isolation. We sequenced and assembled the 1.

Development and characterization of microsatellite loci in the Centricnemus leucogrammus weevil.

Centricnemus leucogrammus is a weevil characteristic of European xerothermic habitats and steppes. The species was probably more widespread during the Pleistocene glaciations, while its current distribution is limited to "warm-stage refugia." It may be regarded as a typical representative of flightless xerothermophilous beetles.

Interspecific hybridization increases MHC class II diversity in two sister species of newts.

Our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms generating variation within the highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes remains incomplete. Assessing MHC variation across multiple populations, of recent and ancient divergence, may facilitate understanding of geographical and temporal aspects of variation. Here, we applied 454 sequencing to perform a large-scale, comprehensive analysis of MHC class II in the closely related, hybridizing newts, Lissotriton vulgaris (Lv) and Lissotriton montandoni (Lm).