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FITNESS IS THE CORE. “Patterns of survival and reproduction determine fitness and so it should come as no surprise that there is a rich body of theory linking demography with evolution.” https://lnkd.in/dM7i949 View in LinkedIn

NEW THINKING. “Awareness is therefore rising that not only positive selection associated with adaptation or speciation, but also background selection, can have an important role in driving the evolution of the genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn

DIFFERENTIATION. “Originally interpreted as a footprint of selective sweeps or selection against gene flow, accentuated differentiation has now repeatedly been associated with genomic regions of low recombination, suggesting an important role for linked selection in its evolution.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn

GENOMES AND DIFFERENTIATION. “The genomic landscape of differentiation is usually highly heterogeneous, with regions of accentuated differentiation widespread across the genome. Although this is one of the best consolidated patterns established by a decade's efforts to identify genomic regions involved in adaptation and speciation, the processes involved in its evolution remain more controversial.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn

OLIVE TREE BLIGHT. A couple of years ago I contacted a Texas researcher who had identified a phage specific for the olive blight, but was brushed aside. Since then nothing has happened. It could solve the olive blight problem. Equally, quorum sensing bacterial pheromones would be a promising approach. Are the agriculture science advisors asleep? https://www.ecowatch.com/olive-trees-disease-europe-2645714129.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3 View in LinkedIn

A MUST READ: this is a superb, lucid and informative article with stunning graphics on the meaning of infectivity rates in different viral diseases. Rarely is it so well articulated. https://lnkd.in/deDFGUR View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this one weekend sojourn into linked selection and demography as a window into what some modern ecologists are thinking about; Darwin’s theory of evolution is hereby combined with molecular genetics, and the mechanisms and consequences of natural selection are explored. Considering that the modern concept of the gene did not exist in Darwin’s day, this footnoting of his theory is all the more extraordinary. View in LinkedIn

ADDITIONAL FACTOR. “To further complicate the issue, demographic effects can act to enhance or counter the effects of linked selection.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn

DISCONNECT. “In species with long-term conserved broad-scale recombination landscapes, such as birds, the replication of accentuated differentiation may therefore not be informative regarding a genomic region's involvement in adaptation or speciation, nor indicative of parallel ecology-related evolution.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn

DIVERSITY LANDSCAPE. “The extended periods of time across which this process is active have two notable implications: the slow process of background selection alone might suffice for the evolution of correlated differentiation landscapes, and sweeps in the ancestral (as opposed to extant) lineage may make contributions to extant genomic landscapes of diversity and differentiation.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14167/full View in LinkedIn