Université de Fribourg

Inference of natural selection from ancient DNA

Dehasque, Marianne ; Ávila‐Arcos, María C. ; Díez‐del‐Molino, David ; Fumagalli, Matteo ; Guschanski, Katerina ; Lorenzen, Eline D. ; Malaspinas, Anna‐Sapfo ; Marques‐Bonet, Tomas ; Martin, Michael D. ; Murray, Gemma G. R. ; Papadopulos, Alexander S. T. ; Therkildsen, Nina Overgaard ; Wegmann, Daniel ; Dalén, Love ; Foote, Andrew D.

In: Evolution Letters, 2020, vol. 4, no. 2, p. 94–108

Evolutionary processes, including selection, can be indirectly inferred based on patterns of genomic variation among contemporary populations or species. However, this often requires unrealistic assumptions of ancestral demography and selective regimes. Sequencing ancient DNA from temporally spaced samples can inform about past selection processes, as time series data allow direct...

Université de Fribourg

Historical sampling reveals dramatic demographic changes in western gorilla populations

Thalmann, Olaf ; Wegmann, Daniel ; Spitzner, Marie ; Arandjelovic, Mimi ; Guschanski, Katerina ; Leuenberger, Christoph ; Bergl, Richard A ; Vigilant, Linda

In: BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2011, vol. 11, p. 85

Background: Today many large mammals live in small, fragmented populations, but it is often unclear whether this subdivision is the result of long-term or recent events. Demographic modeling using genetic data can estimate changes in long-term population sizes while temporal sampling provides a way to compare genetic variation present today with that sampled in the past. In order to better...