🧬 New recombination review 🧬
Genetic variation is essential for evolution. So what do we know about genetic variation underlying recombination rates & distribution? I've written a perspective for MBE on why its important, what we have learned, & open questions for the future.

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/41/7/msae112/7705493?login=false

#recombination #meiosis #meiosis4eva

New lab preprint: GWAS on crossover dynamics in pigs led by Cathrine Brekke. We explored individual variation in rate, positioning and interference and found a few significant loci in females🐷:

📈👯‍♀️ Rate & interference associated with RNF212 (+ small rate effects at CTCF & REC114/REC8/CCNB1IP1)

📌 Broad-scale positioning at MEI4, SYCP2, PRDM9 (+ small effects at ZCWPW1 & ZCWPW2)

#meiosis #pigs #GWAS #recombination #meiosis4eva

https://biologists.social/@biorxivpreprint/112673500288980099

This is brief summary of a challenging phenotype and complicated analysis. We try to address issues in our approaches and discussion. We are happy for feedback and comments 😊🐦🧬

Birds have a maternally-inherited germline restricted chromosome (GRC) that is likely enriched for meiotic genes. Pedigree modelling shows that the GRC and W are unlikely to drive recombination rate *variation* in our case.

Recombination rates are heritable and “polygenic” (i.e. caused by many loci of small effect) in both sexes. Many of these appear to act in trans as global modification modifiers. And, females have ~1.4 more recombination than males. Interestingly, the sexes have a largely unshared genetic basis (rA ~ 0.3), meaning sex-specific rates have potential for independent evolution.

We used pedigree and SNP data from the ✨amazing✨long-term study of house sparrows in Helgeland, Norway, to quantify recombination in gametes transmitted from parents to offspring. We examined two measures of recombination in >13,000 gametes from >2,600 birds, evenly balanced between males and females.

New lab preprint by John McAuley: the genetic architecture of recombination rates is sexually-dimorphic and polygenic in wild house sparrows. What have we found…?

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.525019v2.article-info

Are you a non-UK student looking for a PhD in evolutionary genetics? Our lab in Edinburgh is seeking applicants to investigate landscapes of recombination in wild mammals and birds 🦄🐦. More info in link 👇please get in touch ASAP. (Image: Tilly Scott)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vj7lFALNB3Fd-KT_GgVupqOvqtCr8rnrOybRir-ce88/edit?usp=sharing

Sex Unfolded Jacques Monod Conference. Third Edition in incredibly sunny Roscoff. Already 1 week ago. Thanks to all the participants! Many new ideas for the #evolutionofsex #recombination, #SexChromosomes #asexuality #evobio #popgen. 4th edition in 5 years by @KarineDoninck and Sylvain Glémin !

Another 🐟🧬 collab with Cathrine Brekke & colleagues on individual meiotic crossover rates in Atlantic salmon. Females have 1.6x more COs but 8x more allelic "shuffling" on chromosomes than males, due to extreme sex-differences in CO landscape. Both measures are ~heritable and polygenic.

http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.06.07.543993v1?rss=1

And last of all, no thanks to the two new babies and puppy that arrived in our households during the whole editorial process!
~fin/end~

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.1930

This special issue was compiled during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we are so grateful for the mammoth effort of the authors, reviewers, @royalsociety publishing staff & Gary Carvalho, who was a fantastic senior editor 🙏 15/16

Finally, whose trait is it anyway?
Anna O'Brien and authors present a compelling simulation study of a host–microbe mutualism to explore the evolution of a multi-genomic quantitative trait. 14/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2483

A study by Addam Reddiex and Steve Chenoweth conducted a multivariate GWAS with G matrix and selection estimation to examine constraints on sexual selection in D. serrata 🪰 13/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2021.1785

Third, multivariate quantitative genetics is moving beyond the geno-pheno map. Leslie Kollar et al examine the genetic architecture of sexual antagonism in Ceratodon moss. 12/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2908

And @Amandastahlke et al integrate a population genetics approach to investigate evolution in six populations of Tasmanian Devils in the face of transmissible cancer. 11/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0577

John Kelly reviews the use of selection component analyses to estimate selection by relating individual genotypes to fitness components, using simulations and empirical data. 10/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.1812

Darren Hunter, Jon Slate et al use genomic prediction to show cryptic microevolution of breeding values for body weight in Soay sheep. 9/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0330

Second, investigating evolutionary change across the genome is getting easier. Genomic prediction is opening new research avenues for conservation and microevolution, as reviewed by
Suzanne McGaugh et al. 8/16

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0693