Genome polarisation and barriers to geneflow
06 Nov 2025 - Stuart J.E. Baird, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences | 15h00 | Hybrid Seminar
CASUAL SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
Admixture, reticulate evolution, hybridisation and adaptive introgression are commonplace, but admixed genomes have been difficult to label in a useful fashion. Genome polarisation uses the linkage disequlibrium generated by admixture to colour a set of genomes by their sources. The algorithm uses no taxonomic priors, no windowing, and scales in linear time to large genomes. Data can be re-sequenced, reduced representation, or mixed. The approach is unbiased by missing data. Applications are diverse. For a hybrid zone, genome regions identified as barriers to geneflow by polarisation correspond to reduced effective migration regions according to the coalescent. I summarise further results regarding conservation and invasion biology, and adaptive introgression. I discuss how the span of the approach might help bridge micro to macro speciation.
I focus on inference, spatial genetics and the population genomics of admixture. My training is in evolutionary biology, population genetics and computer science. I have worked on diverse invasive and admixture systems on four continents over the past three decades.
[Host: Zbyszek Boratynski, Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions - BIODESERTS]
Zoom Link (Passcode: 332211)
Zoom Link (Passcode: 332211)