Kevin Schneider
University of Glasgow (supervisors: Kathryn Elmer and Colin Adams) 2016-19
Thesis Title: “Population Genomics and Molecular Evolution in Salmonids”
Some groups of salmonids, such as charr and whitefish, repeatedly and rapidly diversified into co-occurring ecomorphs in various lake habitats. This diversification potential has, at least to some degree, a genetic basis. Using transcriptome data from various species of salmonids, I am screening for footprints of natural selection to identify the genetic toolbox that could enable some salmonids to diversify rapidly.
Various populations of Arctic charr, which is often considered the most variable vertebrate on earth, are characterised by ongoing or recent diversification into mostly benthic and limnetic ecomorphs. To learn more about this evolution-in-progress, I am using whole-genome data to understand how adaptation to different environments shapes the genomes of diverging ecomorphs. Importantly, I am also focussing on the amount of ongoing or past gene flow between ecomorphs and among populations and its potential effects on the divergence process.
It has been shown that the demographic history of populations can influence the degree and nature of diversification. However, we know little about the interplay of demography and adaptation or selection at the genome level. With the help of in-silico simulations of large genomic elements and comparisons of the obtained genomic signatures of selection under various demographic scenarios to real-world data, I am trying to disentangle the complexities of these evolutionary processes to inform analyses of empirical data.