Genetic variation, which is generated by mutation, recombination and gene flow, can reduce
the mean fitness of a population, both now and in the future. This ‘genetic load’ has been …

Our ability to assess the threat posed by the genetic load to small and declining populations
has been greatly improved by advances in genome sequencing and computational …

The ongoing degradation of natural systems and other environmental changes has put our
society at a crossroad with respect to our future relationship with our planet. While the …

The kākāpō is a flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. Once common in the archipelago,
only 201 individuals remain today, most of them descending from an isolated island …

Diversifying selection on metabolic pathways can reduce intraspecific gene flow and promote
population divergence. An opportunity to explore this arises from mitonuclear discordance …

Both classical and recent studies suggest that chromosomal inversion polymorphisms are
important in adaptation and speciation. However, biases in discovery and reporting of …

The study of parallel ecological divergence provides important clues to the operation of natural
selection. Parallel divergence often occurs in heterogeneous environments with different …

Chromosomal inversions have long been recognized for their role in local adaptation. By
suppressing recombination in heterozygous individuals, they can maintain coadapted gene …

Metabolic processes in eukaryotic cells depend on interactions between mitochondrial and
nuclear gene products (mitonuclear interactions). These interactions could have a direct role …

In animals, interactions among gene products of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (mitonuclear
interactions) are of profound fitness, evolutionary, and ecological significance. Most …