Selection shapes the hybrid genome

Dept. of Biology Seminar

Presented by Molly Schumer, (Fall 2019) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology, Stanford University

Abstract: In the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that hybridization is pervasive across a range of species, with cases reported for species across the tree of life. As a result, the genomes of many contemporary species harbor regions derived from these hybridization events. Because hybridization mixes two potentially divergent genomes, it can have important functional consequences. We use replicate naturally occurring hybrid populations of swordtail fish to understand how the genome evolves after hybridization. We find that selection plays a major role in reshaping the genome after admixture and that other factors such as local recombination rate and mechanism modulate this process. This work suggests that genome evolution after hybridization may be in part predictable.