Pooja Swali @poojaswali.bsky.social presenting her very interesting work on ancient pathogens. @ugiatucl.bsky.social

Two that I have pictures for, from UCL. Finley Grover presenting his work on the signatures of local adaptation in mtDNA in humans. @ugiatucl.bsky.social

Interestingly, the strongest signatures of adaptation are in genes that mediate resistance and adaptation to malaria in humans (GYPA and HBB). This suggest potential parallel adaptation to the malaria parasite in chimpanzees and humans.

We also observe signatures of adaptation to forests, with the strongest being to pathogens such as malaria, perhaps due to the higher density and diversity of pathogens in the deep forest.

Correlating genetics and environment, and with robust controls, this analysis provided significant evidence of local genetic adaptation to habitat in wild populations. This is important because it reveals the presence of functional genetic diversity in the species, which likely shapes fitness.

Chimps are elusive and protected, and in the wild cannot be sampled for DNA. Non-invasive sampling is the only possibility. As part of the PanAf project we collected hundreds of faecal samples, extracted chimpanzee DNA, sequenced their exomes and combined them with chr21 and data on habitat type.

Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives (w/bonobos), and endangered. Their environmental range is unusually diverse for a great ape, from deep rainforests to woodland-savannahs.

Credit: Carolyn Fryns, Project Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research Centre. carolinefryns.bsky.social

The genomic data allows us to infer that Central & Western pops diverged >100,000 years ago and are differentiated. The inferred effective population sizes are small, with the tiniest (Far-Western) under 3,000, among the smallest estimated in great apes, and with signs of isolation & inbreeding.

mtDNA had previously suggested substructure in the species. Combining exomes and genomes we identify three differentiated populations. Integrating previously available mtDNA of wild individuals we infer their geographic origin, in the Central, Western and Far-Western parts of their range.

Since we are here now… A few weeks ago we published in @currentbiology.bsky.social our latest work on bonobos, our closest relatives (w/chimps), endangered and with a small population in the wild.
Foto: Martin Surbeck, Kokolopori Research Project (thank you!).
🧪🧬 #popgen #evolution

The CEE autumn symposium and mixer starts! A full day of talks covering Ecology and Evolution research across London institutions, today hosted and organised by QMUL. www.ucl.ac.uk/centre-ecolo...