Category Archives: popgen teaching

Figures of Genetic Drift

Posted on February 11, 2015 by

Figures are really useful for explaining concepts like drift, however, I often find textbook figures are not super helpful. Pictures of hands reaching into jam jars of beans etc are useful metaphors but don’t really depict the process of transmission … Continue reading →

Posted in popgen teaching, teaching | 3 Comments

Popgen cookies

Posted on December 14, 2013 by

My wonderful population genetics graduate student class surprised me with popgen inspired cookies for the last class. There’s species trees, trees, frequency spectra & equations and a whole boatload of popgen fun. Thanks to the class for a great set … Continue reading →

Posted in photos, popgen teaching, teaching | Leave a comment

How many genomic blocks do you share with a cousin?

Posted on December 2, 2013 by

Thanksgiving is over, although you fridge may still be full of leftovers. You probably spent your time wondering exactly what you have in common with your cousin, other than your loathing of brussels sprouts. I’m a British ex-pat so I … Continue reading →

Posted in genetic genealogy, popgen teaching | 13 Comments

How many genetic ancestors do I have?

Posted on November 11, 2013 by

In my last couple of posts I talked about how much of your (autosomal) genome you inherit from a particular ancestor [1,2]. In the chart below I show a family tree radiating out from one individual. Each successive layer out … Continue reading →

Posted in genetic genealogy, personal genomics, popgen teaching | 31 Comments

How much of your genome do you inherit from a particular ancestor?

Posted on November 4, 2013 by

How much of your genetic material do you inherit from a particular ancestor? You inherit your mitochondria through your matrilineal lineage (your mum, your mum’s mum, your mum’s mum’s mum and so one) and your Y chromosome from your patrilineal … Continue reading →

Posted in genetic genealogy, personal genomics, popgen teaching | 63 Comments

How much of your genome do you inherit from a particular grandparent?

Posted on October 20, 2013 by

You’ve got two copies of each chromosome, having received one copy of each chromosome from your mother and one chromosome from your father (this is true for your autosomes, but not for your X, Y, and mitochondria). When it comes … Continue reading →

Posted in genetic genealogy, personal genomics, popgen teaching | 37 Comments

couple of notes on fixation prob. of beneficial allele

Posted on September 9, 2013 by

There was a conversation on twitter about Haldane’s 2s approximation to the fixation probability of an allele, and how it related to the diffusion approximation of the same quantity. This followed from a blog post by Adam Eyre-Walker. I thought … Continue reading →

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“Ask me anything” Reddit on our European ancestry paper

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

Peter Ralph and I are doing an “Ask me anything” on our paper about the Recent genetic genealogy of Europe over at the askScience reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1ee560/askscience_ama_we_are_the_authors_of_a_recent/ today [May 15th]. Feel free to pop by and ask us questions.

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Identification of genomic regions shared between distant relatives

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

We’ve been addressing some of the FAQs on topics arising from our paper on the geography of recent genetic genealogy in Europe (PLOS Biology). We wanted to write one on shared genetic material in personal genomics data but it got … Continue reading →

Posted in genetic genealogy, personal genomics, popgen teaching | 1 Comment

Peter and I’s European genetic genealogy paper is out.

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

Peter Ralph and I’s article on the geography of recent genetic genealogy in Europe is out in PLOS Biology. We’ve written an FAQ on the paper, that we sent out with the press release. PLOS also has a synopsis of … Continue reading →

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