It is time for a new lab-meeting on Wednesday (September 1), and this time I was thinking that we should discuss a recent Science-paper where the auhtors present evidence for genetic adaptations to high-altitude living in Tibet. The paper can be downloaded here. Interestingly, there is also another recent study on the same topic in PNAS, which can be downloaded here. I suggest we read both of them in preparation for the lab-meeting on Wednesday.
These papers has received quite a lot of attention both in media and in the bloggosphere. I can recommend population geneticist Jerry Coynes blogpost about one of these papers on his excellent blog "Why Evolution is true". Coyne has also a more critical blogpost where he cautions against solely relying on statistical approaches on gene frequency changes to infer selection. Being an experimental evolutionary biologist and ecologist by heart, I could of course not agree more with Coyne.
Time of lab-meeting as usual: 10.15 in "Darwin", Wednesday September 1, 2010. Any fika-volunteer?
Also, do not forget that CAnMove organises a barbecue on the same day in the afternoon at 17.00 at the Biology Department. Contact Sophia Engel for more info.
References and publication details:
Genetic Evidence for High-Altitude Adaptation in TibetTatum S. Simonson, Yingzhong Yang, Chad D. Huff, Haixia Yun, Ga Qin, David J. Witherspoon, Zhenzhong Bai, Felipe R. Lorenzo, Jinchuan Xing, Lynn B. Jorde, Josef T. Prchal, and RiLi Ge Science 2 July 2010 329: 72-75; published online 13 May 201013 May 2010 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1189406] (in Reports)
Natural selection on EPAS1 (HIF2α) associated with low hemoglobin concentration in Tibetan highlanders PNAS 2010 107 (25) 11459-11464; published ahead of print June 7, 2010, doi:10.1073/pnas.1002443107
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