The study of deleterious variation, or genetic load, in natural populations has become increasingly important in conservation genomics, particularly with the advent of novel bioinformatics tools (see our related work in Bertorelle et al. LINK and Dussex et al. LINK). These methodologies have opened new doors in understanding biodiversity and informing conservation strategies. Despite significant progress, questions linger about the optimal application of these approaches, especially for non-model organisms. This project aims to employ different cutting-edge bioinformatics techniques to predict deleterious scores of mutations across a comprehensive dataset of avian genomes, representing a broad swath of the avian phylogenetic tree, and compare their accuracy.
The student will contribute to not only refining the technical application of these methods but also addressing fundamental biological questions regarding the evolution of genetic load. The insights gleaned from this research are poised to contribute significantly to our understanding of extinction risk and resilience in bird populations. The student will have access to hundreds of genomes from both endangered and non-endangered bird species.
Profile: We are seeking a student with a strong background in bioinformatics, coupled with a keen interest and a solid understanding of population genetics and evolutionary genomics. This project offers a unique opportunity to delve into the dynamics of genetic variation and its implications for conservation biology, providing valuable contributions to the field and paving the way for future research in biodiversity conservation.
Contact: Hernán E. Morales, hernan.morales@biol.lu.se