Population Genomics
Scanning for selective sweeps
One of the most stable footprints of a selective sweep is the trough in diversity. To make use of diversity estimates in genome wide sweep scans, we developed methods to obtain unbiased estimates of diversity from Next Generation Sequencing data (Nielsen et. al, Nat Rev Genet, 2007; Hellmann et. al, Genome Res, 2008) and methods to make sweep scans robust to varying mutation rates and background selection (Huber et al., Mol. Ecol., 2016). Furthermore, we investigate the footprint of local adaptation and show that the majority of selection in swedish A. thaliana is confined to one subpopulation (Long et al Nat. Genet., 2013; Huber et al., MBE 2014).
Modelling sex biased demographies
Comparisons of X-chromosome and autosomes contain information about mating systems and sex-biased migration. Inference about these life history traits are further complicated by sex-biased mutation and demography. Here, we developed an extension of the jSFS-based program δaδi (Gutenkunst et al., PLoS Genet, 2009), to estimate coestimate sex-bias parameters and demography.