Adam Eyre-Walker: Variation in the effective population size between species and along genomes

Abstract:

The effective population size, Ne, is a central concept in population genetics, but the forces that determine variation in the Ne remain elusive. I will describe several projects in which we have attempted to elucidate some of the factors affecting Ne. We have revisited the longstanding question of how much census population size affects Ne using mammalian and avian mitochondrial DNA. I will also describe two projects where we have assessed the factors and consequences of variation in Ne across a genome using data from Drosophila.