Heredity Podcast

Turning the lens on the history of genetics itself, we talk to authors of an article examining its historical relationship with the eugenics movement, which promoted the since discredited idea that genetic improvement techniques could and should be applied to human populations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hear from Clio Karageorgiou about her work and a recent special issue of Heredity on the same topic - structural variation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hear from Portia Wong and Paolo Momigliano about using samples seized from the illegal wildlife trade to inform the conservation of endangered pangolins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A team from universities in Connecticut tell us about their use of pangenomes to examine the status of mink populations in Florida, and an innovative programme that's training the next generation of researchers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Genetics Society Vice President Jonathan Pettitt discusses what Heredity's publication revenue is used for, and the scientific community benefits of publishing in society journals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Student Paper Prize for 2025 was won by Eléonore Lavanchy. Eléonore discusses her work, the winning paper and inbreeding in European Barn Owls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 2/2 from the 59th Popgroup meeting in Lille. Plenary speakers Claire Mérot and Denis Roze discuss their experience of the conference and the content of their talks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 1/2 from the 59th Popgroup meeting in Lille. Plenary speaker Florencia Camus talks about her experience of the conference and the content of her talk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reproduction involves decisions about when to mate and who with. We know that high temperatures affect fertility, but how does this affect mating decisions and sexual selection within populations? Tilly Pembury Smith and Rhonda Snook tell us about their work using fruit files. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parasites and parasitoids are large drivers of evolutionary change. We hear from Peter Hambäck (Stockholm University) about his work on how beetle larvae combat a parasitoid wasp that wants to lay its eggs inside them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We often hear that invasive species are bad for the ecosystems they invade, but the consequences can seem remote and hard to grasp. In this episode we hear from Nitin Ravikanthachari and Carol Boggs about their study system where an invasive plant has very tangible effects for a native butterfly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Organisms are sensitive to temperature, but reproduction is likely to be affected at lower temperatures than survival. We're joined by Jessica McNeill & Caiti Smukowski Heil to talk about their work on meiosis in yeasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The genomes of organisms can tell us about evolutionary processes in the past - but can they also give clues about the future? André Yves and Fernanda Werneck tell us about their work on climate adaptation in Amazonian lizards. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many Anolis lizards have a sail of colourful skin on their throats which they use to communicate, but how does something like that evolve? Find out with researchers Renata Pirani, Carlos Arias and Mike Logan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Biological invasions are a huge issue in contemporary biology. In this episode we hear from Teun Everts and Rein Brys, who are studying the American Bullfrog invasion of Belgium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Frank Burbrink and Ed Myers talk about their recent work on American Racers. Spatial patterns, hybridisation and why the shapes of evolutionary trees might be more complex than we thought. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Continuing the recent theme of conservation genetics, we return to the sea with Marc Gose and Rob Ogden. They discuss their work on the white-beaked dolphin, and the importance of international collaboration to manage populations that span borders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best student paper of 2024 winner Kate Rick, along with Brenton Von Takach and Kym Ottewell, discuss the use of genomics in Australian conservation efforts, and their study on the golden bandicoot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chérine Baumgartner and Andy Foote discuss working with orcas and their recent paper on diet and population dynamics in North Atlantic killer whales Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katja Guschanski discusses working with mammal evolution, museomics and her plenary talk at Popgroup 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet Heredity editor Bastiaan Star (University of Oslo), we talk about his work with ancient fish DNA and why he enjoys working with Heredity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Genomics is about patterns, but finding them, or even knowing what to look for, is difficult. In this episode we talk to Noah Simon about the clever approaches he took to investigating the genomics of neuronal regeneration in mice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DNA sequence data promises to enable the study of biodiversity and its response to threats. However, much of this potential depends upon the availability of reference genomes. We hear about the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) from its Chairperson, Rob Waterhouse (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics). We also hear from ERGA member Will Nash (Earlham Institute) about his quest to understand the genome of the beautiful Violet carpenter bee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even non-academics hear a lot these days about the peer review process, but how does this work behind the scenes? In this episode we meet another new associate editor, Sebastian Ramos Onsins. We also find out what editors do at the journal from Co-editor-in-chief Sara Goodacre and editorial assistant Sandra Huettenbuegel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The use of genetic simulations is gaining popularity. In this episode we learn about SLiM (https://messerlab.org/slim/), one of the most popular software packages, from one of its creators - Ben Haller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Down in the engine room of a scientific journal are its associate editors, they arbitrate the peer-review process and make the whole system run. Heredity's newest editor is Diala Abu Awad, in this episode we find out a bit about her and her work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Living near humans and human infrastructure has ecological effects on many species. Iberian wolf populations in human-dominated landscapes are unable to disperse as far as they would in the past. We find out how they are coping with this change, from Dr Carolina Pacheco, Dr Raquel Godinho and Dr Francisco Álvares. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gene-drives hold great potential for the control of biological pests, but first they need to be thoroughly tested under appropriate conditions. In this episode we discuss some new work assessing whether mosquito populations in Northern Australia could be used to test a gene-drive targeting malaria mosquitoes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Genes are recipes for proteins and proteins do stuff. But if a gene can make more than one protein, how does that affect genetic variation and the possible routes to adaptation? We get an introduction to the topic of adaptive alternative splicing from David Manahan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're in the age of big data, but there remain several hurdles to integrating genomics into conservation science. We hear about these issues from Prof Cock Van Oosterhout, and discuss the potential solutions he outlined in his recent perspectives article for Heredity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this second of our special episodes on the 2024 PopGroup conference, we hear from Mark Kirkpatrick, who gave the plenary talk which was the climactic end to the meeting. Mark tells us why he loves Popgroup, what his conference talk was about and what questions he's excited to dig into next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PopGroup is the beloved annual meeting of the Population Genetics group of the Genetics Society. This episode we hear from Mike Richie, lead organiser at this year's host organisation - the University of St Andrews, from plenary speaker Susan Johnston and from student prizewinner Diana Lobo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Each year Heredity awards a prize for the best student paper in the journal, this episode Ellen Nikelski, talking about her paper and how it feels to have been the winner in 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the big decisions in planning a genetic study is what kind of sequencing approach to use. This episode we talk to Daria Martchenko and Aaron Shafer (Trent University, Canada), whose paper compares and contrasts whole genomes to RADseq in a study of mountain goat demography and adaptive history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We tend to focus on research studies on the podcast, but review papers are a hugely important part of the scientific literature. This week we talk to Frank Hailer, reviews editor, who demonstrates his passion for using genetics in his work and talks about why he loves his job at Heredity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Barriers to gene-flow control population connectivity, but what barriers exist in the sea? How similar is the connectivity of island marine organisms to those on land? As with many evolutionary questions, the Galapagos is the perfect place to find answers. Max Hirschfeld and Christine Dudgeon discuss their new work with the Galapagos bullhead shark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is effective population size (Ne), and why is it important? Robin Waples takes us back to the basics of this important evolutionary concept and discusses his new paper, using simulations to demonstrate that Bill Hill's 1972 equation for calculating Ne still works for populations with extreme reproductive patterns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kamolphat Atsawawaranunt and Anna Santure discuss how they have used diverse samples of DNA to trace the introduction history of the common myna from its native range across its invasive distribution in the Pacific. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Richard Bernstein (Institute for Bee Research Hohen Neuendorf) discusses the development of the first genomic prediction model for honey bees. Genomic prediction is well established in the breeding of many commercial species, but wasn’t possible in honey bees until now. Richard fills us in on what genomic prediction actually is, why its useful and why prediction for bees is so tricky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Prof Thomas Madsen (Deakin University) discusses how a long-term study of an adder population has provided evidence that polyandry and non-random fertilisation can have positive effects on genetic diversity. Thomas argues that factoring in mating dynamics could help to improve conservation genetic analyses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Anna Hewett discusses how different factors have led to the patterns of homozygosity observed in a population of red deer living on the Scottish Isle of Rum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After five years with the journal, James Burgon is leaving the Heredity Podcast. But fear not! Because the podcast is being left in a pair of safe and familiar hands. In this episode we meet our new host: Michael Pointer. Also joining the episode is new Editor-in-Chief Prof. Sara Goodacre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Oosting discusses his research on the population demographics of the Australasian snapper, an economically important fish found in the waters around New Zealand. This study combines modern sampling with museum samples collected from pre-colonial Māori middens. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Mitochondrial genomes reveal mid-Pleistocene population divergence, and post-glacial expansion, in Australasian snapper (Chrysophrys auratus)” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every year, Heredity publishes some outstanding student-led papers, and to recognise the quality of this work the journal runs a student paper prize. So, what makes a paper stand out? Find out, as Co-Editor-in-Chief Aurora Ruiz-Herrera joins the podcast to explore the three best student-led papers of 2022. Find the full Student Prize Longlist Collection here: https://www.nature.com/collections/bvttbjrkyx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Emiliano Trucchi (Marche Polytechnic University) and Dr Céline Le Bohec (University of Strasbourg; Monaco Scientific Center) discuss the genetic basis of cold adaptation in the emperor penguin. Céline also shares her experience of visiting Antarctica. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Selection-driven adaptation to the extreme Antarctic environment in the Emperor penguin” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Sara Nilson (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Dr Jared Decker (University of Missouri) and Prof. Leslie Lyons (University of Missouri) discuss their quest to find the geographical origins of cat domestication. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Paul Maier tells us about his research on the landscape genetics of the Yosemite toad, which only inhabits high-altitude meadows in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Landscape genetics of a sub-alpine toad: climate change predicted to induce upward range shifts via asymmetrical migration corridors” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Social interactions play an essential role in the lives of many animals. But how do we disentangle the genetic and non-genetic factors influencing sociality? In this episode, Dr Irene Godoy (Bielefeld University) tells us about her research on sociality in capuchin monkeys. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Genetic, maternal, and environmental influences on sociality in a pedigreed primate population” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can the sleep and activity patterns of fruit flies help us better understand human metabolic disorders? It’s a big question, and one that we are going to touch upon today, as we hear from Dr Pedro Vale, Katy Monteith (University of Edinburgh), and Lucy Anderson. This episode also touches upon the undergraduate research experience, first publications, and the benefits of peer-review. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Variation in mitochondrial DNA affects locomotor activity and sleep in Drosophila melanogaster” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the 20th July, The Genetics Society held a fantastic Garden Party to celebrate the 200th birthday of Gregor Mendel: a man regarded by many as the "father of modern genetics". In this episode we showcase a talk given on the day by Prof. Alison Woollard (University of Oxford) titled: ‘Mendel to Modern Genetics’. You can find a recording of the full event on the Genetics Society’s YouTube Channel. You can also find the Heredity Special Issue - Mendel 200th birthday, here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.