Project description:Peruvian Native American individuals were genotyped as part of the Peruvian Genome Project (PGP). This data was used to infer population structure, demographic history and natural selection. We addressed question about gene flow across the Andes and Natural Selection in Andes and Amazon
Project description:A major challenge in biology is to determine how evolutionarily novel characters originate, however, mechanistic explanations for the origin of novelties are almost completely unknown. The evolution of mammalianM-BM- pregnancy is an excellent system in which to study the origin of novelties because extant mammals preserve major stages in the transition from egg-laying to live-birth. To determine the molecular bases of this transition we characterized the pregnant/gravid uterine transcriptome from tetrapods, including species in the three major mammalian lineages, and used ancestral transcriptome reconstruction to trace the evolutionary history of uterine gene expression. We show that thousands of genes evolved endometrial expression during the origins of mammalian pregnancy, including numerous genes that mediate maternal-fetal communication and immunotolerance.Furthermore we show that thousands of regulatory elements active inM-BM- decidualized human endometrial stromal cellsM-BM- are derived from ancient mammalian transposable elements which provided binding sites for transcription factors that mediate decidualization and endometrial cell-type identity.M-BM- Our results indicate that one of the defining mammalian novelties evolved via domestication of ancient mammalian transposable elements into hormone-responsive regulatory elements throughout the genome. Examination of histone modification and DNAse hypersensitivity in decidualized dESC
Project description:This study evaluates genetic and phenotypic variation in the high altitude Colla population living in the Argentinean Andes above 3500 m. They were compared to the Wichí population living in the nearby lowlands of the Gran Chaco region. This study attempts to pinpoint evolutionary mechanisms underlying adaptation to hypobaric hypoxia. We have genotyped 25 individuals from both populations for 730,525 SNPs.
