Coltman Lab

Human-mediated change has resulted in the expansion of many species into novel habitats. Range expansions have been described demographically as either pulled or pushed, depending on the number of individuals on the leading front, and can leave distinct genomic signatures within the genome. The recent expansions of Agrilus planipennis, Lycorma delicatula, and Dendroctonus ponderosae represent…

The Coltman lab had a fantastic time at the CSEE conference this year in Toronto. Zach did an excellent job sharing his new results on cold tolerance adaptation in the mountain pine beetle. We are especially proud of Marlee, our honours student, for presenting her research on the heritability of telomeres. Cassidy wowed the crowd…

It was a big day for the Coltman crew at Western’s EnviroCon last Friday. Cassidy Moline and Carson Mitchell both presented their work and both came away winners: Cassidy placed first for her poster presentation, and Carson won first prize for her 10-minute oral talk. Congratulations!

Inbreeding is a big problem for the conservation of small wildlife populations, and genetic rescue is a critical management tool used to aid in population recovery and decrease inbreeding. A new publication in Evolutionary Applications by David Coltman, graduate student Carson Mitchell, and collaborators show how genomic tools outperform traditional pedigree tools to monitor the…

Last Friday, two students from the Coltman Lab showcased their ongoing research at the 40th annual Western Research Forum. Cassidy Moline presented a poster titled “Biological aging and life history variation in female grey seals (Halichoerus grypus)”, and Carson Mitchell delivered a 10-minute oral presentation titled “No pedigree, no problem: genomic inbreeding tracks genetic rescue with high…