From Population Genetics to Ecological Genomics in Birds 洪志銘博士 Dr. Chih-Ming Hung 國立臺灣師範大學生命科學系博士後研究 Postdoctoral Associate Department of Life Science National Taiwan Normal University Time: 2015. 04. 13 Mon. 15:30 Venue: Auditorium, 1st Floor Interdisciplinary Research Building 跨領域科技研究大樓1 樓演講廳 Host: Dr. Sheng-Feng Shen 沈聖峰助研究員 Abstract Over the past few decades a succession of increasingly sophisticated molecular techniques has been used in evolutionary biology. The questions, however, have changed relatively little. How do species adapt genetically to new or changing environments? Do these genetic changes influence the speciation process? How many and which genes play roles in adaptation and speciation? Today, genome-wide data allow scientists to establish the links between genotypes, phenotypes and ecological interactions—a long-term knowledge gap in evolutionary biology—and help to answer these questions. In this talk, I will present my past and future research programs trending from population genetics toward ecological genomics in understanding avian biology. I will first present a study distinguishing the confounding effects of natural selection from population bottlenecks on the genetic variation of two sister passerines. Second, I will discuss a project applying population genomic analysis to ancient DNA combined with ecological modeling to explore the extinction history of the passenger pigeon. I will end by presenting preliminary results from my ongoing research on the genomic basis of avian phenotypic convergence, and discussing my future work on the genomic mechanism of high-altitudinal adaptation of birds.