O. Hallatschek

Lineage frequency time series reveal elevated levels of genetic drift in SARS-CoV-2 transmission in England

This paper develops a method to estimate genetic drift in SARS-CoV-2 transmission using lineage frequency time series and applies it to genomic data from England, finding consistently higher genetic drift than expected.

Asynchronous abundance fluctuations can drive giant genotype frequency fluctuations

The paper shows that asynchronous abundance fluctuations can cause large genotype frequency changes in microbial populations, distinct from genetic drift.

Rediversification Following Ecotype Isolation Reveals Hidden Adaptive Potential

The paper shows that two-ecotype microbial communities can rediversify into two ecotypes after isolation, with similar patterns despite evolutionary time, but with differences in growth traits and transcriptional states.

Tipping points emerge from weak mutualism inmetacommunities

This study shows that weak mutualism in spatially structured metacommunities can lead to tipping points, ecosystem collapse, and bistability.

Impact of crowding on the diversity of expanding populations

The paper quantifies how crowding affects genetic diversity in expanding microbial populations by showing a power-law distribution of low-frequency clones due to volume-exclusion interactions.

Evolutionary rescue is promoted in compact cellular populations

The paper shows that dense microbial populations increase the likelihood of evolutionary rescue by stabilizing less-fit resistant subclones through population dynamics.

Quantifying the Local Adaptive Landscape of a Nascent Bacterial Community

The paper quantifies the adaptive potential of a bacterial community by measuring gene knockout fitness effects across different genetic backgrounds and ecological conditions.

Self-consistent migration puts tight constraintson the spatio-temporal organization ofspecies-rich metacommunities

The paper shows that self-consistent migration imposes strict constraints on the migration-extinction equilibrium in species-rich metacommunities, making them sensitive to environmental changes.

Scale-dependent tipping points of bacterial colonization resistance

The paper shows that physical structure variations in microhabitats drastically affect bacterial colonization success and resistance, revealing scale-dependent tipping points in microbial self-organization.

Bacterial filamentation drives colony chirality

This study shows that bacterial colony chirality is linked to cell filamentation and division regulation, not single-cell twisting.

Dynamic sampling bias and overdispersion induced by skewed offspring distributions

The paper analyzes how skewed offspring distributions affect allele frequency dynamics and shows that dynamic sampling bias leads to overdispersion in genetic data.

Genealogical structure changes as range expansions transition from pushed to pulled

This paper shows range expansions generate a spectrum of coalescent topologies, with differences between pulled and pushed expansions due to growth cooperativity and front dynamics.

The mutability of demographic noise in microbial range expansions

This study measures how single gene deletions in E. coli affect demographic noise during range expansions, finding that mutations can reduce noise and enhance beneficial mutation establishment.

From sectors to speckles: The impact of long range migration on gene surfing

This study examines how long-range migration affects genetic diversity during population range expansions, showing that dispersal patterns can lead to either diversity preservation or loss.

Genetic drift in range expansions is very sensitive to density feedback in dispersal and growth

This study shows that density-dependent dispersal reduces genetic drift in expanding populations, altering diversity loss patterns based on dispersal and growth rate interactions.

Spatial soft sweeps: patterns of adaptation in populations with long-range dispersal

This study examines spatial patterns of soft sweeps in populations with long-range dispersal, showing how mutant clones form core-halo structures and affect genetic diversity and future adaptation.

Environmental disorder can tip the population genetics of range expansions

The paper shows environmental disorder reduces selection efficacy in bacterial range expansions by pinning the expansion front, increasing genetic drift.

Evolutionary dynamics of bacteria in the gut microbiome within and across hosts

This study examines evolutionary dynamics of gut bacteria within and across hosts, finding rapid genetic changes within hosts and challenges to standard population genetic models.

Directional selection limits ecological diversification and promotes ecological tinkering during the competition for substitutable resources

The paper models how directional selection and ecological diversification interact in microbial communities competing for substitutable resources, showing they reach a balance where ecotype diversity is constrained by fitness differences.

Collective motion conceals fitness differences in crowded cellular populations

The paper shows that collective motion in crowded yeast populations masks fitness differences, allowing deleterious mutations to persist and increase their chance of evolutionary rescue.

The SCWISh network is essential for survival under mechanical pressure.

The paper identifies a mechanosensitive pathway, SCWISh, essential for yeast survival under mechanical pressure by integrating signals from the SMuSh and CWI pathways.

Selection-like biases emerge in population models with recurrent jackpot events

The paper shows recurrent jackpot events in population models create a selection-like bias favoring majority alleles, compensated by rare jumps favoring minorities, with implications for allele frequency dynamics and fixation probabilities.

Minimal-assumption inference from population-genomic data

This paper introduces MAGIC, a method that infers coalescence times from population-genomic data without assuming recombination or demography models, showing it works better with large samples and detects inconsistencies in human genome data.

Mechanical interactions in bacterial colonies and the surfing probability of beneficial mutations

The paper models mechanical interactions in bacterial colonies and shows how physical properties affect the surfing probability of beneficial mutations.

A simple molecular mechanism explains multiple patterns of cell-size regulation

The paper proposes a molecular mechanism that explains both adder and sizer behaviors in cell-size regulation using yeast data.