Introduction to Ecological GenomicsNico M. Van Straalen et Dick Roelofs2006

The genomics revolution has expanded from its origins in molecular biology to impact upon every discipline in the life sciences, including ecology. This book addresses a series of fundamental ecological questions on stress responses, population structure, genetic variation, adaptation, life-histories, community structure, and nutrient cycling from a genomics perspective. An overview of next-generation sequencing methods is provided, as are the principles of microarray-based gene expression and data analysis. The properties of prokaryotic as well as eukaryotic genomes are discussed, and a systematic treatment is given of well-studied genomic model species among prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants, and animals. Comparative genomics and phylogenetics has shed new light on the position of evolutionary lineages in the tree of life. Analysis of organelle sequences has revealed the role of multiple endosymbiotic events in the rise of the eukaryotes. The rapidly developing field of environmental genomics (metagenomics) is also given due attention, including the recent discoveries on bacterial biodiversity and new links in nutrient cycles. Life-history variation is explained from age-dependent gene expression to identify many genetic determinants of ageing, flowering time, phenotypic plasticity, and polyphenetic development. Stress responses to cold, drought, salt, and pathogens are discussed in terms of the underlying mechanisms of signal transduction and gene expression. Analysis of adaptation to the environment is explained on the basis of sequence-based genome scans and bioinformatic analysis of polymorphisms in environmental gradients.

Titre original : Introduction to Ecological Genomics (2006)