New bioinformatics approaches for studying local adaptation in coastal fish

Advances in genetic technologies, such as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), have opened up new possibilities to unveil the role of selective forces and deepen our understanding of the adaptive mechanisms and long-term evolutionary response of coastal fish species in response to climatic and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the strong computational capabilities required to analyze NGS data presents a bottleneck for marine biologists embarking into genome-wide studies. In this project, Enrique Blanco Gonzalez seeks to visit Dr. Annette McGrath's team at CSIRO's Digitial Productivity & Services Flagship primarily to strengthen his skills in bioinformatics and to develop customized analytical approaches to be applied within the project "Adaptation or plasticity as response to large scale translocations and harvesting over a climatic gradient in the marine ecosystem?" (Havkyst #234328/MO). The knowledge gained during his stay at Dr. McGrath's lab will provide Dr. Blanco Gonzalez with robust tools to disentangle the relative importance of plasticity versus local adaptation in corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops) and to enhance the quality of his research on marine-related issues. Additionally, he aims to exchange ideas about NGS applications in marine research, foster international collaborations and get feedback when writing up scientific papers. The visit is planned for a total of 5 months between October 2015 and February 2016. During this period, he also expects to benefit from the training methodologies developed by Dr. McGrath and her colleagues at CSIRO to establish the foundations of educational programs on next generation sequencing for marine biology students at the University of Agder.

The development of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies have opened up new possibilities to unveil the role of selective forces and deepen our understanding of the adaptive mechanisms and long-term evolutionary response of coastal fish species in response to climatic and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the strong computational capabilities required to analyze NGS data presents a bottleneck for marine biologists embarking into genome-wide studies. In this project, Enrique Blanco Gonzalez seeks to visit Dr. McGrath's team at CSIRO's Digitial Productivity & Services Flagship primarily to strengthen his skills in bioinformatics and to develop customized analytical approaches to be applied within the project "Adaptation or plasticity as response to large scale translocations and harvesting over a climatic gradient in the marine ecosystem?" (Havkyst #234328/MO). The knowledge gained during his stay at Dr. McGrath's lab will provide Dr. Blanco Gonzalez with robust tools to disentangle the relative importance of plasticity versus local adaptation in corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops) and to enhance the quality of his research on marine-related issues. Additionally, he aims to exchange ideas about NGS applications in marine research, foster international collaborations and get feedback when writing up scientific papers. The visit is planned for a total of 5 months between October 2015 and February 2016. During this period, he also expects to benefit from the training methodologies developed by Dr. McGrath and her colleagues at CSIRO to establish the foundations of educational programs on next generation sequencing for marine biology students at the University of Agder.