TID: Fredag 31.mai 2024 kl 10:15, STED: Nucleus, Bikuben, Kristine Bonnevies hus
Main research findings:
In my PhD project, which was conducted as part of The Nansen Legacy, I leveraged next-generation sequencing technologies to explore the evolutionary histories of keystone Arctic marine fish species.
By analyzing genome assemblies in a comparative framework,
Siv Nam Khang Hoff. Photo: Nansen Legacy
we found that large-scale chromosomal rearrangement events can arise among closely related species, over a relatively short evolutionary time.
Moreover, such rearrangements may possibly underpin evolutionary functions such as adaptation to environmental conditions as well as initiation and maintenance of genetic barriers between species pairs.
Furthermore, population genomic analyses of polar cod and capelin across the Barents Sea and adjacent regions revealed contrasting results. For polar cod, we found no apparent population structuring at the genome-wide level. However, we discovered 20 polymorphic chromosomal inversions, that vary in size and complexity, which encompass hundreds of genes, suggesting the potential existence of subpopulations or ecotypes. For capelin, the genomic data uncovered structuring, delineating three main clusters defined both by genome-wide markers and inversions, representing local Icelandic, Barents Sea, and East Greenland populations.
Taken together, our results shed light on the evolutionary history and diversity as well as population structure, and connectivity of keystone teleosts in the Arctic and subarctic regions of the North Atlantic.
Adjudication committee
- Prof. Craig Primmer, Institute of Biotechnology & Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki
- Ass. Prof. Josefin Stiller, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen
- Prof. John Michael Koomey, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
Chair of defense
- Professor Melinka Butenko, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Researcher Sissel Jentoft, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
- Researcher Leif Christian Stige, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
- Assoc. Prof. Mark Ravinet, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo
- Prof. Kim Præbel, The Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT
- Researcher Joël Durant, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo