Maria Akopyan, PhD

Thanks! That’s something we’re aware of but didn’t deal with in this study - it’s actually the first thing we mention in our limitations section. It’s definitely an important consideration that warrants investigation in future work.

Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Inbreeding reduces fitness in spatially structured populations of a threatened rattlesnake | PNAS Small and fragmented populations are at high risk of local extinction, in part because of elevated inbreeding and subsequent inbreeding depression....

Thrilled to have a new paper out where we use 12+ years of monitoring data to document the impacts of inbreeding on fitness in eastern massasauga rattlesnakes! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

How to Create an ADHD Academic Community (opinion) Maria Akopyan writes that a grad school ADHD group became a career-spanning lifeline.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while… but ADHD 😅

I finally did! It’s about creating academic spaces that actually work for people with ADHD. If it resonates, I’d love to connect or hear your thoughts.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

#ADHD #Neurodiversity #HigherEd

Is science political? - with Kevin Bird Tiny Living Beings · Episode

On this week’s ep, Kevin Bird (@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social) explains the events of the last 3 months, how science is funded in the United States, why it is being attacked so aggressively, and the ideologies behind these attacks. Found everywhere you get podcasts.
open.spotify.com/episode/0E9l...

Genetic Differentiation is Constrained to Chromosomal Inversions and Putative Centromeres in Locally Adapted Populations With Higher Gene Flow Abstract. The impact of genome structure on adaptation is a growing focus in evolutionary biology, revealing an important role for structural variation and

@akopyan.bsky.social et al. analysed 168 genomes of Atlantic silverside, showing that high gene flow leads to clustered divergence in large inversions, while low recombination at centromeres mimics differentiation.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb...

#evobio #molbio #inversions

Huge thanks to my incredible co-authors Anna Tigano (@annatigano.bsky.social), Arne Jacobs (@fishyomics.bsky.social), Aryn Wilder, and Nina Therkildsen for their brilliant contributions to this work. This truly represents years of collaborative effort across multiple institutions! 🧬🐟 7/7

This study offers valuable empirical insights distinguishing the roles of inversions (conditionally low-recombining) vs. centromeres (consistently low-recombining), illuminating the critical connection between genome structure and local adaptation with gene flow. 6/7

Meanwhile, putative centromeric regions showed high differentiation but LOW sequence divergence—suggesting they're unlikely to contribute to adaptive divergence with gene flow, despite their recombination-suppressing properties. 5/7

The most fascinating discovery? Different genomic features play distinct roles: Chromosomal inversions showed both high differentiation AND high sequence divergence—evidence they maintain locally adapted alleles despite gene flow. 4/7

With increasing gene flow, we observed more clustering of differentiated regions in the genome! This supports theoretical predictions that high gene flow favors concentrated genomic architectures of adaptation. 3/7

We found a continuum of genome-wide differentiation increasing from south to north, reflecting higher connectivity among southern populations and reduced gene flow at northern latitudes. 2/7

Genetic differentiation is constrained to chromosomal inversions and putative centromeres in locally adapted populations with higher gene flow Abstract. The impact of genome structure on adaptation is a growing focus in evolutionary biology, revealing an important role for structural variation and

Excited to share our new paper on genetic differentiation in Atlantic silversides! We investigated how genome structure influences adaptation under varying levels of gene flow using a species-specific reference genome and multiple recombination maps. Read on for insights! doi.org/10.1093/molb... 1/7

7/7 🦊 Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors Matthew Genchev @jazlynmooney.bsky.social @elliecat.bsky.social and shoutout to Urocyon cinereoargenteus, our beautiful study species! 🐾📸 #Teamwork #Genomics

6/7 🌍 Why It Matters: With most species lacking conspecific references, genomic studies often rely on divergent genomes, risking biased population genomic inferences. Reference genome choice matters—use species-matched references or reference-free methods when possible to ensure accurate insights.

5/7 🎯 Selection Scans: Arctic fox and dog references identified more than twice the number of unique FST outlier windows compared to the gray fox reference. Each reference identified distinct gene ontology terms underlying outliers, reflecting different biological processes.

4/7 ⏳ Demography & Recombination: The gray fox genome produced higher and more stable estimates of historical population sizes. Additionally, recombination rates inferred from heterospecific genomes were inflated, particularly at chromosome ends, compared to the gray fox genome.

3/7 📊 Population Genomics: The conspecific gray fox genome detected more SNPs, especially rare variants, and yielded higher estimates of nucleotide diversity (π) and differentiation (FST) compared to dog and Arctic fox genomes.

2/7 🔍 What We Did: Using two lineages of gray foxes as a case study, we compared three reference genomes: domestic dog, Arctic fox, and a conspecific gray fox genome.

Divergent reference genomes compromise the reconstruction of demographic histories, selection scans, and population genetic summary statistics Characterizing genetic variation in natural populations is central to evolutionary biology. However, most non-model organisms lack integral genomic resources such as reference genomes and recombinatio...

1/7 🧬 New Preprint Alert: Our study highlights the risks of using divergent reference genomes in population genomics. The choice of reference genome can skew key inferences about demography, diversity, and selection. Read on for insights! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...