Evolution_of_meiotic_recombination_and_genomic_divergence_in_percomorph_fishes
Recombination is a fundamental genetic process in sexually reproducing organisms. It generates the diversity of alleles upon which natural selection acts and ensures proper formation of sperm and egg cells. Despite intense interest, understanding of how the distribution of recombination along chromosomes is determined and regulated and fine scale mapping of recombination have so far been possible only in a limited number of species. In this project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, we are going to use patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium to reconstruct fine-scale recombination maps in 47 vertebrate species, focussing on Percomorph fishes, which, based on our preliminary data, may have a unique mechanism of localising recombination along the chromosomes. The project also investigates the interaction between recombination and genomic signatures of selection.