New software marks leap forward for population genomics

New work from Schlötterer's group has made a significant advancement in the field of population genomics, allowing users to apply next-generation sequencing on a larger scale.

The new software package, called 'PoPoolation2', offers a wide range of statistical methods to determine how the frequencies of alleles of genes vary between populations. Successful tests were carried out on the sequences of a single chromosome from two distinct populations of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

Christian Schlötterer of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna has previously highlighted the benefits of pooling samples in order to reduce costs of population genetics studies, which were previously considered arduous to conduct. However, the method could only apply next-generation sequencing at the scale of populations to only few model systems. The new system looks to remedy this.

As Schlötterer says: "PoPoolation2 helps us compare the allele frequencies between populations. It will enable us quickly and cheaply to compare how populations of different species have adapted differently to their environments, giving us better information on the big picture of evolution in practice."

Posted by Ben Evans