Exploring the molecular footprints of natural selection in threespine stickleback

The primordial and prevailing goal of evolutionary biology is to elucidate how biological diversity emerges from the interaction of organisms and environments. Nowadays, we have the technology and analytical power to ask the same question at a much deeper scope and aim to identify the genomic processes underlying the adaptation of species to spatially and temporally changing environments. This has recently led to the emergence of a new research field – evolutionary genomics, which focuses on understanding the genetic basis of adaptive evolutionary change and ultimately establish the molecular links between phenotype, genome, development and ecology. Population genomic investigations embedded in strong ecological frameworks are still sparse but arguably represent the only way to empirically establish those links.
My thesis focused on exploring the genomic and phenotypic footprints of natural selection, in threespine stickleback, contributing to further our understanding of the tempo and mode of natural adaptive change.