Genomic approaches to unravel adaptation to climate change in weasels and hares.
Year: 2026
Type: other
Abstract: Understanding how species adapt to rapid environmental change is a major scientific challenge. Building on the success of our first advanced computing project (2024.07009.CPCA A1), this project scaled up our approach to larger datasets and more complex models, combining genomic data analyses with eco-evolutionary simulations to assess the scope for adaptation to climate change. The work focused on two main model groups, hares (Lepus spp.) and weasels (Mustela spp.), both known to be affected by climate-related pressures, and was later extended to blue sharks (Prionace glauca) through the work of students in the group. We used large sets of parallel simulations (SLiM, SPLATCHE3) to validate methods for detecting adaptive variation and to explore spatially varying selection and evolutionary rescue under climate change scenarios. We also processed ~3 TB of whole-genome resequencing data to study gene flow and introgression, species evolutionary histories and the genomic basis of disease susceptibility, such as myxomatosis in Iberian hares. High-performance computing (HPC) resources were crucial for this work, allowing us to handle large whole-genome datasets and run many simulations in parallel. The project supported one submitted manuscript and five in preparation, the training of two PhD, a MSc and three undergraduate students, and several funding applications. It also laid the foundations for the integrative eco-evolutionary framework, spanning terrestrial and marine systems, that we are now developing in our follow-up project.
Author: João Pedro Marques
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214723524