Matthew Christmas

Dr. Matthew Christmas


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

20Years (2007-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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15 August 2023 in Genome Biology
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
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JMJennifer Meadows
Jennifer Meadows
JKJeff Kidd
Jeff Kidd
GWGuo-Dong Wang
Guo-Dong Wang
HPHeidi G. Parker
Heidi G. Parker
PSPeter Z Schall
Peter Z Schall
Elaine OstranderElaine Ostrander
Elaine Ostrander
Background: The international Dog10K project aims to sequence and analyze several thousand canine genomes. Incorporating 20 × data from 1987 individuals, including 1611 dogs (321 breeds), 309 village dogs, 63 wolves, and four coyotes, we identify genomic variation across the canid family, setting the stage for detailed studies of domestication, behavior, morphology, disease susceptibility, and genome architecture and function. Results: We report the analysis of > 48 M single-nucleotide, indel, and structural variants spanning the autosomes, X chromosome, and mitochondria. We discover more than 75% of variation for 239 sampled breeds. Allele sharing analysis indicates that 94.9% of breeds form monophyletic clusters and 25 major clades. German Shepherd Dogs and related breeds show the highest allele sharing with independent breeds from multiple clades. On average, each breed dog differs from the UU_Cfam_GSD_1.0 reference at 26,960 deletions and 14,034 insertions greater than 50 bp, with wolves having 14% more variants. Discovered variants include retrogene insertions from 926 parent genes. To aid functional prioritization, single-nucleotide variants were annotated with SnpEff and Zoonomia phyloP constraint scores. Constrained positions were negatively correlated with allele frequency. Finally, the utility of the Dog10K data as an imputation reference panel is assessed, generating high-confidence calls across varied genotyping platform densities including for breeds not included in the Dog10K collection. Conclusions: We have developed a dense dataset of 1987 sequenced canids that reveals patterns of allele sharing, identifies likely functional variants, informs breed structure, and enables accurate imputation. Dog10K data are publicly available.

24 September 2015 in Conservation Genetics
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Journal Article
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MCMatthew Christmas
Matthew Christmas
MBMartin Breed
Martin Breed
ALAndrew Lowe
Andrew Lowe
Contemporary climate change is having widespread impacts on plant populations. Understanding how plants respond to this change is essential to our efforts to conserve them. The key climate responses of plant populations can be categorised into one of three types: migration, in situ adaptation, or extirpation. If populations are to avoid extirpation then migration and/or in situ adaptation is essential. In this review we first articulate the current and future constraints of plant populations, but trees in particular, to the different adaptation strategies (e.g. space availability, rate of change, habitat fragmentation, niche availability). Secondly, we assess the use of the most appropriate methods (e.g. natural environmental gradients, genome and transcriptome scans) for assessing and understanding adaptive responses and the capacity to adapt to future challenges. Thirdly, we discuss the best conservation approaches (e.g. assisted migration, biodiversity corridors, ex situ strategies) to help overcome adaptive constraints in plants. Our synthesis of plant, and particularly tree, responses and constraints to climate change adaptation, combined with the identification of conservation strategies designed to overcome constraints, will help deliver effective management actions to assist adaptation in the face of current and future climate change.

1 January 2022 in Current Biology
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
ISInes Sanchez-Donoso
Ines Sanchez-Donoso
SRSara Ravagni
Sara Ravagni
JRJ. Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro
J. Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro
MCMatthew Christmas
Matthew Christmas
YHYan Huang
Yan Huang
Carles VilàCarles Vilà
Carles Vilà

18 December 2007 in The Science of Nature
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Journal Article
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AAAntony S. Aleksiev
Antony S. Aleksiev
BLBen Longdon
Ben Longdon
MCMatthew Christmas
Matthew Christmas
ASAna B. Sendova-Franks
Ana B. Sendova-Franks
NFNigel R. Franks
Nigel R. Franks

28 February 2014 in PLOS ONE
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Journal Article
Open access
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MBMartin Breed
Martin Breed
MCMatthew Christmas
Matthew Christmas
ALAndrew Lowe
Andrew Lowe
Studying associations between mating system parameters and fitness in natural populations of trees advances our understanding of how local environments affect seed quality, and thereby helps to predict when inbreeding or multiple paternities should impact on fitness. Indeed, for species that demonstrate inbreeding avoidance, multiple paternities (i.e. the number of male parents per half-sib family) should still vary and regulate fitness more than inbreeding – named here as the ‘constrained inbreeding hypothesis’. We test this hypothesis in Eucalyptus gracilis, a predominantly insect-pollinated tree. Fifty-eight open-pollinated progeny arrays were collected from trees in three populations. Progeny were planted in a reciprocal transplant trial. Fitness was measured by family establishment rates. We genotyped all trees and their progeny at eight microsatellite loci. Planting site had a strong effect on fitness, but seed provenance and seed provenance × planting site did not. Populations had comparable mating system parameters and were generally outcrossed, experienced low biparental inbreeding and high levels of multiple paternity. As predicted, seed families that had more multiple paternities also had higher fitness, and no fitness-inbreeding correlations were detected. Demonstrating that fitness was most affected by multiple paternities rather than inbreeding, we provide evidence supporting the constrained inbreeding hypothesis; i.e. that multiple paternity may impact on fitness over and above that of inbreeding, particularly for preferentially outcrossing trees at life stages beyond seed development.

21 August 2016 in Molecular Ecology
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MCMatthew Christmas
Matthew Christmas
EBEd Biffin
Ed Biffin
MBMartin Breed
Martin Breed
ALAndrew Lowe
Andrew Lowe