STATE OF THE ARG is an online seminar series on advances in computational population genomics, with a particular focus on Ancestral Recombination Graphs (ARGs). The series brings together researchers developing new computational and statistical methods and applying them to questions in population genetics, statistical genetics, evolutionary biology, and related fields.

Seminars take place on Wednesdays at 08:30 PT / 11:30 ET / 16:30 UK time during the academic year, from roughly September through June. Our next seminar is:

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra

University of California, Davis

ARGuing with data: tree sequences in real plant genomes

November 18, 2026

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Ancestral recombination graphs (ARGs) are powerful tools for reconstructing the evolutionary history of a sample. ARGs are growing increasingly popular in empirical evolutionary genetics, used to answer questions ranging from geographic spread to the timing of mutations, selection on quantitative traits, or the identification of admixture. Most applications of ARGs, however, have been limited to human genomics, and the few uses in other species have mostly taken ARG estimation from real data as a given. Here, I highlight some of the challenges in applying ARGs to real plant genomes, from repeats to indels and ancestral states, and the merits of short reads and whole-genome alignments. I then present several different use cases: testing the origin of a key domestication allele, identifying selection on transposable elements, and highlighting the demographic impact of European colonization on American crops.

Please see the Upcoming Seminars page for the full schedule of upcoming talks.

About this seminar series

STATE OF THE ARG was initially established by core developers of tskit as a forum for exchanging ideas and discussing advances in genealogical methods for population genomics. It has since grown into a broader seminar series bringing together researchers developing and applying ARG-based methods.

STATE OF THE ARG seminars have two formats: public seminars and internal meetings. Public seminars are open to everyone and are announced on this website; upcoming talks can be found on the Upcoming Seminars page. Internal meetings are intended for members of the STATE OF THE ARG community and provide a more informal setting for discussing ongoing work. Recordings of internal meetings may be made publicly available afterward with the speaker’s consent. Information about previous seminars can be found on the Previous Seminars page.

The name STATE OF THE ARG originated from a comment by Prof. Moi Exposito-Alonso during Yun Deng’s exit talk at the UC Berkeley Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics (CTEG). The seminar logo was designed by James Kitchens.

Interested in presenting?

If you would like to present your work in a future public STATE OF THE ARG seminar, please complete this Google Form. We welcome talks on methodological and empirical advances related to ancestral recombination graphs, population genomics, statistical genetics, evolutionary genetics, and related topics.