I am hiring a popgen postdoc!
Looking for a creative scientist to join us at USC to investigate recessive variation and complex traits in model or non-model species. The project is funded by a multi-year NIH grant, contract can be renewed.
Job add & details 👇🏽
usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...
Hayate Takeuchi and Takashi Hayakawa investigated rhodopsin structural evolution in deep-diving whales, showing that rhodopsins have evolved for both spectral sensitivity and structural resilience under extreme hydrostatic pressure.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...
#genome #evolution
I truly feel for all the future PI’s who won’t have this resource. How much talent is going to go unfunded.
Feels like this paper on protein-templated DNA synthesis by a natural enzyme warrants some comment.
So here's a 🧵. /1
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
AAAG Past President @amylnon.bsky.social is hosting a FREE workshop on Epigenetics for Anthropologists 🧬 at the University of California San Diego from August 17 - 21, 2026. Applications are due May 4, 2026 🗓️. Click on link👇🏾 for details docs.google.com/document/d/1...
re the newly published paper on signals of positive selection in Eurasian genomes through time.
On a deeper level there’s a disconnect, in that the GWAS hits on which they base their calibration have tiny effect sizes, in contrast to the large selection coefficients estimated here. 14/
Reposting this old thread on the "Pervasive findings of directional selection" from ancient DNA. While the authors extended their results in various ways, I think many of these points still stand.
Screenshot of a PDF of the published article. Title: "The tie that binds us? Challenging the primacy of DNA in kinship studies and re-centring community in defining human connections across time"
DNA is not the same as kinship.
Our perspective paper argues that treating genetics as the ultimate proof of identity or family can:
• erase community-defined relationships
• reinforce Western biases
• and even cause real harm in policy + research
Special Issue: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
😊 🥂👩🏻🔬
Great example of genetic data in PCA space mirroring geography - this time in Scandinavian lemmings!
Spread the word! UChicago BSD is currently searching for an instructional professor (open rank) to help develop and support graduate training in quantitative biology at UChicago. This is an Instructional Professor position (open rank). apply.interfolio.com/183517.
The Carls are all the bats. I don’t remember why year of MMM we collectively decided every bat is called Carl.
Honey Badger Don’t Care HBDC
“I don't know whether to be proud or concerned.” fits like a glove too 😭
Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. In FY 2027, NSF will close-out this directorate. Continuing grants that align with Administration priorities, such as in behavioral and cognitive science, and all impacted employees will be transferred to other parts of the agency. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics will operate independently of the directorates and continue to be supported through the R&RA appropriation.
Once again it is time to contract your representatives: The FY27 budget request for NSF (see nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...) would get rid of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.
A few years ago, using palaeoproteomics, we identified a tiny hominin bone from Denisova Cave and named it Denisova 17 (D17).
A rather unremarkable sliver.
At the time, I wondered, could it be Denny’s sibling (the Neanderthal/Denisovan hybrid we had just reported)?
Well, turns out: no. 🧵1/4
Huh. This is my first time picking a champion. It feels odd #2026MMM
The art team experienced some technical difficulties with their online store- so they made a side store that will be operational very soon! Check them out!
Bookmark & return to show the artists your love & appreciation for #2026MMM www.redbubble.com/people/4MadS...
Next year I go big on reptiles
#2026MMM #Champion #MoneyDivision #TeamHumpbackWhale Art by Olivia Pellicer @opellisms.bsky.social ,Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social , Mary C. Freisner @maryfreisner.bsky.social ,and Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social
MAMA HUMPBACK WHALE DEFEATS NILE CROCODILE!
HUMPBACK WHALE is #2026MMM CHAMPION!
Artwork by @veppart.bsky.social & @opellisms.bsky.social !!!
No No
No
Also crocodiles are salt water tolerant! It'll be fiiiiine
Haha no. @mammalssuck.bsky.social it's like the Terminator when it comes to MMM. No emotion. No mercy.
and an Orca is basically a BW crocodile so advantages in fighting off predatory crocodile really
A Representative ideograms of three main karyotypes (2n = 30/32/38) observed among the true crocodile species analyzed in the present study showing Zoo-FISH results after using CSI-1, OST-1, OST-4, and OST-19 probes, and the 18S rDNA distribution. Arrows indicate the 4 main chromosomal rearrangements involved in karyotype differentiation from a putative ancestral 2n = 32. B Ancestral state reconstruction of diploid chromosome number using maximum parsimony. The phylogenetic relationships were adapted from Oaks (2011) and Colston et al. (2020), C. halli was added manually, & its position requires confirmation. Karyological data were collected from Cohen & Gans (1970), Kawagoshi et al. (2008), Hekkala et al. (2011), Srikulnath et al. (2015), Oliveira et al. (2021), Olmo and Signorino (2022), and this study (in bold). The colored circles represent different 2n, while the black diamonds indicate the species with unknown 2n. Ambiguous data (marked with an asterisk) are addressed in the “Discussion” section of the paper.
Sales‑Oliveira et al. (2023) found that croc chromosomes are conservative maintaining similar karyotype structures & diploid chrom numbers for ~100 MY! Most Crocodylinae (including Nile Crocodile) maintain the ancestral number of 2n = 32 (16 pairs) #2026MMM doi.org/10.1007/s004...
