Thrilled to present our comparative study on the evolution of zygotic genome activation (ZGA)!! 🥚🧬

Amazing PhD work of @campobes.bsky.social together with @fedemantica.bsky.social and many collaborators! @melisupf.bsky.social @crg.eu. Thread below 1/15

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For the "Novelty" lecture of my evo-devo course, I use Escher's "Relativity" to describe how folks approach this question...

GBE | Chromosome-Level Sex-Specific Genome Assemblies of Onthophagus binodis Provide Insight into Scarab Sex Chromosomes Male (top) and female (bottom) individuals of the humpbacked dung beetle, Onthophagus binodis. Sex-specific chromosome-level genome assemblies for this species are providing key insights into the evolution of scarab traits.

@ericanadolski.bsky.social et al. present sex-specific chromosomal-level genome assemblies of the southern African beetle Onthophagus binodis; analyses show that the nine autosomes and the X chromosome are likely conserved throughout Onthophagini.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag023

#genome #evolution

Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes Nature Ecology & Evolution - Analysis of the 3D chromatin architecture and cis-regulatory elements in a sea urchin and a sea star reveals mechanisms of 3D chromatin organization in echinoderms...

Our work on the evolution of the regulatory genome of echinoderms is now out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Led by my former PhD Marta Magri, Danila Voronov & Saoirse Foley. Great collaboration of Arnone, Hinman & Maeso labs, started long time ago with our missed José Luis Gomez-Skarmeta: rdcu.be/eXX8l

Our lab at Mississippi State is recruiting graduate students (PhD/MSc) to join us in Spring or Fall 2026! If you—or someone you know—are interested in researching evo-devo and comparative genomics of horned dung beetles, check out our site & get in touch! davidsonlab-msu.github.io

Thank you!

Thank you for the shoutout and a wonderful meeting!