Excited to share my first preprint from my PhD w/ @justinmcrocker.bsky.social. We show that cell type-specific regulatory dominance promotes robustness and evolutionary innovation through interallelic transcriptional hubs, potentially expanding the mutational paths available to diploids. (1/18)
"The Cyclops," painted by Odilon Redon, 1914. Via Wikipedia
The origin of our eyes over half a billion years ago is looking more and more weird--from a cyclops to four eyes to two. Here's my story (gift link): nyti.ms/4rzisQP
I enjoyed working with the data - isolating the cis and trans effects for these "monochromosomal hybrids" was a bit challenging, but we managed to think it through. I would be happy to hear your feedbacks! (4/4)
The transgressive expression is indicative of lineage-specific cis-trans compensatory evolution, which has been shown to be prevalent in previous studies, but our data show that it holds for really distantly related species (sample size is ~100 genes, though). (3/4)
We found prevalent transgressive expression in the engineered strains, which shed light on both evolution of gene expression and synthetic biology: the novel cis-trans interactions gave rise to enhanced salt resistance and flocculation, something to be explored for industrial application. (2/4)
Happy to share a recent publication to which I contributed as a corr. author:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This work is in collaboration with Dr. Yao Yu at Fudan University, where the team managed to transfer S. cerevisiae chromosmes into K. marxianus, a species diverged from Sc ~114 mya. (1/4)
Happy Darwin Day to all! To celebrate can you comment with your favorite paper on evolutionary biology from the last few years? Whatever comes to mind and whichever paper that really changed your view of evolution.
Our new micropub is out, where we evolve yeast strains that are both scientifically interesting and practically useful! Using Experimental Evolution to Correct Mother-Daughter Separation Defects in Brewing Yeast doi.org/10.17912/mic...
Looking for something new to integrate into an #evolution or #microbiology course? Useful for lectures, labs, homework?
Have a look at our STEPS program, which simulates bacterial evolution, including the #LTEE. Easy web-based interface & lab manual w/ exercises to help develop students' intuition.
#ICYMI
Most read articles @the-node.bsky.social in May include two articles from #MetabolismMondays series covering diverse aspects of metabolism research using #Drosophila.
Lautaro Gandara from @justinmcrocker.bsky.social lab @embl.org talks about the impact of toxins on insect physiology.
Clownfish eggs
Clownfish eggs
Can you believe Nemo came from one of these? 🕵️♂️ More fish eggs to study!! 🤩📊🔬
Elegant new theory on polygenic adaptation by Will Milligan, Laura Heyward, and Guy Sella.
Very nice!