Regulatory features determine the evolutionary fate of laterally acquired genes in plants Abstract. Lateral gene transfer (LGT) is widespread in eukaryotes, including in animals and plants where it can fuel adaptive evolution and innovation. How

Collins et al. combined expression, methylation, and genomic data to investigate long-term persistence of laterally acquired genes in the grass Alloteropsis, showing that those capable of regulating their own expression are more likely to persist.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag042

#evobio #molbio

Strange discovery that an email about inclusive fitness was forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein, with the emailer quoting Jerusalem and comparing themself to Einstein. Are you one of the >100 evolutionary biologists now in the Epstein files? www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

🧬 Just out in Bioinformatics Advances: "OMAnnotator: A novel approach to building an annotated consensus genome sequence". 

Full article available: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbag015 

Authors include: @dessimoz.bsky.social, @whynevers.bsky.social

It was an honour to talk at PopGroup!

Thanks to the organisers for making it a very memorable event 🥳

French Cèilidh at #popgroup59 #ppg59 #pgg59

Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬

We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.

Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!

Domestication Reduces Plant Immune Receptor Gene Repertoires Across Lineages Abstract. Plant domestication is sometimes associated with a reduction in the diversity of immune receptor genes, critical for pathogen recognition and def

Bourne et al. analyzed immune receptor gene repertoires of 15 domesticated crop species, showing that grapes, mandarins, rice, barley, and yellow sarson exhibit reduced immune receptor gene repertoires compared to wild counterparts.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf147

#genome #evolution #PlantSky

Single-cell consequences of X-linked meiotic drive in stalk-eyed flies Author summary Meiotic drivers, a class of selfish gene, are frequently located on sex chromosomes and have dramatic impacts on gamete development. However, our understanding of their molecular conseq...

Proud to see our work finally out exploring spermatogenesis, X-chromosome activity and meiotic drive in the stalk-eyed fly!

journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

#scRNAseq #Evolution #Selfishgene
@plos.org @sheffielduni.bsky.social @nerc-eof.bsky.social

Excited to share our new preprint...

...𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒! ⏳

We find temporal confounds in fMRI that emulate neural patterns of perceptual learning.

These can be hard to spot with conventional RSA, but may influence our understanding of how prior knowledge shapes perception.

tinyurl.com/4bwy6nre

Goodbye #eseb2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social see you next time!

Perhaps what stuck most was powerful talk on resilience and survival by Palestinian researcher, play director, and ESEB EUEA awardee May Shehady. Let's not forget, let's not look away. 🇵🇸

7 people outside the conference venue

Good representation of evolutionary biologists from @sheffielduni.bsky.social at @eseb2025.bsky.social also a chance to meet up with many more past colleagues.

Drosophila Genetic Database The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...