Wikipedia remains one of the most useful things online. No subscription fees, no ads, no stupid pursuit of AI, all curated by relentless nerds. Maybe remember to throw them a few bucks every now and again.
Andrew Mongue
@ajmongue.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Molecular Ecology at University of Florida. Comparative genomics and evolutionary genetics of weird reproductive systems.
Y and W sex chroms are enigmatic. Compared to the rest of the genome, they show distinct structure and diversity, and are notoriously difficult to assemble. Work led by @mdalikova.bsky.social investigates these patterns for the W chromosome of silkworm, Bombyx mori www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Wrong but useful: Bombyx silkworm W chromosome assemblies are flawed but still capture strongly reduced diversity of repetitive DNA
Degenerate sex chromosomes ( e.g., the Y or W) remain among the most difficult regions of eukaryotic genomes to assemble because they are highly repetitive and structurally complex. While many recent ...
biorxiv.org
Hot off the press @official-smbe.bsky.social MBE - a phylum-wide assessment to systematically evaluate, refine, and revise current understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of the #arthropod moulting genetic toolkit! academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Evolutionary dynamics of the arthropod moulting machinery
Abstract. Exoskeletons define arthropods, providing support for segmented bodies and appendages while protecting against environmental stress and predation
academic.oup.com
This is insane www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.
nytimes.com
I co-sign this great summary from @dereklowe.bsky.social . The goal is to destroy academic science, and these are the reasons. And all the “gold standard” and “needs reform” and “not high risk” stuff is transparent bullshit to hide the ball on what they are doing.
Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social · 2w agoThoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:
I read through this, and it's remarkably autocratic, almost Soviet-style vision for science in the United States.
OSTP Director Releases Landmark Report and Recommendations for Renewing American Scientific Discovery
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Michael Kratsios
whitehouse.gov
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
The moulting arthropod: a complete genetic toolkit review
Exoskeletons are a defining character of all arthropods that provide physical support for their segmented bodies and appendages as well as protection from the environment and predation. This ubiquito...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
OUR WORK IS NOT DONE. In unusual move, NSF issued a request for information on plan to conform grant policies to the proposed (unfinalized) OMB rule. Plan includes changes to grant termination provisions & disallowing publication costs. Comments due August 24. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; National Science Foundation Proposal/Award Information-NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans to renew and revise its collection for its financial assistance policies and procedures. In accordance with the requirements of the Paper...
federalregister.gov
Reposting a great response to a recent viewpoint piece bends over backwards to argue "that sex is always binary*,**" *But only if we define systems with more than two sexes as "not sexes" (mating types) **And only if we define binary as "not always binary" [See screenshots] 1/3
Peter Ellis@pjie2.bsky.social · 4w agoLet biological sex be multifaceted, as all biology is. And when you need to be precise in scientific research, be precise. Say ‘gametic sex’ or ‘chromosomal sex’ or ‘anatomical sex’, or whatever is appropriate to your own work.
They just keep killing people and lying about it. Everybody involved in this criminal organization needs to be prosecuted.
Olivia 💙 4thTransformer@olivia4t.bsky.social · 3w ago⛔ #UPDATE — New video shows #ÏCE agents running along the side of the car. Video does not show the agents in danger of being "run over." Agent shot & killed the driver—witnesses say they heard 4 shots. Incident occurred in #Biddeford, #Maine— about 15 miles south of #Portland.
I fundamentally disagree with this. We cannot reform the NIH right now. We need to fight against ALL changes until we have an administration that isn’t hellbent on destruction. Until then we have to assume that literally everything is being done in bad faith.
Theresa Kim, PhD, MS@tyk314.net · last mo.Don't abolish the #NIH. Fix it.
This is the heart of it. The privatize everything crowd pretends industry is an alternative to government funded academic research when in reality it relies on academia. Industry gets free training, preliminary research, and a lab supplies market from academia but now they want to burn it all down!
Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · last mo.The absolute dumbest thing about Scott Atlas’s opinion is that nearly all industry scientists are trained on NIH funds, trainee salaries are a huge part of the NIH budget. Industry doesn’t want NIH cut, their costs would be immense if they had to run biomedical schools on top of drug development.
If they’re saying this out loud about NIH, you can bet it’s the same intent for the National Science Foundation.
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH@gavinyamey.bsky.social · last mo.They’re not even trying to pretend any more This is what MAHA/MAGA wants The piece was written by Scott Atlas, Trump’s Covid czar—the dude who persuaded Trump to adopt the Great Barrington Declaration’s recommendation to end federal testing for COVID (if you don’t test, it just goes away 😳)
Okay once more for the #SMBE2026 crowd! If you haven't yet, please take our survey on definitions of sex and reproductive terms. Link here or in the QR: univie.questionpro.eu/a/TakeSurvey...
Note this is related to, but distinct from, the OMB proposal. It's basically the agency specific implementation of a lot of those OMB changes (no grant money on publication costs, etc) but there's a separate place to provide comments and feedback here.
Caitlin S., PhD@paleophile.bsky.social · last mo.#NSF is replacing the PAPPG with "NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance" (GFA) ("Guffaw"?). A notice in the Federal Register seeks comments, due in 60 days. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
The formatted paper is now out in MBE - describing OPTICS software to predict color sensitivy based on opsin sequence alone: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Validate User
academic.oup.com
Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social · 2mo ago🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Remember X-Labs? Without transparency, and in defiance of Congress, a new memo to NSF directs “program managers to stop seeking funding for any proposals, even those that received the highest marks from outside reviewers and program staff, “until we are able to provide more details.”
Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm
"Right now, in some underfunded lab, a scientist is chasing a question that sounds pointless.... No one can say if they will succeed. But a century of experience says that funding people to do this work is a good bet. If we stop making that bet, we will pay for it in cures no one will know to miss."
Opinion | The Science That Turned Lizard Venom Into GLP-1s Is Under Attack
nytimes.com
Reminder that the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) is asking members to sign letters regarding the OMB rule (by 6/15) and to submit individual responses (by 7/13!!). We have >250 signatories right now, GREAT!, but we have ~4k members, give or take, so pls get those signatures in!
Gina Baucom@gbaucom.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨SSE members: check your inbox!🚨 SSE has sent an important email regarding the OMB's proposed overhaul of federal grant regulations--changes that could affect peer review, publishing, conferences, professional societies, international collaborations, and more. @sse-evolution.bsky.social
The full Mongue lab will be at #evol2026! Say hi or come see our work. All three of us have talks (pic related). Check this thread for some more specifics and we hope to see you there! 1/5
New: NSF is tightening its conflict of interest rules in what could be a headache for the understaffed agency. Starting in August, reviewers will no longer be able to participate in a panel with any proposals from their own institution. My reporting for @science.org:
NSF imposes stricter conflict-of-interest rules for grant-review panels
Researchers say changes could further burden the understaffed agency
science.org
Glad to see rigorous discussion of how to present pop gen results. Even in standard pipelines, version info matters! Shout out the time GATK collapsed the representation of missing data with homozygous reference for "efficiency" for a couple versions: gatk.broadinstitute.org/hc/en-us/art...
GenotypeGVCFs and the death of the dot (obsolete as of GATK 4.6.0.0)
⚠️ NOTE ⚠️ This article describes behavior present in GATK versions 4.2.3.0 through 4.5.0.0, and is obsolete as of GATK 4.6.0.0, which (by overwhelming popular demand!) reverted back to the standar...
gatk.broadinstitute.org
Thibault (Tibo) Leroy@tiboleroyinen.bsky.social · 2mo agoI am fully in line with the authors. The raw all-sites gVCF is the best material to share and should become the gold standard in genomics to move towards standardized and unbiased π estimates. In addition, more metadata regarding the samples and softwares used is needed, including the versions.
A female and male Bird of Paradise fly (Callipappus sp), showing the extreme sexual dimorphism exhibited by these scale insects. Seen today in the Perth Hills, WA #ausinverts #wildoz #inaturalist #bugsky
Our new paper doi.org/10.1098/rspb... on long-term genetic threats to small populations finds that "mutational meltdown" (bad mutations fixing) is less of a problem than "mutational drought" (too few good new mutations) @wmawass.bsky.social @uliseshmc.bsky.social @jeremyjberg.bsky.social 1/5
Extinction vortices are driven more by a shortage of beneficial mutations than by deleterious mutation accumulation
Abstract. Habitat loss contributes to extinction risk in multiple ways. Genetically, small populations can face an ‘extinction vortex’—a positive feedback
doi.org
The June 2026 cover of GBE features our newest Perspective by Brault et al., who propose guidelines and best practices for calculating population genetics summary statistics. 🔗 academic.oup.com/gbe/issue/18/6 #genome #evolution #societyjournal
Pervasive convergent #evolution of sperm conjugation across the Arthropoda tree of life @natcomms.nature.com
Pervasive convergent #evolution of sperm conjugation across the Arthropoda tree of life
Nature Communications, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-73950-zSperm cells evolve rapidly and have unique life histories. This study uses phylogenetic modelling to show that sperm conjugation, a type of social cooperation among sperm, has a deep and pervasive evolutionary history, including repeated convergence of both structures and their underlying proteins.
dlvr.it
Can confirm, we've used this method to preserve and sequence DNA from critters caught in the Costa Rican cloud forest. Chromosome level insect genomes from tissue kept at room temperature for ~5 days before we could get it back to the lab!
mara lawniczak@marakat.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf you are interested in collecting specimens for chromosomal genomes and/or generating chromosomal reference genomes from specimens that were not cold-chain preserved, please read on and share this thread.