‘You’d want one as a pet’: the irresistibly cute solar-powered sea slug

‘You’d want one as a pet’: the irresistibly cute solar-powered sea slug

The beady-eyed, Pokémon-like leaf sheep is far more ingenious than us land mammals

theguardian.com

Right on time for #WormWednesday "Patterns of Autonomous and Conditional Neural Specification for the Brain and Ventral Nerve Cord in Annelida" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... With Nicole @johnnyds.bsky.social @biyolokum.bsky.social Skyler and @neva-meyer.bsky.social #EvoDevo #DevBio

The chromosomal genome sequence of a shovel-head worm, Maea johnstoni (Fiege, Licher & Mackie, 2000) (Spionida: Magelonidae) and its associated microbial metagenome sequences wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/11-... @chemamd.bsky.social @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

#IPC15 in Frankfurt is over *sniff*... but see you all in 3 years in Japan dor #IPC16! 😍

The ghost emoji 👻 is back! This is a flatworm (Platyhelminthes) larva from the order Polycladida and it is called a Müller’s larva. #marineplankton 🦑

Registrations are open to attend the Computational Molecular Evolution course next year (May 9th - 20th) in wonderful Crete! ☀️ Do not miss the deadline, follow the link below for more info and registration details! 🔽 meetings.embo.org/event/27-com...

Chen et al. integrated proteomic and genomic data, supporting a model wherein lophotrochozoan biomineralization is underpinned by a shared ancestral molecular toolkit, differentially filtered and elaborated according to mineral chemistry. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag146 #societyjournal #evolution

Happy to share the final version of our study on the evolution of chromatin states across eukaryotes, out today in @natgenet.nature.com Led by @crisnava.bsky.social and @seanamontgomery.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some highlights below

Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics

This study introduces iChIP2, a low-input chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing method that profiles histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) simultaneously across diverse eukar...

nature.com

Sailing in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ready for summer, our study on the iconic Portuguese man o' war 🪼 is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We use (epi)genomics to understand a critter that fascinates me since childhood. Massive team effort with @obog.bsky.social, Cummins and Neely groups. 🧵

And to wrap up an amazing and very successful conference, IPC15 delegates dinned and danced with dinosaurs, and dazzled with amazing salsa moves! Many thanks once again to @etilic.bsky.social, @madamverm.bsky.social and the whole team who produced an amazing conference

The final day of IPC15 was a fascinating insight into the world of EvoDevo & genomics. Two invited speakers Elaine Seaver and Toru Miura provided a backdrop for a series of fascinating talks.

Back from the International Polychaete Conference at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt! A big thanks to the organisers and everyone who made #IPC15 such an enjoyable and inspiring meeting. I learned a lot about polychaete biodiversity. @etilic.bsky.social #annelids #polychaete

Three alumni of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, enjoying the Polychaete Conference

The kissing of sea slugs. Reminds me of Gustav Klimt paintings. Elysia viridis, commonly known as the solar-powered sea slug or sap-sucking slug, is uniquely distinguished by its rare ability to steal plant-like cellular machinery from the algae it eats and use it to perform photosynthesis.

++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...

A fantastic mid conference trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Messel Pit, a former oil shale quarry full of amazingly preserved fossils from the Eocene. Followed by an excursion to Lohrberg, a great opportunity for conference participants to get to know each other and chat about polychaetes

Another fantastic day at IPC15 in Frankfurt. Day 2 focused on taxonomy, systematics and phylogenomics. Interestingly it started and finished with the renowned sand striker worms, with the fascinating story of Walter.

A fantastic first day of IPC15 in Frankfurt, so many great talks and posters. Our hosts are looking after us so well too.

We're hiring 4 postdocs at @unibo.it to study nervous system evolution. Seeking expertise in single-cell genomics, molecular or developmental biology in ctenophores, cnidarians, echinoderms, flies or human stem cells. 2+2 yrs contract. Deadline: 26 Aug. Please share! bandi.unibo.it/s/apos7/proc...

Procedura di valutazione comparativa per titoli e colloquio per il conferimento di n. 4 contratti di ricerca presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali - SSD BIOS-04/A - GSD...

bandi.unibo.it

Making new friends and meeting old friends during the Polychaete Conference. Including Vik Bogantes, and partially celebrating 20 years since starting our undergrad at University of Costa Rica #WormWednesday #PoderLatino 🇨🇷

📄 Species-specific brain transcriptomic responses to clothianidin and sulfoxaflor in pollinators 🧬🐝🪰🦋 ⬇ www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Species-specific brain transcriptomic responses to clothianidin and sulfoxaflor in pollinators

Wildlife genetics; Genomics; Toxic agents

cell.com

⭐Postdoc position available⭐ How do symbionts evolve new beneficial functions? Join the Henry Lab to investigate how horizontal gene transfer drives host–microbe symbioses. 🦠 Apply below Enquiries: l.henry@qmul.ac.uk Please share! #Postdoc #EvolutionaryBiology #Symbiosis henry-lab.co.uk

A polychaete worm like some great spiny four-eyed dragon

My first International Polychaete Conference 🪱🪱🪱 thank you @etilic.bsky.social and the local committee for organising an exciting conference.

Please share, I am hiring an evo devo postdoctoral research fellow! 📍: The Sleight Lab, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (5th oldest University in UK & English-speaking world) 📅: start after 1st December 2026 🐌: Evolution and Development (molluscs) ⌛: 3 year contract sleightlab.com/vacancies/

A beautiful young worm, possibly a lug worm (Arenicola marina). #marineplankton 🦑

Seeing tube worms a lot shallower than I expected @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 957 #deepwonders #MarineLife

Our review paper on nerve nets has just been published!! @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org · 2w ago

Looking for weekend reading? New review by @kei-jokura.bsky.social and @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy revisits nerve nets, their functional organization, and evolutionary implications link.springer.com/article/10.1...

With @rocha-lab.bsky.social we are organizing a workshop on developmental robustness and it is now open for applications for early career participants! These are fantastic interactive meetings and we have a great speaker lineup - if you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social · 2w ago

Funded places are available for early-career researchers at our Workshop on Bridging Scales and Disciplines to Understand Robust Development, 18-21 April 2027, organised by Mauricio Rocha Martins and Giulia Paci @giuliapaci.bsky.social Find out more and apply at www.biologists.com/workshops/ap...

Check the brilliant work by Sanjay Narayanaswamy in Nature Comm. www.nature.com/articles/s41.... He established a scalable Gastruloid protocol and showed that in gastruloids of Nematostella axial polarity and germ layer restoration and sorting depends on a Notch-Wnt signaling feedback loop.

Notch coordinates self-organization of germ layers and axial polarity in sea anemone gastruloids - Nature Communications

Here they show that gastruloids made of embryonic cells of the sea anemone Nematostella can robustly regenerate whole organisms. They show that Notch signaling is crucial to sort out the randomly disp...

nature.com