New co-authored paper from a member of JEZ-B’s rising star board: Arjuna Rajakumar

Arjuna Rajakumar PhD@arjunarajakumar.bsky.social · 3w ago

So proud of my lab mate @sagrill.bsky.social (whose on the job market 👀) for this magnum opus from @remlehmann.bsky.social lab @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social ScRNA-seq of 🪰 germ cells reveals new biology, answers age old questions, and proposes new paradigms! 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share some of our new work on Queen and Worker caste determination in ants!! Especially, the surprisingly role early embryonic development plays!

Virtual Gastrulation Zoom Talks@vgzt2021.bsky.social · 7d ago

🐜 Ant societies meet embryonic mechanics! Join @arjunarajakumar.bsky.social and @surajshankar.bsky.social for two fascinating talks exploring caste determination and robust fate timing. 📅 Oct 2 | ⏰ 10 AM ET / 7 AM PT 🔗 Scan the poster’s QR code to join us and bring your questions! #evodevo #dev

Love ant oogenesis!

Ingrid Fetter-Pruneda, Ph.D.@ifetter.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Thrilled to share the first full paper from @AntLabUNAM! 🐜💥 Our paper examines how queen and worker harvester ants differ in ovarian morphology and gene expression, shedding light on the ovary as a hub for multiple physiological systems, not just reproduction. Check it out! rdcu.be/ePNP8

Excited to share our new bioRxiv preprint! 🐜🧠🥳 We explore how age, social context, and neuromodulatory systems shape temporal polyethism in harvester ants. If you’re at #IUSSI2026, stop by Carlos Zavaleta’s poster on Wednesday to hear more! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Anatomical mapping and regulation of dopaminergic and octopaminergic neurons during temporal polyethism in the red harvester ant

Many social insects, such as ants, change their behavior stereotypically from nursing to foraging as they age, a concept known as temporal polyethism. Biogenic amines are associated with these specifi...

biorxiv.org

One of the best studied places in Drosophila and they find stunning new things. Biology never stops giving 🧪

Arjuna Rajakumar PhD@arjunarajakumar.bsky.social · 3w ago

So proud of my lab mate @sagrill.bsky.social (whose on the job market 👀) for this magnum opus from @remlehmann.bsky.social lab @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social ScRNA-seq of 🪰 germ cells reveals new biology, answers age old questions, and proposes new paradigms! 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This work would not have been possible without the incredible snATAC-seq atlas of the Drosophila embryo from @diegoisworking.bsky.social @jshendure.bsky.social and @eileen-furlong.bsky.social which helped us discover that germ cells retain a totipotent chromatin state throughout development!

Arjuna Rajakumar PhD@arjunarajakumar.bsky.social · 3w ago

So proud of my lab mate @sagrill.bsky.social (whose on the job market 👀) for this magnum opus from @remlehmann.bsky.social lab @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social ScRNA-seq of 🪰 germ cells reveals new biology, answers age old questions, and proposes new paradigms! 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Incredibly excited to share my new preprint! 🪰🧬 Ever wondered how germ cells can specify their fate without having a dedicated transcriptional program? We found that germ cells keep the uncommitted chromatin state of the early embryo www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Decoupling Transcription from Cell Fate Preserves Germ Cell Totipotency

Only germ cells can give rise to a totipotent embryo, yet a conserved transcriptional program for germ cell identity remains elusive. Profiling Drosophila primordial germ cells (PGCs) across embryogen...

biorxiv.org

So proud of my lab mate @sagrill.bsky.social (whose on the job market 👀) for this magnum opus from @remlehmann.bsky.social lab @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social ScRNA-seq of 🪰 germ cells reveals new biology, answers age old questions, and proposes new paradigms! 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Polyphenism - one genome producing different forms - is common in eusocial insects. @arjunarajakumar.bsky.social explores the molecular basis for Pharaoh ant caste development. Queens produce two egg types, giving rise to fertile queens or sterile workers, & queen:worker changes over time. #2026SDB

I also have the honor of co-chairing the Hilde Mangold Postdoctoral Symposium at #2026SDB as well with @parahsaramore.bsky.social! We have 7 outstanding postdocs giving talks at the cutting-edge of developmental biology. Make sure to come out and support them as well!

After a brutal year from a horrific shoulder injury I am SO excited for #2026SDB in Las Vegas next week! @socdevbio.bsky.social It will be my first time going to the national SDB and can't wait to reconnect and meet new scientists! I will be presenting about #ants at the #HildeMangold symposium!

The elongated shape of the #Drosophila #wing is regulated by the Dachsous-Fat signalling pathway, but how? This study shows that mechanical forces regulated by this pathway modulate tissue-wide #cytoskeletal tension to orient growth during larval development @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4vp9EOh

DEADLINE APPROACHING! ⏰ Apply to Comparative Developmental Biology by July 28. This intensive two-week laboratory course is designed for graduate students in their second or later year of Ph.D studies and post-docs. 🔗 More info here: go.mbl.edu/CDB

Excited to host invited speaker Alexandra Joyner at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰🃏 Her research explores the genetic regulation of development and how signaling pathways shape tissue patterning and organ formation. 🧬✨ #devbio #developmentalbiology #genetics #SDB2026

You should apply to this fantastic course !!! New edition of the great Quintay Developmental Biology Course !!! biodesarrollo.unab.cl

I am so excited to announce that the Weber Lab will be opening in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, & Cell Biology @ucdavisvetmed.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social. We will be investigating the development and evolution of vertebra size, shape, and function. And yes, the jerboas are coming with!

Excited to share that our paper on Horizontal Gene Transfer is now out in its final form in @gigascience.bsky.social! 🥳 By analysing 163 high-quality ant genomes, we show that HGT from bacteria is widespread across the ants and likely has adaptive functions! doi.org/10.1093/giga... 🐜📸: Alex Wild

Thrilled to share that @corriemoreau.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in Evolution, digging into the varied ways that extreme worker plasticity impacts genome evolution in turtle ants! Paper 📃: doi.org/10.1093/evol... Image 📸: Steven Wang, tinyurl.com/2rbjbyjh

🎉 Welcome to our newly elected PASEDB executive council members 2026😊 Yui Suzuki (Wellesley College, USA) Veronica Hinman (Whitney Marine Lab, USA) @anyimv.bsky.social (Duke U, USA) @rebeizlab.bsky.social (U of Pittsburgh) Jennifer Brisson (U of Rochester, USA) @bruvellu.bsky.social (UFMG, Brazil)

🌟A central mission of #PASEDB is to foster networking, discussion, and a sense of community We want to highlight new #EvoDevo labs in Pan-America. In our Newsletter June edition we highlight: - Daniela J. Di Bella - @patrickrohner.bsky.social - Carolina Purcell Goes

Excited to announce the Arsenault Lab is launching this fall at Mississippi State! We'll be using ants as a model to tackle fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and evo-devo through genetics and genomics techniques. Please reach out if you're interested, or share with someone who might be!

An exciting update to a preprint from our lab! Barcode-like satellite DNA repeats enable homology detection in meiosis. Led by the fantastic @skrutlnize.bsky.social. (MJ) www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Meiotic pairing through barcode-like satellite DNA repeats

During meiosis, chromosomes must find, pair, and synapse with their homologous partners in the crowded milieu of the nucleus (1). Although homology detection is generally attributed to recombination, ...

biorxiv.org

Now's your chance to collect citeable 'at a glance' posters from @dev-journal.bsky.social & @dmmjournal.bsky.social at #ISSCR2026, including 'Stem cell-based models of early human development' by @liliulab.bsky.social and @jun-wu-lab.bsky.social l. Visit @biologists.bsky.social booth #1005.

✨ Excited to host invited speaker Roberto Mayor (@mayorlab.bsky.social) at #2026SDB in Las Vegas! 🎰🃏 His research explores morphogenesis, focusing on how cells migrate, interact, and generate diverse cell types during development. 🧬✨ #devbio

Late embryonic expansion of a novel bone ridge underlies the evolutionary transformation of cylindrically shaped forelimb bones into the flattened skeleton of the penguin flipper https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.29.735166v1

Subfunctionalization of tbx2 paralogues during photoreceptor cell specification in zebrafish https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.01.735836v1

Single-molecule imaging reveals cytoplasmic translation of P granule-enriched mRNAs in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.01.735846v1

Hello World! The Social Fluids Lab as arrived. ☀️Come to the Socially Transferred Materials symposium at #ESEB2025 in August. Read our preprints: 🦠 doi.org/10.1101/2025... & 🪲 doi.org/10.1101/2024... OR recent papers: 🐜 🍼 doi.org/10.1073/pnas... & 🐜🌱 doi.org/10.1038/s420...

A stochastic ratchet during genome streamlining can commit insect endosymbionts to a parasitic or mutualistic fate

Many arthropods, including insects, harbor endosymbiotic bacteria. As bacteria transitioned to live inside host cells, free-living bacterial ancestors of endosymbionts reduced their genomes in a proce...

doi.org

Please don’t stop sharing and posting your science because of the current attack on it, it is still valuable and reminds us what the fight is for

Incredibly excited to rejuvenate my scientific social network on Bluesky! Current and past research interests include germline immortality, protein folding and organelle remodeling during development. Looking forward to what lies ahead!