Bryan Gitschlag
@bryangitschlag.bsky.social
Evolutionary biologist | Assistant Prof. at U. of South Carolina (starting Aug. 2026) | predictive modeling | cooperation & conflict | evolution of biological diversity & complexity 🧬🧫🔬🦜🏳️🌈
Excited to announce that this fall I'm starting my lab at the University of South Carolina! Our hybrid wet/dry lab will explore fundamental topics in animal evolution, looking at how different evolutionary processes combine quantitatively [pleiotropic conflicts, mutation bias, etc.].
I grew tomatoes in grad school. They attracted caterpillars. The caterpillars became parasitized by wasps. I learned from my committee chair @symbionticism.bsky.social that parasitic wasps frequently have parasitic bacterial endosymbionts, which have their own viruses... #ParasitesAllTheWayDown
Some favorite Darwin facts from "On the Origin of Species"… 1. He came this close 🤏 to figuring out Mendelian genetics (if only he had put numbers on those observations!) 2. Proposed the basic idea of Inclusive Fitness Theory, a leading explanation for evolution of animal altruism. #DarwinDay
Really cool study by @evokait.bsky.social et al. In a simple three-species food web, presence of an apex predator (nematode) promotes aggregative multicellularity in the predatory bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Predation, evo-devo, and historical contingency: A nematode predator drives evolution of aggregative multicellularity
Research into the evolution of multicellularity often focuses on clonal multicellularity, yet aggregative multicellularity (AM) may respond to different drivers and is also highly interesting evolutionarily, for example in its behavioral, regulatory, morphological, and social complexity and diversity. We investigate the potential for predation to shape AM evolution across different combinations of three species comprising a multi-trophic food web. Together in a three-species community, the fruiting bacterium Myxococcus xanthus is a mesopredator, while the bacterivorous nematode Pristionchus pacificus is apex predator and the bacterium Escherichia coli is a shared basal prey for both predators. The number and morphology of M. xanthus fruiting bodies is found to respond evolutionarily to nematodes, regardless of whether E. coli is present. E. coli alone with M. xanthus tends to reduce both fruiting body formation and spore production, but adding nematodes eliminates those negative effects. M. xanthus lineages with an ancestral antibiotic-resistance mutation evolved less overall, revealing strong historical contingency and suggesting potential tradeoffs between antibiotic-resistance and responsiveness to biotic selection. Our results suggest that predation both of and by mesopredators has played important roles in the evolution of aggregative multicellularity and reveal complex inter-trophic evolutionary interactions in a relatively simple three-species food web. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Molecular Biology Organization, https://ror.org/04wfr2810, ALTF 1208–2017 Swiss National Science Foundation, 31003A_16005, 310030B_182830
biorxiv.org
NEW PAPER! Some kinds of genetic mutations are more likely to arise than others. Such "biases" in mutation vary between species. Analyzing data from 14 species, we show that this variation explains species differences in the genetics of adaptation! (1/3) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How did life get to be so complicated? CSHL postdoc Bryan Gitschlag posed that question at our latest Cocktails & Chromosomes—and took the audience on a wild ride through evolutionary biology to try and find some answers.
Cocktails & Chromosomes: A place of community and betrayal | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
cshl.edu
One of the @cshlnews.bsky.social resident deer making herself at home, just outside the auditorium.🥹
It's been 10 years since we brought home Phyllis Domesticus 🥰 (While you're here, use this link to find the contact info of your congress people: www.congress.gov/contact-us Donation page for Rainforest Trust: www.rainforesttrust.org?form=donation Раlestіne Children's Rеlіеf Fund: www.pcrf.net)
You've no doubt heard that the Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed in a fire and with it, centuries of knowledge, learning & prose. But that's not the ACTUAL story. The TRUE story of the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria has more to teach us than the myth.
Movie idea: remake of It’s A Wonderful Life, directed by Robert Eggers and featuring a biblically accurate angel played by Bill Skarsgård.
I pray to robots to teach me how life got to be the way it is. (read: computational modeling of evolution)
Rosencreutz (alleged youtuber)@rosencreutz.bsky.social · 2y agopowerpoint presentations where people can put me on 2x speed
Join us for the 8th seminar in the Internal Conflicts and Organismal Adaptation @eseb.bsky.social STN lecture series. Talks from @bryangitschlag.bsky.social and Michele Hays. Thursday December 12, 11am Eastern!
Ok I suppose this is still a small enough account to reasonably do this: 1 like = 1 piece of Bryan lore
Our cockatiel Cici waltzed onto the cutting board. On Thanksgiving. Lookin’ at us like “hey! so what are we having?”
Meet Lapis, our quaker parrot. Before having parrots I had never appreciated how mind-bogglingly intelligent these animals are. They don’t just mindlessly mimic; as social animals, their vocal behavior has a social function and they often learn the appropriate context for the sounds they make.
I used to do pet photography (here’s a bit of my work) 🙂 What’s something you enjoy doing (or used to do) besides your current profession?
For LGBTQ+ in STEM Day 🏳️🌈, let’s hear from some of our queer friends & comrades in science! If you’re out, introduce yourself and what you work on (if not, know that you have a community who loves you). Here’s a thread about my background & scientific work: bsky.app/profile/brya... #QueerinSTEM
Pride in STEM@prideinstem.bsky.social · 2y agoNovember 18 is the International Day of LGBQTIA+ People in STEM! Today more than ever we want to stress the importance of communities, building connections, and raising each other up. Let's keep leaving our mark for the betterment of us all! 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 #QueerinSTEM prideinstem.org/lgbtstemday/
What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders? A lot of basic biological functions—which are widely conserved between species—involve genes that evolve rapidly and vary from species to species. What this tells us: maintaining those functions involves continual adaptive innovation!
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 2y agoWhat is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? There is a new species of shark or shark relative (skate, ray, or chimera) discovered approximately every two weeks. 🧪🦑🌎
Some of my photography from over the years. If you have a creative side, I'd love to see your work! #art #photography
Hey all, let’s do some community-building. Introduce yourself & something about yourself. A few ideas… What line of work are you in? What was your favorite subject in school? What skill do you enjoy practicing or want to improve? If you’re an artist please share some of your work. I’ll start…
Hi everyone. A 🧵 about my work as a scientist, to introduce myself to the community here. I got into science for philosophical reasons. (1/35)
Hi folks! Inaugural 🧵… Homophobia & heteronormativity largely stem from a feeling that homosexuality is “unnatural.” The obvious counterpoints—that it occurs in cultures all over the world, and in other species, and that it’s partially hereditary—invite the question: what explains its persistence?
