Had a great time at #EED2026 in rainy but lovely Glasgow, and was very happy to present some of my PhD work on the development of queen and worker ant ovaries 🐜
Claire Ramsay
@claireramsay.bsky.social
evo-devo, reproduction, major evolutionary transitions incoming postdoc with @abouheif.bsky.social at ZJU 🇨🇳 she/her https://claireramsay.carrd.co/
Contrary to popular belief, the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere does not constrain the size of insects - paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Oxygen supply through the tracheolar–muscle system does not constrain insect gigantism - Nature
New evidence suggests that diffusive oxygen transport through the tracheolar–muscle system is not the limiting factor on insect body size.
nature.com
How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬 Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)
bioRxiv Molecular Biology@biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · 6mo agoA Naïve RNA Sampling Core Enables Adaptive piRNA Specificity Against Transposable Elements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704324v1
I am happy to share this article, entitled "The importance of Biological Theory". It is my inaugural editorial as the new Editor-in-Chief of @biologicaltheory.bsky.social . In these complex and challenging times, theory is more important now than ever. Enjoy! doi.org/10.1007/s137...
The Importance of Biological Theory - Biological Theory
Biological Theory -
doi.org
Very happy to have contributed to this review on the evolution of the Odd protein family, now out in Differentiation! This was a fun project to work on with @abouheif.bsky.social, Vasikar Murugapoopathy & Indra Gupta www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #EvoDevo
Odd-skipped family members have conserved roles in segmentation, appendage, excretory system and gut development in bilaterian animals
The odd-skipped related family of proteins are evolutionarily conserved zinc finger transcription factors in bilaterian animals with essential roles i…
sciencedirect.com
1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The fitness costs of reproductive specialization scale inversely with organismal size
The evolution of reproductive specialization represents a fundamental innovation in multicellular life, yet the conditions favoring its evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a populatio...
biorxiv.org
