🦟 Pestered by mosquitoes? Fear not—grapefruit might hold the key! 🍊In our latest paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social, led by Merybeth Triana and Felipe Andreazza, we explore how nootkatone, a compound derived from grapefruit, affects mosquitoes. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/n) Ever wonder how transcription factors locate, "invade," and activate their enhancers during cell fate acquisition? 🧬🚀 Check out our latest collaborative work with the Soufi lab, now published in @Nature

Nucleosome fibre topology guides transcription factor binding to enhancers - Nature

Motif grammar on nucleosome fibres acts as signpost elements, directing TF combinatorial binding to enhancers.

nature.com

Check out new research by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social. I painted watercolor illustrations of Speyeria mormonia to show the differences in the silver coloration for use in their figures. Thank you @evolvwing.bsky.social and Luca for giving me the chance to paint some cool butterflies! #sciart

Arnaud Martin@evolvwing.bsky.social · 2y ago

New preprint by butterfly wizard @lucalivraghi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression

Happy to share this new preprint looking at the genetic basis for a butterfly wing polymorphism. A fun story of genetic parallelism. Thoughts/comments welcome :)

Arnaud Martin@evolvwing.bsky.social · 2y ago

New preprint by butterfly wizard @lucalivraghi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression

As I have a few followers now I figure I could post about some recent papers: @henrylnorth.bsky.social analysed sequence data from @theswordlab.bsky.social for North American Helicoverpa zea - we found just two individuals from 400 with introgressed armigera allele for insecticide resistance

Rapid Adaptation and Interspecific Introgression in the North American Crop Pest Helicoverpa zea

Abstract. Insect crop pests threaten global food security. This threat is amplified through the spread of nonnative species and through adaptation of nativ

academic.oup.com

Tempo and mode of winter diapause evolution in butterflies doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @EvolLetters by Sridhar Halali, Etka Yapar, Christopher W Wheat, Niklas Wahlberg, Karl Gotthard, Nicolas Chazot, Sören Nylin, and Philipp Lehmann

Tempo and mode of winter diapause evolution in butterflies

Abstract. Quantifying the tempo and mode via modern phylogenetic comparative methods can provide key insights into how selection and constraints shape trai

doi.org

Yeah this could be a game-changer for specimen-based color research. Ben Hogan and Cassie Stoddard present a pipeline combining whole-specimen image analysis with reflectance spectrophotometry. The only catch? The setup costs about $55k... 💰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Most proud of – I failed and failed, and failed again and again, four years of failure learning new methods, doing so many things wrong, using qRT-PCR for things it wasn't intended for, arguing that the cis-regulatory paradigm made no sense but eventually 🧪 🌱🐋 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Adaptive changes in the transcription factor HoxA-11 are essential for the evolution of pregnancy in mammals | PNAS

Evolutionary change in gene regulation can result from changes in cis-regulatory elements, leading to differences in the temporal and spatial expre...

pnas.org

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Science friends 🧪🌎🦑, @altmetric.com tracks Bluesky posts now! Quote or reply to this post with a link to the paper you’re best known for or most proud of, and a brief plain-language summary of what you found and why it matters! Let’s fill Bluesky with SCIENCE!

When lunch consists of some yummy salty sweat from some nasty human's hand... Catagramma pygas thamyras Parque Nacional do Iguazú, Paraná, Brazil

Highly-respected non-profit journals like @dev-journal.bsky.social support scientific communities But after rejection at glam journals, it is tempting to avoid re-review by sliding through commercial ecosystems BUT WAIT! LOOK! “We will consider papers with reviewer reports from other journals” 😍

Constructive Critics: Development's approach to peer review

We're all familiar with complaints about peer review. Some think it's biased – editors (especially from ‘those’ journals) seem to have too much power to decide what gets published. It can be opaque – ...

journals.biologists.com

James Briscoe@jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 2y ago

New @dev-journal.bsky.social editorial We know we have high standards - but we're committed to making publishing with us constructive From clear revision guidance to limitations sections & transparent peer review, we're here to help you share your science journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Super stoked to share our latest research on the migratory patterns of painted lady butterflies across the Sahara! 🦋🏜️ www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Trans-Saharan migratory patterns in Vanessa cardui and evidence for a southward leapfrog migration

Chemistry; Nature conservation; Ecology; Entomology

cell.com

I just made a $500 donation to iNaturalist for #GivingTuesday because, well, iNaturalist is an incredible incredible resource and tool for the world www.inaturalist.org/donate.

Donate to iNaturalist

Donate now to show your support!

inaturalist.org

Here's another extraordinary gynandromorph, of Pieriballia viardi, from Mexico. The right side is pure male, while the left side is all female except for the white areas, which are male. Full data in alt text.

I use this as an introductory example of introgression in my undergrad lectures - mainly because of the clear phenotypes and amazing courtship behaviour. It’s good to see someone has figured out the genetics…

Noah Reid@noahreid.bsky.social · 2y ago

I am stoked to read this paper. I worked as a field tech on this study system after undergrad. I got to go up the Rio Changuinola before it was dammed. It was an awesome experience. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

People leaving Twitter for BlueSky like the elves in LOTR sailing west

a group of people in white robes are standing next to each other in a dark room .

Alt: Elves in Lord of the Rings preparing to leave Middle Earth for the Undying Lands

media.tenor.com

Different cellular and molecular mechanisms of chitin deposition contribute to the specificity of the two chitin synthases in D. melanogaster. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626067v1

Different cellular and molecular mechanisms of chitin deposition contribute to the specificity of the two chitin synthases in D. melanogaster. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626067v1

Chitin is a major component of arthropod extracellular matrices, including the exoskeleton and the m

biorxiv.org

A great write up on the ivory lncRNA story written by Nick VanKuren and Marcus Kronforst. Congrats again to @lucalivraghi.bsky.social and @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social for this amazing work! www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A lovely commentary on @lucalivraghi.bsky.social and @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social's recent papers, by VanKuren and Kronforst (bsky-less?). "“Being wrong” has never been a bad thing in science because good scientists cannot let go of those little things that just do not line up" - 🔥🔥🔥

The evolutionary path of the epithelial sodium channel delta-subunit in Cetartiodactyla points to a role in sodium sensing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.18.623996v1

The evolutionary path of the epithelial sodium channel delta-subunit in Cetartiodactyla points to a role in sodium sensing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.18.623996v1

The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) plays a key role in osmoregulation in tetrapod vertebrates and

biorxiv.org

Pure autofluorescence from the midband crystalline cones in a mantis shrimp eye. The fluorescence comes from mycosporine like amino acid pigments that absorb specific bands of UV light, thus tuning the UV sensitivity of the photoreceptors they focus light into. 🧪 #FluorescenceFriday

We are here! Help us reconnect with any and all allies of the LGBTQ+ community in Plant Science!

Our study on the genetic architecture of a sexual mimicry polymorphism, led by graduate student Tris Dodge, is now out at Current Biology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Original thread on the article is here: bsky.app/profile/moll...

Structural genomic variation and behavioral interactions underpin a balanced sexual mimicry polymorphism

How phenotypic diversity originates and persists within populations are classic puzzles in evolutionary biology. While balanced polymorphisms segregat…

sciencedirect.com

Local cryptic diversity in salinity adaptation mechanisms in a wild outcrossing Brassica https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590122v1

Local cryptic diversity in salinity adaptation mechanisms in a wild outcrossing Brassica https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590122v1

It is generally assumed that populations of the same species should evolve shared mechanisms of adap

biorxiv.org

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Unlocking the power of virtual networking for early-career researchers. #ECRs #EDI #DEI elifesciences.org/articles/963...

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Organoids Reveal a Role for WNT Signaling in Dorsal-Ventral Patterning of the Hindgut https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583343v1

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Organoids Reveal a Role for WNT Signaling in Dorsal-Ventral Patterning of the Hindgut https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583343v1

The cloaca is a transient structure that forms in the terminal hindgut giving rise to the rectum dor

biorxiv.org

pitiful little eyeless isopods. how I adore them

Something old, something new: the origins of an unusual renal cell underpinning a beetle water-conserving mechanism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582930v1

Something old, something new: the origins of an unusual renal cell underpinning a beetle water-conserving mechanism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582930v1

Tenebrionid beetles have been highly successful in colonising environments where water is scarce, un

biorxiv.org

Label-free imaging of cellular organization in living mammalian cells via external apodization phase-contrast microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582671v1

Label-free imaging of cellular organization in living mammalian cells via external apodization phase-contrast microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582671v1

Developing techniques to visualize the dynamics of cellular organization, which impacts the spatiote

biorxiv.org