Very cool pair of papers demonstrating little link between amount of additive genetic variation and amount of nucleotide variation within species: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Levels of additive genetic variation vary substantially between species

Adaptive potential determines how populations respond to environmental change. This study compiles evolvability estimates from over 170 multicellular species, revealing substantial variation across th...

journals.plos.org

We remind the SMBE community that applications for the second edition of the SMBE Fellows Program are ongoing. Apply before August 15. 🔗 smbe.org/smbe-fellows-program #society

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · last mo.

We're excited to announce the second edition of the SMBE Fellows Program! ✍️ 🔗 smbe.org/smbe-fellows-program The SMBE Fellows Program provides mentorship to early-career researchers in scientific writing for evolutionary and molecular biology by writing Highlight articles for MBE and GBE. #society

There’s still time to apply!!

Dr. Stepfanie Aguillón 😷@s-m-aguillon.bsky.social · 4w ago

Interested in joining a growing lab in LA? We’re hiring a postdoc!! Please spread the word to folks in your network and feel free to get in touch with any questions recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11142

Interested in joining a growing lab in LA? We’re hiring a postdoc!! Please spread the word to folks in your network and feel free to get in touch with any questions recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11142

Two journals, two editorial boards, the same service to science. The SMBE and our research community as a whole are indebted to our colleagues who dedicate their effort and expertise to handling manuscripts in the service of MBE and GBE. #society #societyjournal #SMBE2026

The new SMBE Fellows call is now live! Early career researchers (PhD students or postdocs) interested in #scicomm can apply before August 15. If you're at #SMBE2026 and considering joining, let's meet up and chat 🙂

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · last mo.

We're excited to announce the second edition of the SMBE Fellows Program! ✍️ 🔗 smbe.org/smbe-fellows-program The SMBE Fellows Program provides mentorship to early-career researchers in scientific writing for evolutionary and molecular biology by writing Highlight articles for MBE and GBE. #society

Our brilliant PhD students are at #SMBE2026 ! S22: P334 Rachel Carboni with snMultiomics S22: P339 @xindih.bsky.social with epistasis vs modularity in GRNs (w/ @fishcongen.bsky.social) S22: talk at 17:45 @jennisiren.bsky.social with GxE in gene expression (w/ main sup @pyhatanja.bsky.social)

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#SMBE2026 S22: Evolution of gene regulation: insights from novel molecular and statistical approaches 🗓️ Wed Jul 1, 1:20pm - Part 1 🗓️ Wed Jul 1, 3:50pm - Part 2 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme

news.mit.edu/2026/tenured...

The tenured engineers of 2026

MIT School of Engineering faculty Jacob Andreas, Zachary Cordero, Christina Delimitrou, Sili Deng, David Des Marais, Carmen Guerra-Garcia, Laura Lewis, Tami Lieberman, Kevin O’Brien, and Wim van Rees ...

news.mit.edu

New paper out @pnas.org: We explore why fly wings evolve along "lines of least resistance" and reconcile the "rate paradox" between population variation and divergence. Check out how a low dimensional model of selection on size explains it all: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Real science: 1. Is not correlated with the amount of funding 2. Progresses slowly, usually taking many years 3. Leads to more questions than it answers 4. Advances when we disengage a bit and have improvisational discussions 5. Is too serious a thing to be done in a non-playful way

Looking forward to catching up with old and new friends at #SMBE2026 in Copenhagen!

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · last mo.

It's less than one week to go to #SMBE2026! All you need to know before you go 👉 smbe2026.org/general-information ❓ Unsure how to use Copenhagen's public transportation system? Or your dining and meal options? Visit our website for the necessary information to support your stay in Copenhagen.

How do species differ in their ability to #adapt to environmental change? This study by Lillith Zijmers, Adam Eyre-Walker &co estimates #evolvability from over 170 multicellular species, revealing that #plants exhibit greater adaptive potential than animals. 🧪#AcademicSky plos.io/4vk2TON

Spent the last two years developing a new Intro to Physics course for undergrad biology majors. It features tons of examples from biology (especially Ecology & Evolution!) and requires only middle school-level math. Lecture note here shorturl.at/0PiVp Any comments or feedback are highly welcome!

Are you looking for a PhD on the intersection between evolutionary and ecological theory? Join us @univie. Fully funded PhD position in fundamental eco-evolutionary theory, open to international students. Apply by 13.7.2026: ecoevo.owlstown.net/search Reposting appreciated. #evolbio #evoeco #ecology

Jitka's EcoEvo Lab - Jobs

ecoevo.owlstown.net

Why are leaves the shape that they are? What controls intraspecific, genetic variation in leaf shape? New from my lab, in collaboration with many others, led by PhD student Amanda Peake: mapping the leaf shape polymorphism in Ipomoea hederacea.

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Newly arisen indel governs a leaf shape polymorphism in the Ivy Leaf Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730136v1

Exploring the Genotype-to-Phenotype Map Using Quantifiable Patterns in Metazoan Genomic and Morphological Data by Peterson et al. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

The SIRA Act is the latest effort by conservatives to halt all research interactions with China on the grounds that they pose an imminent threat to U.S. national security. https://scim.ag/4wYBXFu

Lawmakers propose banning all U.S.-Chinese research collaborations

Critics say bill would weaken U.S. science by cutting flows of ideas and talent

science.org

For this month's GBE Highlight, SMBE Fellow Haoran Cai delves into Adey et al., who investigated the role of pervasive transcription in the human genome. @haorancai.bsky.social 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag104 #genome #evolution #highlight

I assigned random gender/ethnicity labels to scientific abstracts from the literature and then asked Claude to do a thematic analysis. Claude identified a clinical versus computational split for female/male authors and a DEI focus for Black/URM authors. All in completely random data.

I'm presenting this study for the virtual meeting of @evolmtg.bsky.social on May 22 at 6:15 PM Eastern Time. Please come!

Daohan "Rex" Jiang@rexjiang.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New preprint alert! In this study, we tackled a long-debated question: is the genetic basis of convergent evolution predictable? Should we expect the same gene/loci contributing to convergent adaptation to a common selective pressure? Thread ahead 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Be sure to read the Invited Commentary by Brian Charlesworth, "How is variation in fitness maintained?" academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

How is variation in fitness maintained?

Abstract. The existence of substantial additive genetic variance in fitness poses a long-standing question for evolutionary geneticists. A new theoretical

academic.oup.com

First real post on the new blog! If you follow human genetics, you've likely of "missing heritability". If you look at twins to estimate heritability, you get values much larger than what molecular genomic methods produce. IQ, for example, goes from 50-80% heritability to 10-15%. Which is right?

This article is the focus of this month's GBE Highlight, written by SMBE Fellow Haoran Cai. @haorancai.bsky.social “Dark” or “Junk”? Functional Roles of Pervasive Transcription in the Human Genome 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag104

“Dark” or “Junk”? Functional Roles of Pervasive Transcription in the Human Genome

Highlights editor: Laura A. Katz, Maud Tenaillon

doi.org

I’m looking forward to presenting my project on the puzzles of fly wings evolution at the Evol-Mut-Circle seminar Tuesday, May 19th at 11:00 AM EDT/3:00 PM UTC molevol.org/2025/12/08/e... DM me for the Zoom info, or reach out to Arlin Stoltzfus (evolarlin@gmail.com) to sign up for the email list!

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A pleiotropic hitchhiking model recapitulates alignments between fly wing divergence and variation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706930v1

I'm looking for postdoc opportunities for the 2026-2027 academic year. If you're looking for a postdoc with a broad skill set spanning evolutionary genetics, bioinformatics, and various omics methods, feel free to reach out. Some recent pubs: (1) doi.org/10.1126/scie... (2) doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Macroevolutionary divergence of gene expression driven by selection on protein abundance

The regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein abundances is well-studied, but less is known about the evolutionary processes shaping their relationship. To address this, we derived a new phylogen...

doi.org

I'm looking to hire a postdoc. Please share if you can!

New preprint: "A mathematical synthesis of genetics, development, and evolution". This work addresses the longstanding challenge of integrating these and finds a way. I think it has broad implications and offers exciting opportunities. Feedback welcome! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This month's GBE Highlight by SMBE @haorancai.bsky.social focuses on the recent paper by Bastian, Enard & Lartillot on the nearly neutral theory. "Bridging Micro- and Macroevolution: Phylogenomic Evidence for the Nearly Neutral Theory in Mammals" 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag074 #genome #evolution

Join us for a seminar by Dr. Francois Mallard (Institute de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure, Paris-France) about 'The genetic architecture of phenotypic plasticity' on 30th April, 2026, 3 pm CET. Zoom link here: polygenic-adaptation-network.org/seminars/