📣 I'm recruiting PhD students to join the Akopyan Lab at Rice University! If you're passionate about evolutionary genomics, I'd love to hear from you. Details: akopyanlab.org/opportunities Please share widely! 🙏

Opportunities

We are recruiting PhD students in Evolutionary Genomics for Fall 2027 at Rice University!  Projects in the lab include investigating the causes and consequences of recombination rate variation, the...

akopyanlab.org

A nanobody antivenom cocktail protected mice against death from Indian cobra and king cobra venom, including when delivered up to 20 minutes after envenoming. Read more in #ScienceTranslationalMedicine: https://scim.ag/4yvByKx

I'm looking to hire a postdoc to work on the RepAdapt + MacroMar projects, analysing genomic data from >130 species of plants, animals, and fungi (VCFs are processed, ready to go). Lots of potential for creativity and collaboration! yeamanlab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/...

New work from postdoc days with Dr. Robin Hopkins working with Phlox speciation genomics.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · last wk.

Unmasking the large and highly repetitive genome of Phlox reveals a complex evolutionary history of speciation with gene flow https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.01.748350v1

I'm excited to release the newest version of my free applied biostats textbook. It's tidyverse style, clarkia inspired and loads of fun Im putting this down until the end of the semester, when I'll add and polish additional chapters, but the 1st 21 are pretty solid yanivjb.github.io/biostats-book

Applied Biostatistics

yanivjb.github.io

Excited to see this special issue on Genomics of Speciation now out in Molecular Ecology: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

Special Issue: Genomics of Speciation: Molecular Ecology

Molecular Ecology is an international journal for research using molecular genetic techniques to address questions in ecology, evolution, behavior and conservation.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🚨We've got two funded PhD positions investigating #plant-insect and #predator-prey ecology under climate change! Joint project between myself and Bill Snyder at UGA. Send us your CV and interests: wesnyder@uga.edu shayla.salzman@uga.edu Come join us in beautiful Athens GA!

Starting the semester by submitting the lab’s first empirical paper led by a PhD student (excitttiiing) and 4th (!!!!) resubmission of an NSF grant (kill me now). Being New PI is such a bag of mixed feelings…add to that the spicyness of being an immigrant…ooof

It must be Christmas and nobody told me! Here's a beautiful work by Angelo, one of Riccardo Papa’s PhD students. It was a real pleasure to be part of it and to contribute, even in a small way. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Multilocus basis of incipient reproductive isolation in hybridizing populations is revealed by pangenomic and epigenetic divergence

Incipient reproductive isolation in the presence of gene flow has traditionally been attributed to a small number of major-effect loci under strong selection. Here, using the Heliconius erato adaptive...

science.org

Pinheiro de Castro et al. trace the evolution of cyanogenic glucosides biosynthesis in Heliconiini butterflies, providing evidence for the genetic basis of this phenotype and empirical evidence for plasticity-first evolution. 🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #societyjournal #evobio #molbio

🚨Call for papers for a MEC special issue🚨 From Genotype to Phenotype: where Molecular Ecology meets Quantitative genetics This special issue explores the role and application of quantitative genetic studies using by high-resolution molecular markers in wild populations. 1/3

A central challenge in evobio is understanding how genetic variants influence biological functions and, ultimately, phenotypic diversity and adaptation. In light of the growing interest, GBE has prepared a virtual collection on Functional Genomics 🔗 academic.oup.com/gbe/pages/fu... #societyjournal

We're hiring! The Chambers Lab is recruiting grad students interested in landsacpe & conservation genomics or species delimitation of reptiles & amphibians. Find more info here (or reach out with questions!): chamberslab.org/opportunitie...

Congratulations to @dortizba.bsky.social on a new collaborative Tansley Review in @newphyt.bsky.social! Predictive evolutionary genomics: principles, validation, and practice doi.org/10.1111/nph....

More broadly, the study illustrates how long-read sequencing and pangenome approaches can reveal functionally important variants that are missed by traditional reference-based analyses. The paper is now out in @genomeresearch.bsky.social genome.cshlp.org/content/36/7...

BLink-seq is out! Linked-read sequencing that brings phased whole-genome data to non-model species at population scale. We show it phases haplotypes and detects SVs, revealing previously undocumented structural complexity in an adaptive Atlantic silverside inversion. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

BLink-seq delivers population-scale haplotypes without long reads: a scalable framework for non-model genomics

Information about segregating haplotypes and structural variation (SV) can be extremely rich for a variety of applications in population genomics but remains largely inaccessible for many non-model sp...

biorxiv.org

Our new Nature Eco Evo paper documents range shifts in 1,758 butterfly species across 105 countries, primarily due to climate change. 🦋80% expanded 🦋27% contracted 🦋22% shifted elevation 🦋342 showed multiple shift types. doi.org/10.1038/s415... @monashbiol.bsky.social @monashscience.bsky.social

📢New paper in @journal-evo.bsky.social! This work expands our understanding of seasonal camouflage polymorphism, dissecting the genetic basis of winter colour variation (white and brown morphs) in the long-tailed weasel (Neogale frenata). Paper here ⬇️ doi.org/10.1093/evol... 1/5

Museum genomics links MC1R alleles to adaptive winter coat color polymorphism in the long-tailed weasel

Abstract. Understanding the architecture of biological adaptations is a major endeavor of evolutionary biology. Using Natural History collections, we study

doi.org

A transposon origin of large tandem repeats in the butterfly Papilio bianor https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.30.741882v1

Butterflies around the world are changing habitats - and experts say it’s ‘signalling a warning’

Butterflies around the world are changing habitats - and experts say it’s ‘signalling a warning’

New research shows early-warning species is on the move, expanding or contracting geographic range and changing altitude

theguardian.com

🐛 Caterpillars of Lonomia #moths envenomate people in Latin America every year. In the July issue of #G3journal, @diler.bsky.social, @nkwhiteman.bsky.social present a genome assembly of Lonomia casanarensis that will help improve antivenoms and develop novel bioactive compounds. 🔗 buff.ly/Mqa35Tv

Excited to share a preprint of my 3rd dissertation chapter! We evaluated how a potential genomic measure of sexual selection strength, the ratio of genetic diversity on the Z chromosome vs the autosomes, varies across selective and biogeographic contexts in #manakins. Check it out! bit.ly/4fY43de

Can the Z:A ratio serve as a genomic index of sexual selection? An assessment across space and time in a genus of lekking birds

Understanding the role of sexual selection in shaping evolutionary trajectories is a key goal of biology, and thus developing a genomic measure of sexual selection strength is desirable. In systems wi...

biorxiv.org

New preprint led by former PhD student Wayne Wang, who found that neither male temperature during spermatogenesis nor post-ejaculate sperm heat exposure change sperm cell heat tolerance in an Anolis lizard www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

No adaptive plasticity in the heat tolerance of lizard sperm

1. Adaptive phenotypic plasticity can help organisms cope with global warming by increasing their heat tolerance, yet most research has focused on whole-organism traits. Much less is known about therm...

biorxiv.org

New paper out! Limited evidence that butterflies are capable of changing their thermoregulatory performance or thermal tolerance in response to local climatic conditions. Instead, poorer thermoregulators have shown stronger upwards elevational range shifts in response to climate change rdcu.be/fuSJE

Butterflies with low thermoregulatory capacity show greatest upwards range shifts along an elevational gradient

Communications Biology - Lack of variation in thermoregulatory capacity or thermal tolerance in butterflies across an elevational gradient suggests limited adaptive capacity. Poorer...

rdcu.be

From diet to defense: serpin duplication and gene-expression evolution as putative contributors to poison-frog alkaloid sequestration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.13.737953v1

Why do different butterfly species evolve the same shimmering blue wings? Morpho butterflies repeatedly converge on iridescence in sympatry, suggesting predators can drive the evolution of shared warning signals. doi.org/10.1093/evle... Image credit: Wikimedia

We received almost 300 applications to our Graduate Research Excellence Grants this year. We expect to fund around 50 proposals. Help us fund an additional 10 by making a tax-deductible donation to our GREG GoFundMe campaign! www.gofundme.com/f/support-st...

Donate to Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!, organized by SSE Communications

The Graduate Research Excellence Grants are awarded by the So… SSE Communications needs your support for Support Students on their Scientific Research Journey!

gofundme.com

Ecological genomics of a novel host-parasitoid arms-race in nature https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.30.735478v1

Large phenological advances and delays over 124 years of climate change alter co-flowering among North American Viola https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.27.734973v1

Germany vs Paraguay omg