What happens when evolution adds an extra pair of eyes? Male mayflies evolve an extra pair of dorsal compound eyes, the Turbanate eyes, thought to help males detect females during mating swarms. we have investigate how this remarkable evolutionary novelty develops. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Me, @emma-harding.bsky.social, @rtarlinton.bsky.social and @royalsociety.org are organising a meeting on endogenous viral elements! 8-9 Feb 2027, Birmingham UK. 2 whole days of EVEs! Many amazing researchers already agreed to speak. Invites: shorturl.at/jp9sh Provisional schedule: shorturl.at/8O5KV

Endogenous viral elements | Royal Society

Theo Murphy meeting organised by Dr Katy Brown, Dr Emma Harding and Professor Rachael Tarlinton

royalsociety.org

Sailing in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ready for summer, our study on the iconic Portuguese man o' war 🪼 is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We use (epi)genomics to understand a critter that fascinates me since childhood. Massive team effort with @obog.bsky.social, Cummins and Neely groups. 🧵

Please share: Full-time PhD position on Butterfly Evolution at High Elevations 🦋⛰️ The project aims to understand the evolution and adaptation of Andean white butterflies using genomics. DEADLINE: September 11, 2026 More info: pavelmatos.wordpress.com/join-us/

Join us

Opportunities Below are the positions currently open in our lab. Open PhD position (full time) Comparative and Population Genomics of Butterflies at High Elevations. The project aims to understand …

pavelmatos.wordpress.com

New opinion piece out! Happy to see it out in @royalsociety.org Long-read sequencing for epigenomic studies in ecology and evolution🧬 Great collaboration with colleagues from the epigenomics symposia in the 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology. royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Long-read sequencing for epigenomic studies in the fields of ecology and evolution

Abstract. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, play crucial roles in regulating gene expression, influencing phenotypic variation and facilita

royalsocietypublishing.org

Very excited to see the first chapter of my PhD out on bioRxiv! It began as a rotation project and became a pivotal part of my PhD on beetles, adding a complementary macroevolutionary perspective to my second chapter on early-stage speciation in Indonesian herbivorous ladybird beetles.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 3w ago

338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.17.739156v1

So happy to share our new paper out now in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We establish Pirsonia-Coscinodiscus as a model pathosystem and uncover how this tiny parasite infects and kills bloom-forming marine diatoms 🌊🦠 rdcu.be/fuQyF

Great to see this paper published, based on #BeeFlyWatch data - thank you to everyone who has ever sent in a bee-fly record 🙏 @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

RES Publications@respublications.bsky.social · 3w ago

New work in #RESInsectConsDiv #CitizenScience data reveals that earlier & shorter flight periods correlate with climate warming in the dark-edged #BeeFly doi.org/10.1111/icad.70114 #Phenology @manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social @unirdgento.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social

New preprint on the effect of ancient admixture / structure on genealogical trees. I introduce a new way of summarising reconstructed genealogies that captures a clear signal of ancient gene flow into the ancestors of modern humans. Feedback welcome!

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 3w ago

The distribution of integer partitions in human genome-wide genealogies reflects gene flow from a super-archaic lineage https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.14.738421v1

Prebilaterian Origin of Monoaminergic Signalling is out! This paper represents four years of work, not only mine, but friends and colleagues. I am particularly grateful to Tatiana Mayorova; without her help, this paper would not have been nearly as complete. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Prebilaterian origin of monoaminergic signaling

Monoamines such as serotonin, dopamine, and tyramine regulate physiological and behavioral processes in bilaterian animals, but the evolutionary origi…

sciencedirect.com

The @smbe-idea.bsky.social symposium at #SMBE2026 was packed with inspiring talks and thought-provoking discussion. Thank you for the opportunity to share how @projectpsyche.bsky.social & @10klepgenomes.bsky.social is making biodiversity genomics more inclusive!

Project Psyche@projectpsyche.bsky.social · last mo.

(2/3) Great talk by @charlottewright.bsky.social from @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, one of our coordinators, on widening participation in genome generation! @10klepgenomes.bsky.social is scaling Lepidoptera genome curation across Europe: 30 trained curators, 14 countries, 120+ genomes curated 🦋👀

Thoughts on traveling by train to 2 international conferences a bit far: Lausanne - Glasgow for #EED2026, 13h of train to, a bit more with a night train fro. Lausanne - Copenhagen for #SMBE2026, 22h each way including a night train. #NoFlyEED #NoFlySMBE #NoFlyAcademics

The beautiful colours and shapes of butterfly wings are shaped by natural selection and biomechanical constraints. Huge congrats to Dani and @vincentdebat.bsky.social for this new paper on the evolution of iridescence and hindwing "tails" in Eudamina skippers Paper: doi.org/10.1093/evol... 🦋

Repeated evolution of iridescence and hindwing tails is associated with morphometric flight proxies in skipper butterflies

Abstract. Phenotypic evolution is shaped by phylogenetic history, ecology and biomechanical constraints. Butterfly wings offer an ideal system to explore t

doi.org

🦋🚀 @marcinwiorek.bsky.social from the @iseapas.bsky.social, gave a successful talk on @projectpsyche.bsky.social and @10klepgenomes.bsky.social at the 48th Symposium of the Lepidoptera Section, Polish Entomological Society held in Góra Świętej Anny, Poland, June 19–21. #10kLepGenomes #Lepidoptera

New data on insect pollinators show a dramatic decline in hoverflies across Great Britain between 2017–2024. 📉 Around one third reduction in abundance & number of hoverfly species recorded as part of @pomscheme.bsky.social www.ceh.ac.uk/press/new-da... 1/ @jncc.bsky.social 🧪

Did you know? The UK lost ¾ of its ponds in just one century 💧 Yet ponds support 2/3 of our freshwater species and urban ponds could be key to reversing the decline 🌎 🧪 Join Dr Rachel Walker to learn how to create & protect them 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1981358046... @barnescommon.bsky.social

🧬🦋 New preprint out! 🦋🧬 What mechanisms underlie large-scale chromosomal rearrangements? Why do rearrangement rates vary so massively across taxa? We explored these questions in Erebia butterflies, a genus with extraordinary chromosome number diversity, from 7 to 52! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Accessible and Robust Machine Learning Approaches to Improve the Opsin Genotype-Phenotype Map

Abstract. Predicting phenotypes from genetic variation is a central challenge in biology. Here, machine learning (ML) offers great promise, but its use is

academic.oup.com

Very excited to finally have this out in the world! The first paper from my PhD (and my first first-author publication) makes the case for a new entrant to the world of long-lived animal models: Heliconius butterflies. Out now in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/10)

Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly - Nature Communications

Studying long-lived species across the animal kingdom could provide insights into healthy ageing in humans. This study reveals long lifespans and slowed ageing in Heliconius butterflies, identifying t...

nature.com

Latest paper lead by Asia Hoile with @peterhox.bsky.social is out! 🦋 Nymphalid butterflies have reduced forelegs. Gene expression patterns show support for more palp-like genes involved in sensory processes in the forelegs relative to the walking legs. doi.org/10.1111/imb....

Distinctive gene expression in the reduced first thoracic legs of a nymphalid butterfly

Transcriptome analysis reveals that the small non-walking front legs of a butterfly have distinct gene expression to the four walking legs. Reduced front legs express a gene with putative mechanosen...

doi.org

Whole genome duplications over 450 million years ago enabled the emergence of different kinds of brain cells 🧠 These cellular innovations are shared across vertebrates - from primitive fish to mammals - and form the basis of the sophisticated brains seen today 👇

Ancient genome duplications laid the foundations of complex brains

bit.ly

Latest paper lead by Asia Hoile with @peterhox.bsky.social is out! 🦋 Nymphalid butterflies have reduced forelegs. Gene expression patterns show support for more palp-like genes involved in sensory processes in the forelegs relative to the walking legs. doi.org/10.1111/imb....

Distinctive gene expression in the reduced first thoracic legs of a nymphalid butterfly

Transcriptome analysis reveals that the small non-walking front legs of a butterfly have distinct gene expression to the four walking legs. Reduced front legs express a gene with putative mechanosen...

doi.org

The new OrthoFinder paper is out now! In this new work, we introduce major advances in accuracy and scalability, allowing analysis on much larger datasets www.nature.com/articles/s41... github.com/OrthoFinder/...

OrthoFinder: improved phylogenetic orthology inference with enhanced accuracy and scalability - Nature Methods

The updated OrthoFinder v3 software boosts accuracy and scalability in phylogenetic orthology inference with massive and diverse datasets.

nature.com

A big preprint from my group! Muller Elements are considered to be conserved in flies. We tested it by reconstructing the ancestral dipteran karyotype using 340 chromosomal genomes and suprise suprise, they're not... Led by @juliagries.bsky.social and Sam Ebdon. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵👇

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

nature.com

📣🧬 Postdoc Alert🧬📣 We are hiring a 2+ year NERC-funded postdoc at Edinburgh Uni investigating causes and consequences of sex differences in recombination in house sparrows in Norway. Informal enquiries welcome at Susan.Johnston@ed.ac.uk 🙂 Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Abstract submission (and early-bird!) deadline for the BioSyst.EU approaches! You have until Sunday, May 31st to send it in! Join us and our fellow European systematics associations in Uppsala, August 17-19, 2026 for the 4th BioSyst.EU meeting! Details: www.trippus.net/BioSyst2026 #BioSystEU2026

BioSyst.EU 2026

A three-day conference celebrating European systematics and biodiversity research at its origin

trippus.net

Our latest manuscript on (Harry Potter and) the effect of elevated temperature on embryonic development in flies. Even a small increase in temperature causes developmental defects, indicating problems in the face of global warming! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Elevated temperature fatally disrupts nuclear divisions in the early Drosophila embryo - Nature Communications

Kale et al. show that nuclear divisions are defective at elevated temperature, leading to gastrulation defects and embryo lethality. Their work finds that F-actin – microtubule interactions during mit...

nature.com

1/ Our new paper in Systematic Biology "Modeling Site-and-Branch-Heterogeneity with GFmix" led by @cgpmcc.bsky.social describes improved ways to model compositional heterogeneity across both sites and branches—an important source of error in deep phylogenomics. doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Modeling Site-and-Branch-Heterogeneity with GFmix

Abstract. Phylogenetic trees are often inferred from protein sequences sampled from diverse taxa across the tree of life. The compositions of these amino a

doi.org

Join us and our fellow European systematics associations in Uppsala, Sweden for the 4th BioSyst.EU meeting! Dates: August 17-19, 2026 Abstract submission and early bird deadline: May 31st Registration deadline: July 17th Details: www.trippus.net/BioSyst2026 We hope to see there! #BioSystEU2026

BioSyst.EU 2026

A three-day conference celebrating European systematics and biodiversity research at its origin

trippus.net