QTL mapping academic.oup.com/genetics/art... Whether you are new to QTL mapping or have years of experience, you’re sure to learn something new and interesting from Shizhong Xu’s Primer. Don’t fret over the equations; there is a terrific narrative here about the past and future of QTL mapping!
QTL mapping
Abstract. Most biologically relevant traits are quantitative, controlled by multiple genes, and can be influenced by the environment. The multiple genes, c
academic.oup.com
"We tested monarch migratory behaviour at ground level and at 30 m altitude." Environmental and genetic conditions shaping monarch butterfly migration biology www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Environmental and genetic conditions shaping monarch butterfly migration biology
Monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, in North America migrate south each autumn, but the mechanisms that initiate their migratory flight remain uncl…
sciencedirect.com
Is euchromatin really “open”? 🧬 Using super-resolution imaging🔬 our new study @natgenet.nature.com reveals: Euchromatin forms condensed domains in live cells. Cohesin constrains them and prevents domain mixing for proper transcriptional insulation🚧 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/2)
This tiny crab captured by Pedro Valencia of Blackwater Cozumel has me learning about crab life-cycles. Prepare for some vocabulary (& errors)! This is a swimming stage called a 'megalopa'. The furious tail structures moving a mile a minute are 'pleopods' or swimmerets. (📷: pedrovalenciam on IG)
Story on our new paper led by Sergei Tarasov! www.helsinki.fi/en/news/rese...
When biology inspires mathematics: new discovery explains why a widely used evolutionary method can give false answers | University of Helsinki
Researchers have identified a previously unrecognised mathematical property that explains why one of evolutionary biology's most widely used statistical models can produce convincing but incorrect con...
helsinki.fi
A cool bunch of new speciation papers out recently in Molecular Ecology, looking at divergence, hybridisation, recombination, genome architecture, and so on! Genomics of Speciation special issue: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1... #speciation #divergence #hybridisation #recombination #genomics
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
Consequences of intra-locus recombination for branch-length-based inference of gene flow www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
I am immensely proud of my postdoc, Dr. Chelsea Skojec, for publishing this work on Automeris moths and mimicry of owl faces: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Latest crazy story from the frontiers of math and AI -- a neurosurgery resident, with no training in advanced math, uses ChatGPT 5.6 to solve a major open problem in numerical linear algebra. alextownsend.net/essays/SIAMN...
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
"How two hybridizing monkeyflowers resist phenotypic homogenization" I'm very happy to share this. We would really appreciate your feedback!
Jenn Coughlan@jenncoughlan.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo proud of this manuscript- lead by the fantastic @henryarenas.bsky.social with two undergraduates (Cage Cochran and Quinn Evans) each doing a Herculean effort during their honors theses, and Hongfei Chen helping out tremendously with lab work. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Sad but not surprising. Few conservation strategies are aimed at insects, which in turn provide food for birds. They are also often underfunded and poorly implemented. We simply must do better to tackle biodiversity loss, we have the knowledge to do a lot better @europebutterfly.bsky.social
Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 2mo agoAre current species conservation policies enough? New study indicates that common bird and common butterfly species across Europe are set to keep declining in the coming decades. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Typeset version of new paper out in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social. Link: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... We identified segmental duplications in genomes from 117 vertebrate species (thanks to @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social ). We describe the properties and evolution of segmental duplications.
Genomes From 117 Vertebrate Species Reveal Rapidly Evolving Segmental-Duplication Landscapes
Abstract. Segmental duplications are major drivers of evolutionary innovation; yet, their dynamics across vertebrates remain poorly understood. Here, we id
academic.oup.com
Y and W sex chroms are enigmatic. Compared to the rest of the genome, they show distinct structure and diversity, and are notoriously difficult to assemble. Work led by @mdalikova.bsky.social investigates these patterns for the W chromosome of silkworm, Bombyx mori www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Wrong but useful: Bombyx silkworm W chromosome assemblies are flawed but still capture strongly reduced diversity of repetitive DNA
Degenerate sex chromosomes ( e.g., the Y or W) remain among the most difficult regions of eukaryotic genomes to assemble because they are highly repetitive and structurally complex. While many recent ...
biorxiv.org
338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.17.739156v1
Evidence of two centromeres in the germline-restricted chromosome (GRC): insights from zebra finch lampbrush chromosomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Evidence of two centromeres in the germline-restricted chromosome (GRC): insights from zebra finch lampbrush chromosomes
The germline-restricted chromosome (GRC) of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata represents a well-established model of programmed DNA elimination in vertebrates. Although the DNA composition of the GR...
biorxiv.org
Second-chance speciation in the Clouded Apollo butterfly: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Second-chance speciation in the Clouded Apollo butterfly
Lancho-Silva et al. reveal two successive contacts between butterfly populations that capture the surprisingly rapid emergence of reproductive isolation driven by selection for chemical differences, a...
cell.com
How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts
In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...
biorxiv.org
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
A Whole genome study of the British Swallowtail (Papilio machaon britannicus) has been completed for the first time. The analyses demonstrates that the British Swallowtail butterfly is genetically isolated and distinct from other Papilio machaon populations. doi.org/10.1111/icad...
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... 🧵👇
Our new paper doi.org/10.1098/rspb... on long-term genetic threats to small populations finds that "mutational meltdown" (bad mutations fixing) is less of a problem than "mutational drought" (too few good new mutations) @wmawass.bsky.social @uliseshmc.bsky.social @jeremyjberg.bsky.social 1/5
Extinction vortices are driven more by a shortage of beneficial mutations than by deleterious mutation accumulation
Abstract. Habitat loss contributes to extinction risk in multiple ways. Genetically, small populations can face an ‘extinction vortex’—a positive feedback
doi.org
What’s *really* cool about insect migrations like this, is that - in my opinion - individual animals are *not* migratory because they spend their lives moving one way. But their genes *are*, because the circuit is completed by their descendants.
Cath Hodsman@cathhodsman.bsky.social · 4mo agoPainted Ladies fly up from Africa every year - that's across the Med',up the continent of Europe, across the English Channel, into the UK, & if the weather's warm enough, keep flying up, even to the edge of the Arctic Circle,then fly back (in several generations)! A round trip of 9,000 miles 🌱🌿🇬🇧🌱🪲🌍🦋
Yes, Palaeophilotes (=Pseudophilotes) panoptes is present in SE France! Check Aurélien Gaunet’s recent study documenting the contact zone, genetic, morphological and ecological differences. doi.org/10.32800/abc... Published in ABC, a great journal by @museuciencies.cat @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
#TEsky Elevated retrocopy burden and sloth-specific expansions illuminate mammalian genome evolution doi.org/10.1186/s129...
Elevated retrocopy burden and sloth-specific expansions illuminate mammalian genome evolution - BMC Biology
Background Xenarthrans, comprising sloths, anteaters, and armadillos, represent one of the most morphologically and physiologically specialized mammalian clades, yet the genomic basis of their adaptations remains poorly understood. Here, we present chromosome-level genomes for the two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus) and the southern anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla) and investigate how retrotransposon-mediated gene duplications (retrocopies) have shaped genome evolution in these and other species in Xenarthra. Results Comparative analyses revealed that the xenarthran genomes analyzed here harbour the highest number of retrocopies reported among mammals, with lineage-specific insertion dynamics. Anteater and armadillo genomes contain older LINE1 repertoires and species-specific older retrocopy insertions. In contrast, sloths retain both an abundance of young LINE1s and thousands of young retrocopies, alongside a large shared set that originated from an evolutionary burst of retroduplication in the branch leading to their last common ancestor (~ 30 Mya). In C. didactylus, 49% of retrocopies were found to be expressed in five tissues, compared with 27% in Dasypus novemcinctus in three tissues. Evolutionary analyses identified 38 retrocopies with strong hallmarks of domestication in C. didactylus. Many of these retrocopies derive from parental genes involved in mitochondrial and metabolic processes, suggesting a potential genomic contribution to the physiological specializations of sloths. Conclusions Altogether, our findings identify retrotransposition as a major contributor to the genomic architecture of the xenarthrans presented here and highlight retrocopy origination as a mechanism for generating lineage-specific novelty and, possibly, distinctive biological specializations.
doi.org
Genomic forecasts of maladptation in Lycaeides butterflies https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.16.725655v1
Interpreting GC content differences across populations at polymorphic sites https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.16.725686v1
