New paper from myself and Alejandro Couce out now in Nature Communications! We wanted to test the idea that mutation biased adaptation - aka arrival bias / arrival of the fittest - is only of importance in small population sizes... www.nature.com/articles/s41... (thread below)

Our monthly evol-mut-circle seminar for July is coming up tomorrow (21 July, 15:00 UTC). Alex Palazzo will present "How non-adaptive evolution shapes the 5'ends of human protein-coding genes" DM me to join or get connection info www.molevol.org/evol-mut-cir... #evolution

Tuesday I will be talking about our work on how non-adaptive evolution shapes the 5'ends of human protein-coding genes as part of the evol-mut-circle online seminar series (@evolarlin.bsky.social should be posting details in the next day or so)

Our monthly evol-mut-circle seminar for June is coming up tomorrow (16 June, 15:00 UTC). Matthew Jago will present "The role of extended sequence context in shaping mutational bias" (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...) DM me to join or get connection info www.molevol.org/evol-mut-cir... #evolution

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

The evol-mut-circle seminar tomorrow at 15:00 UTC (11:00 EDT) features Donate Weghorn (CRG Barcelona), "Transcription start sites experience a high influx of heritable variants fueled by early development", following www.nature.com/articles/s41... DM me to join the list & get full info

Transcription start sites experience a high influx of heritable variants fueled by early development - Nature Communications

The impact of transcription on germline mutagenesis remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify a mutational hotspot at transcription start sites in the human germline that is significantly ...

nature.com

Coming up tomorrow in the evol-mut-circle seminar series

Arlin Stoltzfus@evolarlin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The next evol-mut-circle meeting happens Tues, 17 Feb, 15:00 UTC (8:30 pm India, 10 am EST). Marwan Tuffaha (York) will present her work on cancer drivers and mutation bias reversals academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... DM me to join the list for meeting info

The next evol-mut-circle meeting happens Tues, 17 Feb, 15:00 UTC (8:30 pm India, 10 am EST). Marwan Tuffaha (York) will present her work on cancer drivers and mutation bias reversals academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... DM me to join the list for meeting info

Genome Biology and Evolution | Oxford Academic

The official journal of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Publishes original research on the evolutionary advances at the forefront of genomics, embracing genome-wide evolutionary inves...

academic.oup.com

the first evol-mut-circle meeting of 2026 happens Tuesday, 20 Jan, 15:00 UTC (8:30 pm India, 10 am EST). Madeleine Oman will present "How Sequence Context-Dependent Mutability Drives Mutation Rate Variation in the Genome" academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... DM me to join the list for meeting info

How Sequence Context-Dependent Mutability Drives Mutation Rate Variation in the Genome

Abstract. The rate of mutations varies >100-fold across the genome, altering the rate of evolution, and susceptibility to genetic diseases. The stronges

academic.oup.com

our next evol-mut-circle seminar (21 Oct, 15:00 UTC) features Timothy Fuqua on "De novo promoters emerge more readily from random DNA than genomic DNA" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... DM me to join the email list. Full schedule: www.molevol.org/evol-mut-cir... #popgen, #mutation, #evobio

De-novo promoters emerge more readily from random DNA than from genomic DNA

Promoters are DNA sequences that help to initiate transcription. Point mutations can create de-novo promoters, which can consequently transcribe inactive genes or create novel transcripts. We know lit...

biorxiv.org

Next Tuesday (20 May), evol-mut-circle hosts a discussion on hypotheses to account for targeted hypomutation We'll have a panel of experts to help with the discussion, including some with key roles in this issue Message me to join the email list www.molevol.org/distinguishi...

The CDC has literally been gutted today. There’s no need for “April Fools” when reality is a nightmare for every human on this planet. Thousand of scientists fired. Entire departments erased. 1/

Monroe, et al 2022 argued that mutation in Arabidopsis evolved adaptively to be lower in genes than non-genes That stimulated a lot of debate over whether the pattern is real What about the evo model? A model of gene-targeted hyper-repair (to avoid damage)... www.molevol.org/distinguishi...

It's 5 yrs today since lockdown started in England, but "We must never have lockdown again" is the wrong lesson. Lockdowns are terrible but so are deadly pandemics. Our choices 5 years ago were limited - we can & must do better in the future. Do read my post. open.substack.com/pub/christin...

We are learning the wrong lessons from lockdown

And unless we learn the right ones, we risk making the same mistakes in a new pandemic

open.substack.com

Great opportunity in a beautiful city

Thomas Lenormand@thomaslenormand.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨If you fancy evolutionary genomics, theory, my lab now offers *two* fully-funded #PhD #genomics #popgen #evolution ℹ️One on sex-asex transitions with Christoph Haag bit.ly/4hp1q1A ℹ️One on allele-specific expression with Sylvain Glémin bit.ly/4iuKLuQ Part of #ERC RegEvol In #CEFE lab, Montpellier

Coming up next Tuesday @kelleyharris.bsky.social "What causes mutation rates to vary among populations, species, and cell lineages?" DM to join the email list

Arlin Stoltzfus@evolarlin.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m starting a special interest group with monthly seminars + discussion focused on the role of mutation in evolution covering #evobio #popgen #histsci #philsci Upcoming speakers: @PeterALind, @DeepaAgashe, Grey Monroe, Rose Novick, Alex Klug To join, email <myfirstname>@umd.edu Please repost

Today is the 100th bday of Margaret Dayhoff! She is the mother of bioinformatics. In her honor, some are celebrating it as Bioinformatics Day or Bioinformaticians' Day. H/T to Farzana! www.nature.com/articles/s43... Happy bioinformatics day to all!

New, from me: you were told that the threats to free speech came from wokeness. Some compared it to Maoist China. Now we are witnessing government power being used to silence dissent and censor ideas. Now we know what real society-wide chilling effects look like. 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

Real chilling effects

A extraordinary pattern of government censorship and threats to speech

open.substack.com

Really wish people would stop talking about the problem with Science under Trump as “budget cuts”. No. Budgets are set deliberatively by elected members of congress. Budgets haven’t been cut. What’s happening are *purges* and *censorship*.

Exploring New Niches - Superorganism | a guide to nature jobs in the private sector for anyone who recently lost a government science or nature job

Exploring New Niches

With US federal layoffs, we share a Cliffs Notes for some private sector opportunities. And Superorganism is hiring!

buff.ly

These are some resources I found useful to understand the administrative coup taking place here. The 2-part series by Robert Evans (with guest Ed Helms) is a bit repetitive but worth 2 hrs IMHO www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-... medium.com/@alysion42/d... www.podchaser.com/podcasts/beh...

'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook

In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO”

thenerdreich.com

In the most recent evol-mut-circle seminar, @bryangitschlag.bsky.social (of @davidmccandlish.bsky.social lab) presented his latest work: Graduated effects of mutation bias in adaptation The recorded talk plus Q-and-A is free here for 6 months: umd.zoom.us/rec/share/b-... Passcode: g3PH=?9v

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom ...

umd.zoom.us

Arlin Stoltzfus@evolarlin.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m starting a special interest group with monthly seminars + discussion focused on the role of mutation in evolution covering #evobio #popgen #histsci #philsci Upcoming speakers: @PeterALind, @DeepaAgashe, Grey Monroe, Rose Novick, Alex Klug To join, email <myfirstname>@umd.edu Please repost

This new book is going on my reading list. I'm particularly interested in how the development of evolutionary thinking was shaped by highly engaged non-scientist intellectuals who wrote about evolution early in the 20th century press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

The Arrival of the Fittest

In the early twentieth century, varied audiences took biology out of the hands of specialists and transformed it into mass culture, transforming our understanding of heredity in the process.   In the ...

press.uchicago.edu

Also, late last year I gave evol-mut-circle an overview of how the mutation spectrum can shape evo, in 3 modes (each with its own theory and empirical results) * deleterious mut pressure * ultimate source of raw materials * introduction of novelty www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Tb...

The role of the mutation spectrum in evolution (theory)

YouTube video by Mutation, Randomness and Evolution

youtube.com

Arlin Stoltzfus@evolarlin.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m starting a special interest group with monthly seminars + discussion focused on the role of mutation in evolution covering #evobio #popgen #histsci #philsci Upcoming speakers: @PeterALind, @DeepaAgashe, Grey Monroe, Rose Novick, Alex Klug To join, email <myfirstname>@umd.edu Please repost

Latest video in the series: James Horton @jameshearsawho shares ongoing work combining genetic dissection of a GGGGT hotspot in P. fluorescens with an analysis of Salmonella genomes, exploring the basis of a 1000X enhancement of T-to-G mutation rate umd.zoom.us/rec/share/-G... Passcode: ?3H+M@Ph

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom ...

umd.zoom.us

Arlin Stoltzfus@evolarlin.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m starting a special interest group with monthly seminars + discussion focused on the role of mutation in evolution covering #evobio #popgen #histsci #philsci Upcoming speakers: @PeterALind, @DeepaAgashe, Grey Monroe, Rose Novick, Alex Klug To join, email <myfirstname>@umd.edu Please repost

Thanks for the synopsis! With regard to your final comment about specialized mutation systems, I also find these systems fascinating. Some day, one hopes, their existence will be integrated into mainstream evolutionary thinking, along with the importance of arrival bias

Cole@ultraspiracle.bsky.social · 2y ago

Just finished @evolarlin.bsky.social's Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution. He argues that mutation isn’t “random” in any meaningful sense, but systematically biased, and that “the course of adaptation may reflect modest quantitative biases in ordinary mutations”.

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Teen Vogue@teenvogue.com · 2y ago

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Potential post-docs: are you interested the role of mutation in evolution? Please consider applying for a competitive NRC post-doc fellowship (2 yrs, generous salary and benefits, open to US citizens) Contact me if you are interested www.nist.gov/iaao/academi...