Come work with me! We are hiring a Research Program & Operations Coordinator to administer a new CREATE training program and support other EEB initiatives at U of T. Please circulate to great people in Toronto looking for an academic admin position: jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Scott Gilbert made a useful critique of our preprint, which we have replied to: doi.org/10.32942/X2W...

Gavin Douglas@gmdouglas.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"The holobiont is not a useful model for most host-microbiome interactions". A new preprint (a perspective piece) from myself and Andrew Inkpen: doi.org/10.32942/X2W.... Feedback welcome!

Much has been written about The Selfish Gene, and few books have been both as influential and as persistently contested. To commemorate its 50th anniversary, here are some brief thoughts in the latest issue of @science.org. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A provocative view of evolution turns 50

The Selfish Gene continues to challenge readers half a century later

science.org

A reminder that this position closes in a few days time!

Fiona J Whelan@whelanfj.bsky.social · 3mo ago

After a few technical glitches... 📣 Whelan lab is hiring 📣 We are looking for an entry level technician to help us with our culturing and DNA sequencing prep of cystic fibrosis lung microbiome samples. Applications close 28 May 2026 Any queries, please reach out!

"The holobiont is not a useful model for most host-microbiome interactions". A new preprint (a perspective piece) from myself and Andrew Inkpen: doi.org/10.32942/X2W.... Feedback welcome!

Very excited to share our new paper out in Nature. Congrats to Xiaoqian (Annie) Yu and all the coauthors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📣 The Whelan lab is hiring a bioinformatics postdoc 📣 Together with @fabricejpierre.bsky.social, we are offering a 1-year bioinformatic PDRA position in comparative genomics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To find out more please visit whelanlab.co.uk/contact/. Applications close 3 April 2026!

Horizontal gene transfer is often depicted as a process distributing pre-existing functions to novel genetic backgrounds. Yet HGT can also increase the rate of functional innovation after transfer. Here's a brief review on the topic: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... #evosky #microsky

You can now view a tree of 2,399,238 bacterial genomes we made from AllTheBacteria (on the great Taxonium): taxonium.org/atb That's a big tree! (unless you're used to SC2 trees)

New preprint where @lbobay.bsky.social and I were motivated by the fact that non-synonymous substitutions are commonly analyzed in molecular evolution studies, but the similarity of the amino acids being substituted is an understudied area. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Now out & nicely formatted in @isme-microbes.bsky.social A big analysis of ocean genomes & metagenomes co-led by former postdocs, now PIs, @gmdouglas.bsky.social & @cyanophage.bsky.social along with co-PIs @lbobay.bsky.social & Samuel Chaffron. A few highlights... 🧵 (1/n) doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Co-occurrence is associated with horizontal gene transfer across marine bacteria independent of phylogeny

Abstract. Understanding the drivers and consequences of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a key goal of microbial evolution research. Although co-occurring

doi.org

Join us for the first PCI Genomics Recommenders' Meeting happening on Feb 9th and 11th!

PCI Genomics@genomics.peercommunityin.org · 7mo ago

All Recommenders are invited to the PCI Genomics Recommenders’ Meeting! We will present our goals and discuss possible ways to improve user experience and engagement. Two online meetings: Feb 9th, 18h CET OR Feb 11th, 15h CET. If not a Recommender yet, send us an email!

Seeking expressions of interest from researchers abroad for a Canada Impact+ Research Chair ($1M/year × 8 + up to $6M CFI) in AI-enabled antibiotic discovery and/or AMR, phage & phage-based derivatives. Email me a short vision, CV, and 3–5 key papers. Deadline: March 10, 2026 (Intake 2: June 15).

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics

From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

science.org

Our latest paper is out with @adiop.bsky.social and @gmdouglas.bsky.social. We analyzed the extent of homologous recombination between bacterial species (introgression) and how it affects species borders (it can vary a lot depending on the approach used to classify species!). rdcu.be/eQAMf

Introgression impacts the evolution of bacteria, but species borders are rarely fuzzy

Nature Communications - It is commonly thought that bacterial species borders tend to be fuzzy, due to frequent exchange of DNA. Here, Diop et al. quantify the patterns of gene flow between core...

rdcu.be

My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have. apply.interfolio.com/177547

New diamond open access journal Replication Research welcomes reports of replication of previous works. #AcademicChatter https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ejournals/index.php/replicationresearch/index

Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book. gitrepo: github.com/ybrandvain/b... book: ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/ Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable dm me with comments , ideas etc

Too many authors use a scientific paper's Discussion to thoroughly shred their own work. That, and two more common mistakes in writing Discussions:

What your Discussion section isn’t

Today, the next instalment in a short series inspired by bad papers I’ve read (some of them, I have to admit, my own). I’ve let myself rant about what a Methods sections shouldn’t be, and what a Re…

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) ! 1/n

In case you missed it, check out my latest #substack on life, entropy, and the arrow of time. Trying to get a bit more poetic with this one. If this isn't your thing, stay tuned next week, for another prose post. gibbological.substack.com/p/on-life-en...

On life, entropy, and the heat death of the universe

a poem

gibbological.substack.com

Obligatory new job swag and selfie. Excited to start as an Assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada! Come work with me! douglaslab.ca

Lopezguerra & Douglas recommend the high-quality Xylocopa violacea reference genome by Nash et al., 2024, Heredity, the first annotated pseudo-chromosomal assembly for any Xylocopa bee! 🐝 A crucial step for pollinator research, conservation, and even cancer therapy studies #ERGA tinyurl.com/vwknzu2b

A high-quality genome assembly for carpenter bees

We present a reference genome assembly from an individual male Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea, Linnaeus 1758). The assembly is 1.02 gigabases in span. 48% of the assembly is scaffolded into…

tinyurl.com

At PCI Genomics, we are pleased to have recommended all ERGA manuscripts and publications to date, helping to bring together this vital body of work at the heart of European biodiversity genomics. 🔗 genomics.peercommunityin.org #ERGA #Genomics #Biodiversity #PCIGenomics #OpenScience

An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms. web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...

Howard's: evolution of microbial genes, genomes and communities. Can be experimental or computational. If interested, contact Howard Ochman, howard.ochman@austin.utexas.edu Homepage: web.biosci.utexas.edu/ochman/index...

We just published our first paper in the Peer Community Journal - diamond open access, no APCs! Awesome experience, with less than a week from submission after receommendation by #pcigenomics. Highly recommended! #molpalmuc @lmumuenchen.bsky.social @peercommunityin.bsky.social

Come join us at @mcgill.ca as an assistant professor in virus-host interactions! Please share widely. mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

Assistant Professor (Research), Department of Microbiology & Immunology, (C2-240724)

Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

New preprint (and brief🧵)! “Co-occurrence drives horizontal gene transfer (HGT) among marine prokaryotes”. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - Nature

The root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...

doi.org