🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 "Deconstructing empirical fitness seascapes across scales of granularity" published in #G3 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) 1/2 The fitness landscape has been among the most influential instruments in evolutionary theory for nearly a century. But we often treat them as fixed and static.

In #GENETICS, @joannamasel.bsky.social and the team describe how we define fitness changes with context and propose a conceptual scheme where short-term and long-term fitness are best operationalized via organismal vital rates and genetic lineages, respectively. 🔗 buff.ly/S0UK9Mn

Pls share. Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences - Genetics/Genomics at Smith College. apply.interfolio.com/190342

Very cool pair of papers demonstrating little link between amount of additive genetic variation and amount of nucleotide variation within species: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Levels of additive genetic variation vary substantially between species

Adaptive potential determines how populations respond to environmental change. This study compiles evolvability estimates from over 170 multicellular species, revealing substantial variation across th...

journals.plos.org

Finally posted an ad for the postdoc position on my new NSF-funded project—come help build a new method to study plants' responses to environmental variation in space and over time, and figure out interesting ways to use it! Apply by 23 August to ensure consideration. Details: buff.ly/qTvaqvD

Interested in joining a growing lab in LA? We’re hiring a postdoc!! Please spread the word to folks in your network and feel free to get in touch with any questions recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11142

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS

In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

pnas.org

I am thrilled to share that the biology dept at Hamilton College is hiring a TT Evolutionary Ecologist to start in fall of 2027! This position would teach an upper level Evolution lect/lab, a section of Bio-100, rotate through our 200-level Eco/Evo course, and a seminar. apply.interfolio.com/190184

Hot off the press @official-smbe.bsky.social MBE - a phylum-wide assessment to systematically evaluate, refine, and revise current understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of the #arthropod moulting genetic toolkit! academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Evolutionary dynamics of the arthropod moulting machinery

Abstract. Exoskeletons define arthropods, providing support for segmented bodies and appendages while protecting against environmental stress and predation

academic.oup.com

Messina et al. resequenced genomes of 99 understorey forest songbirds, finding that genetic erosion can occur within a few decades of habitat disturbance even in apparently common tropical bird species. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag139 #societyjournal #congen

Fixation Probabilities of Mutant Alleles in an Ecological Context https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.20.739501v1

Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space

Nature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major...

rdcu.be

Eggers & @jannafierst.bsky.social suggest TE regulation is relevant right after genome invasion, with mutated TE sequences remaining in the genome for long periods after invasion. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag165 #TEsky #societyjournal

Regulatory Logic and Transposable Element Dynamics in Caenorhabditis Genomes

Abstract. Genome sequencing has revealed a tremendous diversity of transposable elements (TEs) in eukaryotes but there is little understanding of the evolu

doi.org

Historical Perspective: Sridhar et al. use the backstories of famous scientific papers in Ecology and Evolution to uncover the background roles of natural history that are written out of papers. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

@petedp.bsky.social et al. explore the molecular evolution of the A and B haplotypes of a large, sex-linked inversion polymorphism in the zebra finch responsible for most of the genetic variation in sperm morphology. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag056 #genome #societyjournal

Molecular Evolution of a Sex-Linked Inversion Polymorphism in Zebra Finches

Abstract. Recent years have seen an explosion in examples of supergenes, where recombination is suppressed between haplotypes, often via inversion polymorp

doi.org

Oregon State University's Department of Integrative Biology is currently hiring up to three tenure-track faculty members, with an emphasis on organismal biology. Note: Previous links are no longer active due to a change in our hiring system. oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com/OSU_Careers_...

Assistant Professor

Department: Special Instructions to Applicants: To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by 10/1/26. Applications will continue to be accepted after the full consideration date, unt...

oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com

Competition among kin generates balancing selection in a wild population https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.11.737918v1

Just added a couple more job apps (thanks Rachel and Arun!) but if you've gotten a job in industry, academia (R1, PUI, whatever!) in the last 5 years or so, please consider submitting your job app materials to help other folks! github.com/RILAB/statem...

GitHub - RILAB/statements: Successful Job Applications and Grants

Successful Job Applications and Grants. Contribute to RILAB/statements development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Non-coding DNA dictates cell size and impairs fitness by sequestering RNA polymerase https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737727v1

Our paper is out! 📣 we find that molecular measures of genetic variation do not predict heritable genetic variation across species - important implications for the application of genomic data for conservation! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential | PNAS

The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...

pnas.org

New book "A Primer for Experimental Evolution" with coauthors Michael Rose, Margarida Matos, and Joe Graves. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook... A compact primer for students and colleagues interested in planning and designing experiments to address questions in evolutionary biology.

Inference of fitness landscapes with heterogeneous patterns of epistasis across sites https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.25.734428v1

Y'all - the Smithsonian is hiring three new curators - herpetology, ichthyology, and ornithology! Notably, this is a 2nd fish curator position - i.e., not the same as the one advertised last month. So if you applied for that one apply again. www.usajobs.gov/job/873849000

Kalapis, @balazs-papp-lab.bsky.social et al. show that evolutionary recovery from gene loss can rapidly produce preadaptations to future environments in the absence of direct selection. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag143 #evobio #molbio

Gene loss and compensatory evolution as a source of metabolic preadaptations

Abstract. Gene loss is common, yet whether it is merely an evolutionary dead-end or can promote future adaptation to new environments remains debated. Here

doi.org

My editorial in this week’s Science @aaas.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪

The enduring pursuit of science in America

Imagine an American organization that convenes scientific experts not to advance any ideology or interest but to provide the nation with a clear understanding of complex problems. Imagine this body wo...

science.org

Paris et al. assemble a 1.76 Mb genome for the European lobster, leveraging it to identify lobster-specific gene duplications with roles in immunity and longevity, including telomere maintenance. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag138 #genome #evolution

Hey guys, if you like science and history check out my new video! I worked hard on it 🥺 youtu.be/SsI7M4NNpEg?...

DARWINIANA | How Science and Religion Killed Creationism

YouTube video by Gutsick Gibbon

youtu.be

1/2 🚨 New commentary in @pnas.org "Maynard Smith’s protein-space analogy, realized" Here, we invoke Maynard Smith's protein space to discuss a study proposing that evolution has explored a tiny fraction of functional protein sequences, chiefly b/c of common ancestry: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Excited to see @jonj-udd.bsky.social's fantastic work out @genetics-gsa.bsky.social. Selection in _heterozygotes_ is the primary force shaping allele frequencies of loss-of-function mutations in humans, even in genes only associated with purely recessive diseases. 🧪🧬 doi.org/10.1093/gene...

Allele Frequencies at Recessive Disease Genes are Mainly Determined by Pleiotropic Effects in Heterozygotes

Abstract. The classic theory of mutation-selection balance predicts the equilibrium frequency of genetic variation under negative selection. The model pred

doi.org

How do species differ in their ability to #adapt to environmental change? This study by Lillith Zijmers, Adam Eyre-Walker &co estimates #evolvability from over 170 multicellular species, revealing that #plants exhibit greater adaptive potential than animals. 🧪#AcademicSky plos.io/4vk2TON