Congratulations to @dortizba.bsky.social on a new collaborative Tansley Review in @newphyt.bsky.social! Predictive evolutionary genomics: principles, validation, and practice doi.org/10.1111/nph....

bioRxiv/medRxiv have been dealing with endless bot attacks recently (plus usual DDOS stuff, etc). Tricky to address without impacting genuine users - many of you affected. Apologies. We're working with our hosting service on solutions & think we're getting there [he shouts in his Red Queen costume].

Oh boy - our new ancient DNA module is available for nf-core/mag! Robustly and reproducibly reconstruct ancient metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) using our new nf-core/mag tooling! doi.org/10.1371/jour...

If you are interested in learning computational population genetics and ancient genomics, I have curated my list of workshops and online tutorials (and will continue to do so) indicating suitability for self-learners and status. You find the list [here](www.stephanschiffels.de/resources.html).

Officially recruiting postdocs at GW. If you are interested in genetic novelty, structural variation, or evo genetics please get in touch! We have data sets on mulitple organisms with large population sizes (Drosophila, Megalonaias nervosa) and species in decline (fireflies, mussels, elephants).

We have been busy this July! The latest GetGenome newsletter is full of exciting highlights, and lots of amazing resources, available to everyone. You can access all the links and all our previous monthly newsletters here getgenome.net/network A huge thank you to everyone 🙏

A great time had by all exploring the history of science, in UCL's 200th year, at the Genetics Evolution & Environment summer retreat.

Congrats to my colleague @gemmamurray.bsky.social 🎉

UCL Faculty of Life Sciences@ucllifesciences.bsky.social · 4w ago

Congratulations to UCL’s Dr Gemma Murray on receiving a prestigious Wellcome Career Development Award, recognising her pioneering research into bacterial evolution and antimicrobial resistance. @ugiatucl.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

Very proud of this little contribution we have made to the field. Check out our latest @pnas.org paper on mitonuclear ageing

Stefano Bettinazzi@stefanobettinazzi.bsky.social · last mo.

How far do intergenomic compatibility shape ageing trajectories? 🦠🧬🪰 Our latest study in PNAS @pnas.org, explores this. Check it out! doi.org/10.1073/pnas... Thanks to an amazing team: @fcamus.bsky.social, @dk-dowling.bsky.social, Avi & Finley. #mitochondria #mitonuclear #ageing #diet #hormesis

Votes for the 2026 SMBE election have been counted, and we are happy to announce that Dmitri Petrov will be the next President-Elect of SMBE, with Esther Betran and Sohini Ramachandran as the new Councilors. They will join the Council in 2027, serving 3-year terms. Congratulations! #society

I am indeed here in sunny Copenhagen for #SMBE2026. Very happy to chat about science, publishing, @plosbiology.org and @plos.org in general...

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 2mo ago

If you're in Copenhagen for #SMBE2026, along with >1700 others, do keep an eye out for @plosbiology.org editor @roliroberts.bsky.social, who's very happy to talk about both science and publishing!

still figuring out what to attend at #SMBE2026 ? come check out our ancient plants session #aDNA #herbariomics #botany 🌾🌱🌻🌿🌸 🫛🧬

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#SMBE2026 L02: Ancient plant DNA in the genomic era 🗓️ Tue Jun 30, 1:20pm 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: Logan Kistler @tpinotti.bsky.social Benjamin Blackman Rafal Gutaker @plantricia.bsky.social @pnovik.bsky.social @hernanaburbano.bsky.social @natalia-asp.bsky.social @rucouwes.bsky.social

Truly bizarre story of how two papers from the 1940s by physics pioneer Max Planck have been "retracted" from Naturwissenschaften, potentially by an algorithm, for anachronistic "plagiarism" issues, leaving the current editor baffled (but it is Springer Nature so.... www.science.org/content/arti...

Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted?

Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame

science.org

For those interested in more sustainable (evolution) conferencing options like #NOFLYSMBE, consider the next @eseb.bsky.social meeting #eseb2027 which is a 4 city hub meeting aimed at allowing #nofly participation eseb2027.org #smbe2026 #Istanbul #London #Munich #Gothenburg

Marc Robinson-Rechavi@marcrr.ecoevo.social.ap.brid.gy · 5mo ago

Are you going to #SMBE2026 Copenhagen by train, or are you hesitating? Let's share experiences and give ideas to those who think to fly from Western or Central Europe with the hashtag #NoFlySMBE. If you're coming from 🇨🇭, there are night trains from Zürich or Basel to Hamburg. ✅🚆 ❌✈️

Great intro from @kguschan.bsky.social on the wonderful world of museomics at #ICP2026 @palaeogenomics.bsky.social. My poster is tonight if you want to come have a chat, stop by board 160 😁

New paper led by Célia Neto presenting a multiparent intercross population (and trait mapping) from Cape Verde Arabidopsis parents

Genetics Society of America@genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Latest in #GENETICS from @celianeto.bsky.social, @ahancock.bsky.social, and colleagues: A new panel of genetically diverse recombinant #Arabidopsis lines from the Cape Verde Islands uncovers genetic variants of adaptation that were difficult to map in this island population. 🌱 🏝️ 🔗 buff.ly/oOTp4hV

25 years at @maxplanck.de! (Really 40 years, if you count that I started my graduate studies exactly 40 years ago at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology under the guidance of my beloved mentor (and friend) Herbert Jäckle.)

#SMBE2026 Plenary Talk with @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social (University of California, Berkeley and Howard Hughes Medical Institute) 🗓️ Thu Jul 2, 9am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme

We are advertising a PhD studentship to study the effects of mitochondrial function on cell motility in flies. The project is supervised by myself, Nick Lane and @fcamus.bsky.social, in collaboration with Anna Franz at UCL, @stramerlab.bsky.social at KCL and Michael Sixt at ISTA. Please repost!

Minibwa is a hybrid of bwa-mem and minimap2 and the successor of bwa-mem for short-read mapping. ~4X/2.5X as fast as bwa-mem/bwa-mem2 for WGS reads at comparable accuracy. Native support of directional bisulfite-seq. Applicable to long reads. Preprint at arxiv.org/abs/2606.15357

We're excited to announce that we're recruiting for new academic posts in #AI for #Biodiversity Science, Future #Food Systems & #Health, #NeuroAI, Computational #Neuroscience, and #Cardiovascular/Metabolic Neuroscience. 📅 Apply by 10 July 2026. www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

Excited for #SMBE2026! Come and hear about our research on the evolution of competition-colonization trade-offs over centuries in plant pathogenic bacteria. Looking forward to the discussions! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Persistent trade-offs balance competition and colonization across centuries | PNAS

Microbial competition drives rapid adaptation, often forcing organisms to specialize in new ecological niches. Adaptations that improve competitive...

pnas.org

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#SMBE2026 L02: Ancient plant DNA in the genomic era 🗓️ Tue Jun 30, 1:20pm 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: Logan Kistler @tpinotti.bsky.social Benjamin Blackman Rafal Gutaker @plantricia.bsky.social @pnovik.bsky.social @hernanaburbano.bsky.social @natalia-asp.bsky.social @rucouwes.bsky.social

a small attempt to capture this enormous loss and what Greg meant and means to so many. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Gregory J. Hannon (1964–2026)

Gregory J. Hannon passed away in April 2026 at the age of 61. A towering figure in modern molecular biology, Greg influenced remarkably diverse areas of science. His work reshaped our understanding of...

cell.com

Our new collaborative work on UCL Biosciences News @ucllifesciences.bsky.social tinyurl.com/yt9kdeh2 with tkarasovlab.org #MicroSky #PhageSky

🔔 Our synthesis on what’s going on in the field of TE control and RIP in the fungal world! Out now in Trends in Genetics!

Thomas Badet@tbadet.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Nearly a year after our symposium on Repeat-Induced Point (RIP) mutations, I’m happy to share the fruit of some of our discussions. The fungal RIP hypermutator mechanism has deep eukaryotic roots www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We hope to spark interest in this underappreciated mechanism.

You saw them first on @bioRxiv. Now they’re out in print—back-to-back. Meet AVRcap1b: the two-faced immunosuppressor from the potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain protein TOL9a and an activated helper NLR to suppress immunity

A plant pathogen effector suppresses an activated helper NLR via a host ENTH domain–containing protein, NbTOL9a.

science.org

So proud to see this story finally out!🎉 We added new data since our previous preprint—transgenic barley plants with an engineered immune receptor that fights off two fungal pathogens at once. Short 🧵 and link to the original preprint thread on X👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor

Plants and animals respond to pathogen attack by mounting innate immune responses that require intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. These immune receptors detect pathog...

science.org

Peer-reviewed version of our study led by @aliceeseola.bsky.social first seen on @biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social showing the exquisite level of control of organelle trafficking & autophagy exerted during plant infection by the blast fungus. Thanks to all co-authors. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Synchronous spatiotemporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for infection by Magnaporthe oryzae

The blast fungus forms a force-generating appressorium for plant infection. Eseola et al. show how individual spore cells adopt distinct fates, trafficking organelles to the appressorium or undergoing...

cell.com

Published version @pnas.org of our collaborative work with Talia Karasov Lab (tkarasovlab.org) et al., 🧵👇 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @cloeucl.bsky.social @ugiatucl.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @uofubiology.bsky.social #microsky #phagesky

Hernán A. Burbano@hernanaburbano.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Our new collaborative work led by @taliamycota.bsky.social Jiajun Cui & Emma Caullireau between my lab @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @cloeucl.bsky.social & the Karasov Lab (tkarasovlab.org) @uofubiology.bsky.social and collaborators: @plantricia.bsky.social et al. tinyurl.com/5yx2wmz5 (1/n)

Well, it's finally official: I'll be starting as Assistant Professor at Arizona State University this Fall!!! I'm super stoked for the opportunity to build my research group and continue studying plant-insect interactions in the coolest ecosystem on Earth - the Sonoran Desert 🏜️