Using the largest available species-level insect phylogenies and all available trait data, @sachi1n.bsky.social sky.social and I estimated the number of independent transitions to eusociality and the transition rate in haplodiploid vs. diploid lineages. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 9/10

Heard of the haplodiploid hypothesis (=¾ relatedness hypothesis)? It’s long been a staple of biology textbooks – you may’ve run into it in Intro Biology, Genetics, Evolution, or Behavior. It’s also been very influential on social evolution theory, yet surprisingly, it long remained untested.🧵

🚀 Thrilled to share our first metaSPLiT preprint from @annabiosys.bsky.social's lab in collaboration with @gibbological.bsky.social! Explore hidden bacterial phenotypic heterogeneity in the human gut microbiome and discover the concept of "physiological guilds": www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Phenotypic heterogeneity in the human gut microbiome revealed by subspecies-resolution single-cell transcriptomics

Most of our knowledge about bacterial functional roles in microbiomes comes from bulk measurements. Yet microbial communities are complex ecosystems in which functionally distinct bacterial subpopulat...

biorxiv.org

Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980 Please share! 🦠🤓

Excited to announce a new preprint out now. Myself and Laurie Balstad led a group of predominantly early career theoreticians (along with Marissa Baskett and Mikaela Provost) to compile a set of guiding principles for data-model integration in theoretical ecology.

10 simple rules for data-model integration in theoretical ecology

Theoretical ecologists have long leveraged empirical data in various forms to advance ecology. Recently increased volumes and access to ecological data present an expanding set of opportunities for th...

arxiv.org

Happy to announce that a new opinion paper of our group just came out: A conceptual framework to dissect emergent functions in microbial communities with @swagatika.bsky.social @sharvari27.bsky.social @anjanaprasad.bsky.social @palshubharthi.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A conceptual framework to dissect emergent functions in microbial communities

Microbial communities play vital roles in diverse ecosystems and are key drivers of numerous industrial or health-related applications. In many cases,…

sciencedirect.com

Applications are open for the 2027 Smith Conservation Research Fellowship! This postdoc supports early-career scientists advancing innovative, applied conservation research across the U.S. & territories. conbio.org/publications/scb-news-blog/smith-fellows-2027-call-for-proposals-announced

Here's a chance to support an inspiring Indigenous-led agroforestry project in the Amazon : ) maearth.com/meli-bees/ag...

Indigenous agroforestry in Alto Solimões, Amazonas

I started Meli (Meli Bees Network, non-profit recognized by the German government) after growing up in some of the most deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon, the Arc of Deforestation,...

maearth.com

Proposed terminology for referring to the homes of #symbionts within their ( #insect ) hosts " #Symbiotic organs in #insects: diversity, functional implications, and terminology " w/ @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social and co., not in bsky doi.org/10.1098/rstb... #SymbioSky

Symbiotic organs in insects: diversity, functional implications, and terminology

Abstract. With over a million described species, insects represent the most successful group of animals on Earth. One of the drivers of insect diversity is

doi.org

really lovely piece of work from @raufs.bsky.social et al., Complex multicellularity is linked with expanded specialized metabolite production in microorganisms www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Complex multicellularity is linked with expanded specialized metabolite production in microorganisms - Nature Microbiology

The evolutionary emergence of complex multicellularity in bacteria and fungi, such as the ability for mycelial growth, is strongly associated with increased genomic carriage of biosynthetic machinery ...

nature.com

New preprint from our lab Statistical learning of bacterial growth in combinatorially constructed environments, led by brilliant PhD student Andrea Arrabal. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We systematically study nutrient-nutrient interactions in bacterial growth under carbon-limiting conditions.

We are very excited to share our latest. We thought that soft sweeps would be the only type of sweep spreading across human gut microbiomes. Turns out many are hard! Reach @peterlaurin.bsky.social 's thread on why! And tomorrow at #SMBE2026 I will share this work and more!

Peter Laurin@peterlaurin.bsky.social · last mo.

Super excited to share new work with my advisor @nanditagarud.bsky.social! We re-examine the rapidity of adaptation in the human gut microbiome and begin to characterize the adaptive architecture of selective sweeps spreading across human guts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10... 1/n:

Interested in wildlife microbiomes? Check out the latest @microbiomevif.bsky.social podcast episode, where @elinvidevall.bsky.social explains how the #microbiome influences health and survival in wild animal populations, and why microbes matter for #wildlife conservation efforts! 🧪🦒🦌

Microbiome Virtual International Forum@microbiomevif.bsky.social · last mo.

#MVIFconversations podcast episode 6 with @elinvidevall.bsky.social is OUT! ▶️ Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/39MK... ▶️ Amazon music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/81c... ▶️ Apple Music: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... ▶️ YouTube podcast: youtu.be/_wQ4AxWoPTc 1/2

Bonus content for the #WorldMicrobiomeDay 🌐🦠 We asked microbiome researchers about the impact of Artificial intelligence on their research. Here's what they had to say: rdcu.be/fqEkp #MicrobiomeSky #MicroSky

Voices of microbiome researchers in an artificial intelligence era

Nature Microbiology - Nature Microbiology asked members of the Global Grants for Gut Health Colloquium about the impact artificial intelligence is having on their microbiome research.

rdcu.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/...

New Perspective out co-led with Lisa Pagani! We look at how microbiome ecology and evolution shape AMR across scales, from within-host communities to hospitals and environments, and how mathematical models can help us understand them. @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Modelling the role of the microbiome in antimicrobial resistance across scales - Nature Microbiology

The microbiome plays a significant yet underexplored role in antimicrobial resistance by influencing ecological and evolutionary processes. This Perspective proposes a framework to integrate microbiom...

nature.com

New preprint from the lab, led by PhD student Leopold Preuß, with @marta-tischer.bsky.social, @cblei.bsky.social, and others. We show genomic evidence for #Wolbachia being an overlooked nutritional symbiont in solitary #bees. #SymbioSky https://tinyurl.com/3wzt27hy Short thread: (1/8)

Our paper on the evolution of cellular miniaturization is now out in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... A short recap 🧵

Marco Fumasoni@marcofumasoni.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🗞️ New preprint from the lab, led by our postdoc Ana Garoña (not on here) in collab with @andreagiometto.bsky.social: “Experimental evolution of cellular miniaturization reveals a mechanism for cell size evolution”, aka: “honey, we shrank the yeasts!” 🎥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I'm hiring a #postdoc!! 🥳 Official ad is making its way through HR but If you have interests in statistical methodology OR microbial bioinformatics, please reach out via my UW email. I'll share the description with you when it's available. 🔥😻

🚨 Registration for VEGA26 is 👏 officially open 👏 🚨 The 5th edition of our Viral EcoGenomics and Applications symposium will be held November 18-19, 2026, on the UC Berkeley campus 🧬 🦠 🔬 🧫 Event website ➡️ jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us... Registration link ➡️ cvent.me/e0RnA0

I will be in Cleveland for #Evol2026 in 2 weeks so feel free to chat with me if you will be in attendance! 🐠

Emily Troyer@fishfetisher.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I am recruiting PhD students for my new lab housed in the Sam Noble Museum at University of Oklahoma! If you are interested in fish macroevolution, geometric morphometrics, specimen-based research & phylogenomics please reach out. More info here: fishdiversitylab.weebly.com Please share widely!!!

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Very cool results! I do wonder how the "queen cell as gatekeeper" model fits with the fact that queens can be reared successfully in artificial systems in the lab. Could the queen cell be contributory rather than essential?

Queen cell architecture shapes honey bee queen development - Nature

Worker bee construction behaviour actively engineers a physicochemical niche that is crucial for queen development in honey bees.

nature.com

A question to bacteriology/phage friends 🦠 Can anyone point me to a paper showing plaques forming in E. coli that are spotted after co-incubation with a conjugative donor (e.g., after mating using a conjugation helper)? Any help will be most appreciated 🙂 #phage

Reminder — UW #Microbiology has an open search for an Assistant Professor, focusing on fundamental problems in #bacteriology! If you or someone you know would be suitable, here's the ad: apply.interfolio.com/185622

Big news: I’ll be joining the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in January 2027! 🎉 My lab will study plant microbiomes, fungal ecology & restoration. Recruiting graduate students for Fall 2027! Interested in joining the lab or collaborating? Let’s connect! BOOMER SOONER 🏈🍄🌱✨

Tropical Bee Assemblage Diversity Decreases With Elevation While Body Size Increases - Turley - 2026 - Biotropica - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Tropical Bee Assemblage Diversity Decreases With Elevation While Body Size Increases

Photos of bee specimens collected in the Colombian Andes across a nearly 3000 m elevational cline. They are arranged to illustrate both the decline in richness with elevation and the increase in comm...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature. Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

"A dead mouse in a honey bee nest is like a dead whale shark in the lobby of an apartment building" So glad the reviewers, and Insect Socio, didn't cut that line! Awesome work, and surprising results, led by Erica Maul @ericamaul.bsky.social

Insectes Sociaux@insectessociaux.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New research article! 📰 @ericamaul.bsky.social and @smithbeelab.bsky.social reveal that honey bees process dead mice inside their nests, rather than simply sealing them in propolis. 🐁 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s000... #SocialInsects #HoneyBees #SocialImmunity #Necrophagy #CollectiveBehavior

How do social networks become adaptive? From self-organisation and phase transitions to cultural learning, social networks are shaped by feedback between individual interactions and collective dynamics. Check my new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2027 is live! PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/MAGd4ohyPeoY... students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely! 🧪

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2027

Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2027 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

forms.gle