When organisms colonize new environments, they can experience release from previous parasites. Bolnick et al. use an experiment to track how this release leads to large fluctuations in infection rates, as well as immune evolution. Read now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

García-Elfring, Paccard & Barrett find that freshwater-associated differentiation in Atlantic Canadian stickleback occurs across contrasting demographic contexts and suggest a role for neurological and behavioral pathways in adaptation @biomcgill.bsky.social 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag083 #genome

Genomic Patterns of Parallel Divergence Across Demographically Heterogeneous Stickleback Populations in Eastern Canada

Abstract. The threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a key model in evolutionary genetics, particularly for studies of parallel evolution, yet

doi.org

New preprint! Untargeted metabolomics via LC-MS/MS is a powerful tool to characterize molecular phenotypes. We show that the #stickleback liver metabolome varies between lake populations in coastal Alaska, and.... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... /t

#Viewpoint: Using herbarium collections to study genetic responses to global change Eckert et al 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue #PlantScience @lucaseckert.bsky.social @cameronso.bsky.social

Published today alongside Kew's State of the World's Plants & Fungi report, 'Harnessing the benefits of specimen digitisation', explores how digitised specimens are changing how we study plants and fungi. Antonelli, et al. introduce the Collection: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Pressed plant specimens collected centuries ago and stored in herbaria around the world could play a key role in facilitating the tracking of genetic change and extinction risk in plants, a McGill University-led study indicates. Learn more ➡️ mcgill.ca/x/5eB

Congrats @sarahsanderson.bsky.social for receiving the Louis Bernatchez Memorial Prize for the best student-led paper in @evolappjournal.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Louis Bernatchez was a visionary scientist and a fantastic colleague. I miss him. @csee-scee.bsky.social

I feel very honoured to receive this award. Louis Bernatchez’s work has been really influential for me, so this means a lot. Huge thanks to @lucaseckert.bsky.social, @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social, Rowan Barrett, and Tom Reimchen!

Evolutionary Applications@evolappjournal.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We're delighted to announce Sarah Sanderson (McGill University) as the winner of the 2025 Louis Bernatchez Memorial Prize for the best student-led paper in Evolutionary Applications! Congratulations, @sarahsanderson.bsky.social 🎉🎉🎉

We're delighted to announce Sarah Sanderson (McGill University) as the winner of the 2025 Louis Bernatchez Memorial Prize for the best student-led paper in Evolutionary Applications! Congratulations, @sarahsanderson.bsky.social 🎉🎉🎉

New TREE paper led by Jana Nickel on 'Hitchhiking of deleterious mutations within chromosomal inversions' doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... Broadly, if inversions are linked to an adaptive trait, homokaryotypes are at high frequency, and purging can reduce deleterious mutation load.....

Correlates of Post-Introduction Displacement in a Conservation Translocation of Threespine Stickleback. Freshwater Biology71, no. 4: e70214. doi.org/10.1111/fwb.....

Correlates of Post‐Introduction Displacement in a Conservation Translocation of Threespine Stickleback

Predicting the distance between an individual's release point into a new environment and their subsequent location (‘displacement’) could be useful during biological ‘introduction’ events (e.g., i...

doi.org

Herbarium collections for the win. Maybe not the time to be dismantling your collections, @duke-university.bsky.social ?

Lucas Eckert@lucaseckert.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How useful can #herbarium collections be for genetic monitoring? 🌿 We show that Earth’s currently digitized herbarium specimens can be clustered into HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of historical “populations” suitable for population genetic studies 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/bios... 🧵

How useful can #herbarium collections be for genetic monitoring? 🌿 We show that Earth’s currently digitized herbarium specimens can be clustered into HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of historical “populations” suitable for population genetic studies 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/bios... 🧵

The utility of herbarium collections for genetic monitoring

Abstract. Despite growing evidence of widespread genetic responses to anthropogenic activity, data shortfalls constrain genetic monitoring efforts and prec

doi.org

Second preprint from my PhD! Using our whole lake transplant experiment in Alaska 🏔️ we test for assortative mating following secondary contact among divergent stickleback populations 🐟 and found the opposite of what we expected… 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ecological speciation models suggest that genetic ecol differences between populations generate reproductive isolation on secondary contact. This is rarely tested experimentally in fully natural settings. @lucaseckert.bsky.social does this in a new preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/N

a man wearing glasses and a bow tie has the words you might be surprised on his face

ALT: a man wearing glasses and a bow tie has the words you might be surprised on his face

media.tenor.com

What happens *after* enemy release? In a new paper, we present 7 years of infection & immune trait dynamics in 16 lake populations of stickleback. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... This is definitely the longest-scale study I've done in my career, I'm very excited to see it out. 1/6

A very cool study of infection-immunity dynamics coming from our whole-lake stickleback transplant experiment – check it out!

Daniel Bolnick@danielbolnick.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What happens *after* enemy release? In a new paper, we present 7 years of infection & immune trait dynamics in 16 lake populations of stickleback. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... This is definitely the longest-scale study I've done in my career, I'm very excited to see it out. 1/6

Happy to share this paper with @samyeaman.bsky.social, now published in Molecular Biology and Evolution! Using replicated hybrid zones, we explored patterns of local adaptation and introgression in spruce and found strong signals even at very fine geographical scales! doi.org/10.1093/molb...

Replicated hybrid zones reveal genomic patterns of local adaptation and introgression in spruce

Abstract. Hybridization between species can occur along repeated zones of contact, providing a natural laboratory for studying the interplay between migrat

doi.org

Haines et al. show rapid evolution of defensive spines in two lake populations of threespine stickleback in Parc national du Lac-Témiscouata, QC, following stocking of brook trout. Read now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

First preprint from my PhD! Check out Dan’s summary ⬇️

Daniel Bolnick@danielbolnick.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New preprint from our big collaborative evolution experiment in 9 whole lakes in Alaska, written by McGill grad student @lucaseckert.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... What happens if you put a mixture of multiple source populations together to complete & evolve in multiple new lakes?

A drought nearly wiped out a protected population of unarmoured stickleback. Their numbers recovered, but their defining trait didn't: unarmoured fish went from 51% to ~15%. Conservation must protect the traits that make populations unique, not just their existence 🐟 doi.org/10.1111/eva.70189

Cool study on cool fish from a very cool place!

Andrew Hendry@ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social · 7mo ago

When a population protected due to its unique traits evolves to be less unique. Check out our new paper led by Sarah Sanderson. "Contemporary Evolution of an At-Risk Stickleback Population During a Severe Drought" in Evol. Appl. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Check out our new paper with @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social @lucaseckert.bsky.social, Rowan Barrett, and Tom Reimchen. After a severe drought, a listed population of unarmoured stickleback became mostly armoured. onlinelibrary-wiley-com.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/doi/10.1111/...

I am excited to be teaching a new course about rapid evolution in the Anthropocene at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre this summer with @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social. Registration for undergrads will open soon at : bamfieldmsc.com/education/pr...

New course to be taught this summer at Bamfield Marine Science Center by Andrew Hendry and collaborators (e.g., me), on rapid evolution in the anthropocene: bamfieldmsc.com/education/pr... with a focus on both marine & freshwater stickleback, intertidal organisms, & more

Got some new stuff out with @sarahsanderson.bsky.social @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social and Rosalie Morin-Nadeau 🐟 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Evolution of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) defensive traits following the stocking of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No ja

journals.uchicago.edu

This is a fantastic new preprint, one of the first papers from our replicated whole lake experimental evolution study with stickleback. alaskastickleback.com

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Experimental rewilding of stickleback drives phenotypic shifts that oppose long-term evolutionary trajectories in Daphnia in Alaskan lakes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.15.682675v1

Submissions page for #stickleback collection "Celebrating three decades of stickleback research in the Canadian Journal of Zoology" is up! Deadline is March 30, 2026 🐟 cdnsciencepub.com/topic/cjz-st...

Work led by Marius Roesti, "A species interaction kick-starts ecological speciation in allopatry" now published - Varying degrees of divergence associated with presence/absence of a single interacting species predicts strength of prezygotic RI in freshwater stickleback www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A species interaction kick-starts ecological speciation in allopatry | PNAS

Adaptation to different environments is thought to play a key role in speciation. However, speciation typically begins in allopatry, where reproduc...

pnas.org

Please share broadly: I am looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on a collaborative project on the temporal population genomics of invasive Capeweed (using contemporary and herbarium genomics), with ‪‪@shaky-dingo.bsky.social‬ and colleagues