Job posting: Associate Professor in behavioral ecology and cultural evolution within the Department of Ecology and Evolution (DEE) at the University of Lausanne. Deadline for applications is 30.09.2026: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli... (there is a button to switch to English at the top right)

Bees, don't be bamboozled by this floral smell! European oil #beetle larvae synthesize floral scents to trick solitary #bees into becoming unwitting Uber drivers back to their nests - where the tiny hitchhikers then feast on bee eggs😱Fascinating study by @oconnorlab.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social

Oil beetle larvae smell like flowers to manipulate bees

The European oil beetle's parasitic larvae emit a floral scent that attracts wild bees. This allows the larvae to sneak into the bees' nests

mpg.de

In an article published today, we show that ancient feeding-related neuropeptides have been repurposed to control brood care in clonal raider ants. Photo: Bart Zijlstra, UNIL /1

Our lab is recruiting 🐜🧬 : - PhD student, functional genomics, Chinese nationals only - Postdocs, population genomics, open internationally Lab info and contact: lab-darras.github.io Based at Zhejiang University 🇨🇳, one of the very best research universities in the world (tinyurl.com/4nb56pv6).

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

One of my dream projects, ever since joining here in Basel, out now in @nature.com : single-cells 🤝 eco-morphological proxies rdcu.be/fiyso How cells and tissues adapt to dietary niches... Thanks and congrats to Antoine, Walter, and all the other co-authors for this great collaboration!! 🙏🥳

Adaptive cellular evolution in the intestine of hyperdiverse cichlid fishes

Nature - Single-cell transcriptomics combined with morphological and ecological data show that the rapid evolutionary radiation of cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika was accompanied by dietary...

rdcu.be

For 40 years the 8-nt ‘Kozak Sequence’ was thought to mark sites of translation initiation. In a new study, we revise this model by identifying an ~80-nt sequence—the extended Translation Initiation Sequence (eTIS)— that guides ribosomes to correct start sites. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Did you know that many organisms delete parts of their genome during development? To know more please join us at the Roscoff meeting on "Mechanistic and Evolutionary Basis of Programmed DNA Elimination" Sep21- 25, 2026. Please share!
cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...

🐜 "Ant larvae release a pheromone that prevents their parents from reproducing again. This ensures that the parents devote themselves fully to their offspring's development before laying more eggs." 🤩

Yuko Ulrich@yukoulrich.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🎉New paper out from the lab, led by @baptistepiqueret.bsky.social: ant larvae chemically suppress the reproduction of their caregivers. bit.ly/4t8uZLG An example of how social interactions are regulated at the molecular level. The work was made possible by the unique environment @mpi-ce.bsky.social

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders? In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

🌺 PhD position in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology! 🌺 There is about two weeks left to apply to come work with me on the evolution of plant reproductive strategies at @unifr.bsky.social ! Contact me or visit here or for more info: tinyurl.com/monoecy Please share! 🌱

Thomas Lesaffre 🌱@thomaslesaffre.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 PhD position available ! 🚨 I am hiring a PhD student to work with me on the evolution of plant sexual systems 🌺 at @unifrbiology.bsky.social ! The position is funded for 4 years by @snsf.ch as part of my Ambizione fellowship. More info here: tinyurl.com/monoecy 🌱 Please RP and share widely ! 🌱

Ant folks 🐜🐜🐜, we are looking for colonies of Linepithema iniquum in Europe. They were reported from the Wales Botanic Garden a few years ago. Are you aware of any other indoor populations?

Have you ever wondered 🤔... Does phenotypic variance respond to environmental perturbation? Does it have a genetic basis? Are mean and variance regulating loci exposed to different selection pressures? These and more questions are explored in our new preprint 🔥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our most recent work on the “function and evolution” of #nuclear-speckles is now online at Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... Read the thread👇 for the highlights of our findings.

New Perspective!🔥It's fascinating how scientists from different fields but interested in the same question [e.g. genotype-phenoytpe relationship] can have such different perspectives. Here we put in our 2 cents wrt genetic effects being context-dependent, and pheno variation being mostly polygenic

Beyond Mendel: a call to revisit the genotype–phenotype map through new experimental paradigms

Abstract. The long-standing notion that genotypes map to phenotypes through simple one gene–one trait relationships continues to shape both research in the

academic.oup.com

For starters, there's not "one weird trick to ditch your X." There are multiple paths to sex determination turnover. To read more about it, including what genes were gained or lost and how the genome looks in X chromosome scales, check out our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 6/n

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

science.org

🚨Hiring a postdoc! Are you interested in #evolutionarygenomics, #sexchromosomes, #transposableelements & #Sexspecific #recombination in 🐸🧬? Join my lab @vubrussel.bsky.social 🔹 @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social funded up to 3y 🔹 Deadline 10/3/2026 🔹 Start ~1/6/2026 Apply 👉: jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-P...

For once an article about the "how to get to Rome" and not "Rome" itself. Collaboration with my "partner-in-crime" @felibas.bsky.social has been a key ingredient of my research over the years. Sara Miller at Molecular Cell spoke with us of how we got there and what we think about collaborations.

Molecular Cell@cp-molcell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Fun fuels collaboration

A sex-determining gene region in ants, bees, and wasps has maintained its function for over 150 million years through its chromosomal position rather than its DNA sequence, as evidenced by the lack of sequence homology among lineages. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/n9eU50XWipU

🐜 4-year #postdoc position in the @socialfluids.bsky.social lab @camzoology.bsky.social investigating metabolic cooperation between bodies in a BBSRC-funded project. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc... #ants #socialtransfers #sociallytransferredmaterials #autophagy #socialinsects #aging #job (🧵1/n)

Great new paper! Many stinging wasps, bees, and ants have controlled the sex of their developing eggs for millions of year using an ancient segment of their genome- always the same segment- but what's weird is, *the exact DNA sequence of that segment doesn't seem to matter*.

Hugo Darras@hugodarras.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New work from @miyapan.bsky.social and our team, bringing ant, bee, and wasp labs together. @chuanxinyu.bsky.social shows that the ANTSR locus we discovered in ants has determined sex for 150+ My across bees and stinging wasps 🐜🐝, despite virtually no sequence conservation 😮 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

🚨New paper from our team on our favorite sex locus ANTSR! 🚨New collaboration with @hugodarras.bsky.social , led by our talented @chuanxinyu.bsky.social, we show that ants, bees and stinging wasps share an ancient sex locus, a suspicion we had when we first found the locus in the Argentine ants!

Hugo Darras@hugodarras.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New work from @miyapan.bsky.social and our team, bringing ant, bee, and wasp labs together. @chuanxinyu.bsky.social shows that the ANTSR locus we discovered in ants has determined sex for 150+ My across bees and stinging wasps 🐜🐝, despite virtually no sequence conservation 😮 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Apply for a PhD position in the Pan lab @miyapan.bsky.social at MPI Biology 🇩🇪 to study the molecular mechanisms and evolution of sex determination in haplodiploid insects 🐜🐝.

🚨Interested in selfish elements🧬? non-canonical patterns of inheritance🧬? Then don't miss out on this EMBO workshop in Bern! Amazing lineup of speakers, covering evolution, genomics, molecular mechanisms, and more! Deadline extended! Travel grants and registration fee waivers still available!

Luca Soldini@lucasoldini.bsky.social · 9mo ago

[Please RT] (1/3) Deadline extended to the end of the year for the EMBO workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies. Held in Bern, Switzerland, from 8 to 11 February 2026. meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel... #EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents

One week left to submit abstracts for the EMBO workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies! In Bern (Switzerland), from 8 to 11 February 2026. meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel... #EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents

🎉 Our deconstructed, stem-cell–based approach to studying signaling centers and limb-development cell types is out! 🥳 So nice to see it in its final form after the preprint— and huge thanks to the community for all the enthusiasm and interest since then! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Specialized signaling centers direct cell fate and spatial organization in a mesodermal organoid model

Stem cell–derived mesodermal organoids reveal how signaling centers guide cell fate and tissue organization.

science.org

Excited to share that I’m starting a research group at MPI for Biology Tübingen — and we’re recruiting PhD students! We are offering two fully funded PhD positions on sex determination and development in Hymenoptera 🐜🐝. Please share with prospective students who might be interested.

MPI for Biology Tübingen & Friedrich Miescher Laboratory@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🚀 Ready to explore life science research at the highest level? Then apply for a fully-funded biology #PhD position at the Max Planck Institute for Biology @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social and Friedrich Miescher Laboratory! Find out about the projects you could be working on: www.phd.tuebingen.mpg.de #IMPRS

How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery? Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore. 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1

***Super cool-project alert***⚠️ Come work with @dirkmetzler.bsky.social and me in trying to understand how transcriptional noise evolves in a phylogenetic context 🧬 Deadline 15th Dec 2025 (Project funded by @dfg.de @gevol.bsky.social)

Dirk Metzler@dirkmetzler.bsky.social · 9mo ago

PhD position available for theoretical and statistical modeling in my joint @gevol.bsky.social project with @luisapallares.bsky.social on the evolution of transcriptional variability and its role in adaptation and evolutionary innovation. See job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/6...