Published!. A great read after the holidays. Genomic contingence beneath ecological convergence: the tempo and mode of gene loss in parasitic bilaterians academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

Genomic contingence beneath ecological convergence: the tempo and mode of gene loss in parasitic bilaterians

Abstract. Parasitism has independently evolved hundreds of times among metazoans. Nonetheless, parasites have explored only a limited range of ecologies, a

academic.oup.com

Rough nature. Lanzarote.

Done.

Unusually hot & dry conditions worldwide have fueled a deadly wildfire season, costing lives and destroying communities. “If these infernos don’t bring policymakers to their senses and force necessary changes to grapple with the fossil fueled climate crisis, what will?” writes UCS's Rachel Cleetus:

A World Ablaze: The Climate Future We Feared is Here - Union of Concerned Scientists

Unusually hot, dry conditions across many parts of the world—including in Algeria, Canada, France, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, and the western United States—have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfire season underway now. Just over this weekend, rapidly spreading wildfires have exploded around Spokane, Washington, forcing nearly 65,000 people to evacuate thus far. Unrelenting hot dry weather, supercharged by climate change, is contributing to the dangerous conditions causing these fires.

blog.ucs.org

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nearly a decade after starting the project, the first major results from our comparative connectomics work is online! Comparing the head direction circuits of the central complex in bees, ants and flies, recapitulating >300million years of evolution.

(Nothing new, but worth paying attention to) "Causality and Comparative Genomics/Transcriptomics" thenode.biologists.com/causality-an...

Just 26 years before the present spanish funding ‘complains’ 🤔 www.nature.com/articles/350...

Earlier papers: MBE (2013): lnkd.in/dhQr_Kni GBE (2025): lnkd.in/dPVryV9z American Naturalist (2026): lnkd.in/dkhdnHn2

**7/7** Many thanks to co-corresponding author Alexander Clarke and our fantastic international team (including @pedromartinezserra.bsky.social and to the Trond Mohn Research Foundation for supporting this work. 📄 New paper: lnkd.in/dRnuX-we #Evolution #Genomics #MicroRNA #Parasitology

**1/7** 🔥 New paper out in Evolution! How predictable is genome evolution? Over the past decade, my work has explored both directions of evolution: the rise of biological complexity and the genomic simplification that accompanies parasitism. lnkd.in/dRnuX-we 🧵👇

New, interesting, analysis of animal complexity. Lead by @frommlab.bsky.social and Kevin Peterson. Genomic Contingence Beneath Ecological Convergence: The Tempo and Mode of Gene Loss in Parasitic Bilaterians academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

Genomic Contingence Beneath Ecological Convergence: The Tempo and Mode of Gene Loss in Parasitic Bilaterians

Abstract. Parasitism has independently evolved hundreds of times among metazoans. Nonetheless, parasites have explored only a limited range of ecologies, a

academic.oup.com

Hay que decir que parece que la @ageinves.bsky.social se haya propuesto acabar con la ciencia española a base de sepultarla en burocracia (informe final proyecto como puntilla). Celebro que esta sea la última:con ella salgo del sistema científico español para dedicarme a un retiro más que merecido 😅

We're very excited to announce the official launch of the Journal of Regeneration. Together with the amazing team from @pensoft.net and my two co-EICs Loriano Ballarin and Buki Rinkevich, it is such a pleasure to share this new platform for bringing together the regeneration biology community.

Journal of Regeneration

 Journal of Regeneration is an international peer-reviewed, Open Access journal aiming to provide a platform for the dissemination of research results on regeneration and tissue repair across phy...

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HELP? Trying to get original, untrimmed alignments from this paper. Have looked very hard. Anyone able to help?? Philippe et al. Multigene analyses of bilaterian animals corroborate the monophyly of Ecdysozoa, Lophotrochozoa, and Protostomia Mol Biol Evol. 2005 May;22(5):1246-53.

🧬 Explore the world of microRNAs! Join our online course (6–9 Oct) with @frommlab.bsky.social and learn about small RNA-seq analysis, microRNA annotation, and curation using real datasets and best-practice workflows. From raw reads to validated microRNA candidates! #Bioinformatics #Genomics #RNAseq

An interesting reflection (irrespective of Davidson’s role) www.openaccessgovernment.org/ebook/histor...

History of Science: Why is it important?

“The study of scientific history is vital for modern research, revealing that breakthroughs often stem from continuity rather than isolated revolutions”

openaccessgovernment.org

Any organizations still on X are colluding with violence. No excuses.

Here we are. Old friends in Vienna. Echinoderms in the background. The science for tomorrow 🤫 (with Alison Cole and Roger Revilla)

0/ 💡💡💡Had one of those slightly weird moments reading something today. Two seemingly very different research traditions—starting from opposite directions—appear to be converging on almost the same conclusion about one of biology’s biggest questions: How do genomes generate phenotypes? 👇🧵

We are recruiting 2 PhD students @ the University of Bologna to study neuron evolution in mosquitoes and non-bilaterian animals using single-cell genomics, evo-devo and computational biology. Plus, Bologna is hard to beat scientifically and gastronomically. More info: www.unibo.it/en/study/phd...

Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences - University of Bologna

unibo.it

Like my previous stay in Tromsø, these last three months have been a real pleasure.There was lots of work (thanks to @frommlab.bsky.social 😅), but most of it had a happy ending. What more could you ask for? I will miss the Museum, Tromsø, and the Arctic.It is time to say goodbye to the micro-Palace

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) 1963 PARP 1970 RNA Pol II 1975 Nucleosome 1977 Split genes 1980 Promoter 1983 enhancer 1986 Nuclear receptor

#RIP Pierre Chambon (1931-2026) via @alainberetz.bsky.social one of the last giants in biology: PARP, nuclear receptors, RNA Pol II, nucleosome, promoters, split genes

Finally, in print!! Thorough. @biologiaub.bsky.social and @icreacommunity.bsky.social "Exploring the Genotype-to-Phenotype Map Using Quantifiable Patterns in Metazoan Genomic and Morphological Data" | The American Naturalist: Vol 207, No 5 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

"We find that while TAD boundaries pair more frequently than non-boundary regions, these interactions are infrequent and are uncorrelated with transcriptional activity of genes within the TAD" elifesciences.org/articles/110...

TAD boundaries and gene activity are uncoupled

Single-cell analysis fails to find a functional link between the organization of chromatin domain organization and gene activity.

elifesciences.org

There are plans that, once approved, suddenly become a bit overwhelming. We started working on a book (with Volker Hartenstein; UCLA) on the "Neurobiology of Invertebrates", which will incorporate historical developments and the changing classificatory schemes in which most clades have been included

🔥 New Paper out 🔥 How do genomes give rise to the diversity of life we see around us? #EvolutionaryBiology #Genomics #EvoDevo #microRNA #Evolution #SystemsBiology www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Take-home: evolution of animal form is about how gene regulatory systems are organized and deployed—not gene number. Great collaboration with Kevin J. Peterson, Alexander Clarke, @zolotarg.bsky.social, Bradley Deline & @pedromartinezserra.bsky.social. Thanks to Trond Mohn Research Foundation & UiT.

Still about 2 weeks to apply (April 7) for the joint Master program on "Evolutionary Genomics and Systems Biology" in Vienna. studieren.univie.ac.at/en/admission... Cool program with hands-on experience taught by leading scientists in PopGen, EvoDevo, Evolutionary Systems Biology. Spread it!

Hard to concentrate on microRNAs in these conditions.😀