bug is out of the rug, I got commissioned by @theguardian.com to #SciArt illustrate this year's goobies for #InvertebrateOfTheYear there are some really good ones stay tuned! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Revealed: the top 10 invertebrates of the year

At last! It’s time for our invertebrate of the year competition as voted for by you. Today, the common woodlouse – come back on Tuesday to find out who else made the top 10

theguardian.com

Petra Korlević@petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 6d ago

something exciting coming your way on Monday #BugSky

I have only drawn a handful of dry and wet isopods over the last few #Invertober years, but they are good goobies

It’s almost as if for-profit companies are not a reliable partner in developing long term scientific innovation for public good.

Very excited to see the first chapter of my PhD out on bioRxiv! It began as a rotation project and became a pivotal part of my PhD on beetles, adding a complementary macroevolutionary perspective to my second chapter on early-stage speciation in Indonesian herbivorous ladybird beetles.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 2w ago

338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.17.739156v1

New preprint: 338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders. Big congrats to @arf-mln.bsky.social, for getting this giant piece together. Big collaboration of @joanameier.bsky.social's and my groups. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Huzzah! Today begins the Big Butterfly Count, a huge effort to collect data by @savebutterflies.bsky.social. Need help understanding why study butterflies? I interviewed @charlottewright.bsky.social co-lead of @projectpsyche.bsky.social and learned heaps. sangerinstitute.blog/2025/12/11/f...

Five questions on butterfly and moth genomics with Charlotte Wright - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog

Drawn to genomics like a moth to a flame, Wellcome Sanger Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Charlotte Wright, shares with us how she uses genomics to shed light on the evolutionary history of butterfl...

sangerinstitute.blog

Parasitic worms are a big deal, but their genomes have been tricky to study 🪱. New technologies now let us generate high-quality genomes from individual worms, opening the door to a new era of parasite genomics. Steve Doyle (@stephenrdoyle.bsky.social) and I discuss what this means for the field 👇

Trends in Parasitology@cp-trendsparasitol.bsky.social · 4w ago

Sequencing parasite genomes, one worm at a time

I can't resist sharing this wonderfully wormy blog about helminths of all sorts. My all-time favourite course in undergrad was one term of parisitology - so gross but so cool. 💩 Featuring @phylewgenetics.bsky.social and @stephenrdoyle.bsky.social 's research group this was well worth a read!

Wellcome Sanger Institute@sangerinstitute.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Parasitic worms might not be cute, but they are fascinating. From global health impacts to cutting-edge genomics, we explore why helminths matter more than you think. Read more 👉 https://sangerinstitute.blog/2026/03/17/what-the-hel-minth/

Parasitic worms might not be cute, but they are fascinating. From global health impacts to cutting-edge genomics, we explore why helminths matter more than you think. Read more 👉 https://sangerinstitute.blog/2026/03/17/what-the-hel-minth/

Why do the chromosomes of cyperids (sedges & rushes) split and fuse so regularly on evolutionary timescales? Is it because they have so many centromeres? Our new preprint, the first major paper of my PhD, addresses this question. 🧵⬇️ 1/12 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Are you ready for *the* meeting about the evolutionary biology of Caenorhabditis and other nematodes?? EvoWorm 2026 will be held at McMaster University from June 16–19 Abstract submission deadline: April 15 Registration deadline: June 1 Further details can be found at evoworm.org

I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...

New preprint! We unexpectedly discovered that some Caenorhabditis species delete parts of their somatic genome early in development, which fragments their chromosomes and eliminates key germline genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest this bizarre process was present in the ancestors of C. elegans

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.681605v1

Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.681605v1

Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.681605v1

Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia

Microsporidia are single-celled, intracellular parasites of growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. This study presents 40 new microsporidian genomes derived collaterally from Da...

plos.io

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 10mo ago

#Microsporidia are #parasites of growing importance. ‪@amjadkhalaf.bsky.social‬ ‪@mblaxter.bsky.social @marakat.bsky.social &co present 40 new genomes from #DarwinTreeofLife sequencing of their arthropod hosts, revealing insights into #tetraploidy & #reproduction @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48HsAQJ

And look at this graphic abstract….. 😱🤯

Bryan White, MS Bio, MPH 🧬@crvscience.com · 10mo ago

Homie got 229 pairs of chromosomes www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Which journal would publish such a fragmented mess? www.cell.com/current-biol...

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

cell.com

Erol Akcay@akcay.theoretical.bio · 10mo ago

Most chromosomes of any animal on Earth so far!

Preprint Alert! 🦥 We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Retrocopy formation and domestication shape genome evolution in sloths and other xenarthrans

Xenarthrans, comprising sloths, anteaters, and armadillos, represent one of the most morphologically and physiologically specialised mammalian clades, yet the genomic basis of their adaptations remain...

biorxiv.org

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

tinyurl.com

That is, Oceania looks like a source for Asian species, not the reverse! Here’s the preprint.

Caenorhabditis diversity on Pohnpei, Micronesia, provides evidence that the Elegans Supergroup has its roots in the Americas and diversified in the Pacific en route to Asia

The microscopic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans stands unrivaled as a model for developmental biology, neurobiology, and genetics, but fundamental aspects of its ecology, biogeography, and natural his...

biorxiv.org

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

Celebrating the publication of our big collaborative spatial-social meta-analysis of density-dependent transmission effects, out now in Nature Eco Evo! doi.org/10.1038/s415... (or rdcu.be/eD6eB)

New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Forty New Genomes Shed Light on Sexual Reproduction and the Origin of Tetraploidy in Microsporidia

Microsporidia are single-celled, obligately intracellular parasites with growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. Despite this, Microsporidia remain relatively enigmatic, with man...

biorxiv.org

Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies? Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below (1/n) @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

Delighted to have been awarded a BBSRC Fellowship to look at the genetics of how insects have adapted to living in freshwater habitats 🧬🦋🪰🪲🌊 Extremely grateful to all who have supported me over the years and excited to be at Liverpool with some great colleagues! www.ukri.org/news/9-milli...

£9 million investment fuels groundbreaking bioscience research

From unlocking the secrets of animal movement to tackling antimicrobial resistance, UK’s brightest bioscience minds are pushing the boundaries of innovation.

ukri.org

A non-vesicular Argonaute protein is transmitted from nematode to mouse and is important for parasite survival https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646544v1

Very excited to share this collaborative work led by Kyriaki Neophytou. An extracellular Argonaute from a nematode parasite is transmitted to host cells and the non-vesicular form is functionally important (and now a vaccine candidate). An Argonaute vaccine... who would have thought.

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · last yr.

A non-vesicular Argonaute protein is transmitted from nematode to mouse and is important for parasite survival https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646544v1

Super excited to see our work shared with the scientific community! We know #Argonaute proteins can be extracellular, but can they be transferred to recipient cells and can they function? Happy reading!

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · last yr.

A non-vesicular Argonaute protein is transmitted from nematode to mouse and is important for parasite survival https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646544v1

Our paper on myxozoan genomes is out now in G3! See thread below for a brief recap (slight change of title from the preprint, same content). Thank you also to @arunsethuraman.bsky.social for handling the manuscript and @joannamasel.bsky.social for helpful comments. academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Myxozoan parasite genomes assembled from contaminated host data reveal extensive gene order conservation and rapid sequence evolution

Abstract. Myxozoans are obligate endoparasites that belong to the phylum Cnidaria. Compared to their closest free-living relatives, they have evolved highl

academic.oup.com

Claudia C. Weber@cc7740.bsky.social · 2y ago

Myxozoans are tiny parasitic animals whose closest free-living relatives are jellyfish. They also haven't been extensively sequenced. However, we were lucky enough to spot some sequences in data from infected fish. After some experimenting, we got two new genomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...