Evidence for balancing selection on loci associated with host use in the genome of a generalist plant parasite academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...

We have some exciting new work pre-printed this week. Read on if you're interested in #behavioural responses to infection and some cool analysis of high-resolution behavioural time-series data in #Drosophila. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fine-scale behavioural dynamics separates adaptive sickness behaviour from injury and infection pathology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.21.719817v1

Differing effects of parasite-parasite interaction types on the spatial epidemiology of co-circulating parasites https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716128v1

New research from #BiologyLetters: How do infections impact social relationships? royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... | #Behaviour #Ecology #Evolution #Epidemiology

Genetic variance and phenotypic selection on pathogen-linked oviposition choice in Drosophila doi.org/10.32942/X20...

This pre-printed article discusses insect oviposition as a tractable, mechanistically grounded model for behavioural immunity, linking individual egg-laying decisions to population level disease dynamics. 🪰🦠 doi.org/10.32942/X2W...

Insect oviposition site selection as a simple system to investigate the ecology and evolution of pathogen avoidance behaviour. doi.org/10.32942/X2W962

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in @uniexecec.bsky.social - Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... - RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... Pls share!

*Congratulations* to former Darwin Trust-funded PhD student Arun Prakash for being awarded the Alfred Russel Wallace award from @royentsoc.bsky.social for his PhD on #immune regulation of disease #tolerance and immune #priming in #Drosophila! @edinburghbiology.bsky.social @uoe-eid.bsky.social

Forecasting the effects of #epidemics is complicated by a population’s pathogen exposure history. @pfvale.bsky.social @chadisaadroy.bsky.social & Mike Boots argue for the use of experimental #DiseaseEcology to better understand the consequences of variations in #infection history 🧪 plos.io/4mdDVvW

This piece on infection history as a driver of individual heterogeneity in infection outcomes was fun to think about and to write with @chadisaadroy.bsky.social and Mike Boots. Also suggest that systems like #Drosophila can offer useful tools to tackle the epidemiological consequences.

"The myth of meritocracy in science collapses under the financial sacrifices expected at every career stage. From unpaid internships and self-funded conferences to underpaid positions, these hidden costs disproportionately exclude those without generational wealth, compounded by race and gender."

Providencia rettgeri

Hope this primer proves helpful to anybody interested in infection avoidance. It was certainly a pleasure to write with @akgibson.bsky.social and @pfvale.bsky.social l!

This primer on infection avoidance was incredibly fun to write with @cr-amo.bsky.social and Mandy Gibson. We cover its taxonomic breadth, mechanisms and evolution, and its importance across fields as diverse as public health, conservation, and agriculture. 🧪 www.cell.com/current-biol... #SymbioSky

Providencia rettgeri is a commonly employed #Drosophila pathogen. It also has an extensive AMR profile causing opportunistic infections in hospital settings. I recently realised I know less about it than I should, so here is my homework. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #Microsky #MEvosky

A new preprint from the lab, where we apply complex systems and machine learning approaches to identify transitions between life and infection-induced death in #Drosophila. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really excited to finally start this project with @andreadwilson.bsky.social, using #Drosophila as a model for experimental epidemiology and evolution to explore the genetic determinants and evolutionary constraints on extreme pathogen transmission phenotypes.

Hi #Drosophila folk: I'm advertising a 2-year #Postdoc, funded by a BBSRC grant on the genetic and immune determinants and evolutionary constraints underlying extreme pathogen transmission phenotypes. Deadline 29 April, details in the link below, or feel free to email: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMQ231/p...

An interesting, tenured, Principal Researcher position at CIBIO in Northern Portugal, focused on the study of virus-host #co-evolution, with emphasis on the #evolution of #immune system genes and the impact of emerging diseases on wildlife. www.cibio.up.pt/en/jobs/tenu...

A long, long time ago, we started this review project during the first Coron lockdown, but if finally made it out into the world - Origin and function of beneficial bacterial symbioses in insects! @naturerevmicro.bsky.social

Dental calculus, the preserved oral microbiome, is an absolute treasure trove of information that can be interrogated across thousands of years. But how to make it work? In a new preprint, @markella-morait.bsky.social asks this questions using >30 mammalian species:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Time to give an update on the fantastic work by @taniafpaulo.bsky.social during her PhD, now published in @royalsocietypublishing.org on the evolution of resistance and disease tolerance mechanisms to oral infection in #Drosophila royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #infection #immunity 🤓🎊

Here we go again!!! Thanks to @rubengonzalez.bsky.social a brilliant postdoc in the lab, I made my first baby steps into the aging field... Be kind and supportive 😀 I find the results totally exciting! and so much to do now! #ProudPI #LoveVirology

So excited to share this latest work by @kelseyhuus.bsky.social !!! She shows that flagellin in the human gut affects whether or not people develop fever in response to vaccine, and the amount of flagellin reflects diet

Prakash, A., Fenner, F., Shit, B., Salminen, T. S., Monteith, K. M., Khan, I., Vale, P. F. (2024). IMD-mediated innate immune priming increases #Drosophila survival and reduces pathogen transmission. PLoS pathogens, 20(6):e1012308 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

What is a model organism? asm.org/Articles/202... #MicroSky #MEvoSky

"Here, we track the development of balancing selection theory over the last century and provide an accessible review of this rich collection of models." #evobio

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

Live imaging of individual symbiotic bacterial cells colonizing the gut of living Drosophila melanogaster show that Lactiplantibacillus plantarum specifically recognizes the fruit fly foregut as a distinct physical niche. www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #Symbiosky #Drosophila

A century of theories of balancing selection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637871v1

‪The new March issue of #RESPhysEnt, Vol. 50 Issue 1, opens with an editorial: Key questions for future research in Physiological Entomology 👀doi/10.1111/phen.12481 If you’d like to submit an article on any of these key research areas, get in touch! @wybouw.bsky.social @tbuescher.bsky.social

Fieldwork opportunity: We're looking to hire a field assistant for the www.phenoweb.org project starting 1 April. Please repost. #phenology #fieldwork #birdringing

V neat: "A naturally occurring mitochondrial genome variant confers broad protection from infection in Drosophila" from Tiina Salminen, Laura Vesala @pfvale.bsky.social et al journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Really interesting day discussing impacts of climate change on vector borne diseases workshop today. Lots of great science and discussion about exciting projects to take forwards. @keithrmatthews.bsky.social #reecelab @roslininstitute.bsky.social @amypedersen.bsky.social

From @blongdon.bsky.social et al! doi.org/10.1093/evle...

An important study showing that prolonged exposure to higher temperatures makes #Aedes albopictus more tolerant of #viral infection - with important implications for vector-borne diseases in a warming world. #symbiosky #evovir @uoe-eid.bsky.social

I am very happy to see this first part of my PhD work go online now! 💃🏾 We explored alternative strategies to elicit #diseasetolerance in #Drosophila melanogaster in response to oral #infection with a natural bacterial #pathogen, #Pseudomonas entomophila. (Thread)

🚨 Job alert 🚨 — are you interested in understanding how mobile genetic elements and defence systems shape bacterial genome evolution? 🧬 🧪 🧫 🦠 2x 5-year research positions available in experimental evolution @mermanchester.bsky.social Join us! #microsky www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

PhD Summer School on Host-Microbe Symbioses. Awesome topic. Unbeatable location. #symbiosky #microsky #evobio gimm.idloom.events/phd-summer-s...

This looks like an outstanding meeting, likely of interest to #Drosophila and #EvolSky 🧪communities.

⭐ NEW PUBLICATION ⭐ A naturally occurring mitochondrial genome variant confers broad protection from infection in Drosophila @pfvale.bsky.social Read more ➡️ https://buff.ly/3EcXnYt

Support a fantastic society journal by submitting your insect physiology work to @royentsoc.bsky.social PHEN. In the upcoming January volume, we discuss some of the key questions for future research in physiological #entomology. #symbiosky 🐜🐝🦋🦟🧪 resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YJQDXW...

💭Check our brand new Research Focus - featuring publications from across the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases network! @pfvale.bsky.social @richardsloanlab.bsky.social @dbogaert.bsky.social @fionagreco.bsky.social Full article here ➡️ edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

RES has joined Bluesky! We are excited to share fascinating science, news, events & more. To start, we’re featuring the #LargeBlueButterfly 🦋 Our #Conservation Science team recently published ground-breaking findings on the dispersal rates of this #EndangeredSpecies 🔽 https://buff.ly/3Wz5QLU

Looks like a tremendous amount of work from Rodrigo Cogni's group, and a very useful quantitative review of the negative effects of viral infection across insect taxa. #symbiosky #virosky #InsectEcol #infection #evolsky

Hello world! I'm starting out on bluesky with a job posting - we're looking for lab research tech who shares our love of bugs. More info here brownlab.biology.gatech.edu/opportunities/