🦟 Pestered by mosquitoes? Fear not—grapefruit might hold the key! 🍊In our latest paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social, led by Merybeth Triana and Felipe Andreazza, we explore how nootkatone, a compound derived from grapefruit, affects mosquitoes. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/n) Ever wonder how transcription factors locate, "invade," and activate their enhancers during cell fate acquisition? 🧬🚀 Check out our latest collaborative work with the Soufi lab, now published in @Nature

Check out new research by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social. I painted watercolor illustrations of Speyeria mormonia to show the differences in the silver coloration for use in their figures. Thank you @evolvwing.bsky.social and Luca for giving me the chance to paint some cool butterflies! #sciart

Happy to share this new preprint looking at the genetic basis for a butterfly wing polymorphism. A fun story of genetic parallelism. Thoughts/comments welcome :)

As I have a few followers now I figure I could post about some recent papers: @henrylnorth.bsky.social analysed sequence data from @theswordlab.bsky.social for North American Helicoverpa zea - we found just two individuals from 400 with introgressed armigera allele for insecticide resistance

Tempo and mode of winter diapause evolution in butterflies doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @EvolLetters by Sridhar Halali, Etka Yapar, Christopher W Wheat, Niklas Wahlberg, Karl Gotthard, Nicolas Chazot, Sören Nylin, and Philipp Lehmann

Yeah this could be a game-changer for specimen-based color research. Ben Hogan and Cassie Stoddard present a pipeline combining whole-specimen image analysis with reflectance spectrophotometry. The only catch? The setup costs about $55k... 💰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Most proud of – I failed and failed, and failed again and again, four years of failure learning new methods, doing so many things wrong, using qRT-PCR for things it wasn't intended for, arguing that the cis-regulatory paradigm made no sense but eventually 🧪 🌱🐋 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

When lunch consists of some yummy salty sweat from some nasty human's hand... Catagramma pygas thamyras Parque Nacional do Iguazú, Paraná, Brazil

Highly-respected non-profit journals like @dev-journal.bsky.social support scientific communities But after rejection at glam journals, it is tempting to avoid re-review by sliding through commercial ecosystems BUT WAIT! LOOK! “We will consider papers with reviewer reports from other journals” 😍

Super stoked to share our latest research on the migratory patterns of painted lady butterflies across the Sahara! 🦋🏜️ www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

I just made a $500 donation to iNaturalist for #GivingTuesday because, well, iNaturalist is an incredible incredible resource and tool for the world www.inaturalist.org/donate.

Here's another extraordinary gynandromorph, of Pieriballia viardi, from Mexico. The right side is pure male, while the left side is all female except for the white areas, which are male. Full data in alt text.

I use this as an introductory example of introgression in my undergrad lectures - mainly because of the clear phenotypes and amazing courtship behaviour. It’s good to see someone has figured out the genetics…

People leaving Twitter for BlueSky like the elves in LOTR sailing west

Different cellular and molecular mechanisms of chitin deposition contribute to the specificity of the two chitin synthases in D. melanogaster. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626067v1

A great write up on the ivory lncRNA story written by Nick VanKuren and Marcus Kronforst. Congrats again to @lucalivraghi.bsky.social and @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social for this amazing work! www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A lovely commentary on @lucalivraghi.bsky.social and @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social's recent papers, by VanKuren and Kronforst (bsky-less?). "“Being wrong” has never been a bad thing in science because good scientists cannot let go of those little things that just do not line up" - 🔥🔥🔥

The evolutionary path of the epithelial sodium channel delta-subunit in Cetartiodactyla points to a role in sodium sensing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.18.623996v1

Pure autofluorescence from the midband crystalline cones in a mantis shrimp eye. The fluorescence comes from mycosporine like amino acid pigments that absorb specific bands of UV light, thus tuning the UV sensitivity of the photoreceptors they focus light into. 🧪 #FluorescenceFriday

We are here! Help us reconnect with any and all allies of the LGBTQ+ community in Plant Science!

Our study on the genetic architecture of a sexual mimicry polymorphism, led by graduate student Tris Dodge, is now out at Current Biology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Original thread on the article is here: bsky.app/profile/moll...

Local cryptic diversity in salinity adaptation mechanisms in a wild outcrossing Brassica https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590122v1

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Unlocking the power of virtual networking for early-career researchers. #ECRs #EDI #DEI elifesciences.org/articles/963...

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Organoids Reveal a Role for WNT Signaling in Dorsal-Ventral Patterning of the Hindgut https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583343v1

pitiful little eyeless isopods. how I adore them

Something old, something new: the origins of an unusual renal cell underpinning a beetle water-conserving mechanism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582930v1

Label-free imaging of cellular organization in living mammalian cells via external apodization phase-contrast microscopy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.01.582671v1

Identification of microRNAs regulated by E2F transcription factors in human pluripotent stem cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582539v1

this little butterfly is Sarota acantus, a fingernail-sized work of art found in Central and South America. you can tell this one is a female since she’s walking on all six legs—male metalmarks have a greatly reduced first pair!

The aging-induced long non-coding RNA MIRIAL controls endothelial cell and mitochondrial function https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.28.582649v1

The University of Florida has eliminated its diversity, equity and inclusion offices, firing its full-time employees and ending DEI contracts with outside vendors

TIL that a worm species ejects the WHOLE BUTT to reproduce! The butt (with sperm or egg) goes on to search for another butt to then form a baby! The butt has its own eyes and antennae! They found out how development occurs in the butt: 🧪 www.popsci.com/environment/...

hi! it’s me I’m back. have a bugs

After I wrote a eulogy for science twitter, American Scientist asked me what’s next for online public science engagement. Here’s my piece on the science community on Bluesky Quotes @jay.bsky.team @danirabaiotti.bsky.social 🧪🌎🦑 www.americanscientist.org/blog/macrosc...

Taste evolution in an herbivorous drosophilid https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.27.582299v1

A nice summary on the history of the cortex locus, and the recent preprints detailing the discovery of the ivory lnc-pri-miRNA. www.science.org/content/arti...

Nice write up in Science Magazine about our ivory lncRNA color patterning preprints! Way to go @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social, @lucalivraghi.bsky.social, and Tian Shen! www.science.org/content/arti...

Cephalopod Sex Determination and its AncientEvolutionary Origin Revealed by Chromosome-levelAssembly of the California two-spot Octopus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.21.581452v1

Convergent evolution of plant prickles is drivenby repeated gene co-option over deep time https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.21.581474v1

(1/3) Congrats @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social for his new preprint showing how cis-elements of the ivory lncRNA control pigmentation and seasonal morphs in butterflies. Check out these CRISPR summer/autumn mosaics! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Gene expression differences associated with intrinsic hindfoot muscle loss in the jerboa, Jaculus jaculus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.20.581295v1

Someone told you there are only two anteroposterior domains in insect wings? Well, it turns out ol' Snodgrass was right - there are more! Check out our new preprint! #evodevo www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

kids today walk around saying stuff they don't even know came from homestar runner

Place cells in the hippocampus of rats help to store memories of aversive experiences that occur in familiar locations.