k-mer-based diversity scales with population size proxies more than nucleotide diversity in a meta-analysis of 98 plant species. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...

The US has been leaving school teachers behind for nearly 30 years. In 20 states, teachers made 25% less than their peers. What’s the teacher pay gap in your state? Find out here: www.epi.org/publication/...

Genetic assimilation and accommodation shape adaptation to heat stress in a splash pool copepod https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.09.675189v1

Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... ), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

NEW PAPER! Some kinds of genetic mutations are more likely to arise than others. Such "biases" in mutation vary between species. Analyzing data from 14 species, we show that this variation explains species differences in the genetics of adaptation! (1/3) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share a new paper! "Sorting of ancestral polymorphism and its impact on morphological phylogenetics and macroevolution". Part of some work I've been doing on modelling the evolution of polymorphic traits in fossil echinoderms. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

In a new GBE Review, @cpuentelelievre.bsky.social @proteinmechanic.bsky.social & J. Douglas give an overview on protein structural phylogenetics, how to obtain evolutionary insights from structural data, and key applications and future directions. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf139 #genome #evolution

Last lecture of summer popgen:"Evolutionary QuantGen: why (almost) everything we learned is (kinda) wrong". how selection on traits affects alleles. Architecture, stabilizing selection, popgen on gene sets, corn example & a shiny app from @mgstetter.bsky.social mgstetter.shinyapps.io/quantgensimA...

If someone you know buys into claims about "genetic optimization" of embryos using polygenic scores of cognition, just send them our 2024 paper on Beethoven & musicality. We wrote it to help communicate limits of individual-level genetic predictions & complexity of links between DNA & behaviour. 🧪👇

📣Online NOW! 📄Estimation of demography and mutation rates from one million haploid genomes 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 @jgschraiber.bsky.social @jeffspence.github.io @docedge.bsky.social

Our paper showing that variation in transcription factor binding sites underlies the majority of additive genetic variance for phenotypic variation in maize is finally out! Sadly they didn't use our suggested cover image below (made by the inimitable Andi Kur). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SLiM 5: Eco-evolutionary simulations across multiple chromosomes and full genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669155v1

Chen et al investigate deleterious mutations and purifying selection in 17 stickleback populations, finding that inbreeding predicts realized loads of deleterious mutations, and genomic consequences of isolation in small populations are predictable. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf110 #evobio #molbio

Biologist folk (especially in evolutionary biology and/or ecology, but it don’t matter): Can you give me your favorite examples of trade offs in biology? Organism or system don’t matter. Primary literature or reviews preferred.

Given two genomes, can you tell who’s taller or more prone to a disease? How confident can you be? A fresh take on phenotypic inference, now out: rdcu.be/exW4f See thread🧵👇:

Sophie Buysse's paper on short stamen loss in Arabipsis is published in this month's Evolution issue!! academic.oup.com/evolut/artic... @journal-evo.bsky.social

Hopeful monsters? Great talk from @petrovadmitri.bsky.social at #SMBE2025 about dimensionality of adaptation. Here's one of the papers he mentioned (shift from pleiotropy to modularity) with @grantkinsler.bsky.social &co in @plosbiology.org: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

No new genes needed to fly - just rewire what you have! 🦇🧬 Great new paper from the labs of @fany-real.bsky.social @stemundi.bsky.social @dariloops.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415... #EvoDevo #SingleCell #BatWings

Our latest paper is out: rdcu.be/ev6Ym — one of my favorite projects. It began about 8 years ago when Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel asked me: what transcription factors regulate new genes? I had no idea then. Now we have some answers.

Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁 Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5

BEAST X for Bayesian phylogenetic, phylogeographic and phylodynamic inference www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The evolution of high-order genome architecture revealed from 1,000 species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.05.663309v1

'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 graduate and postdoctoral positions, the hidden costs of ‘doing science’ are profound.' journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

@barbaraclass.bsky.social et al. assess how well different statistical models estimate indirect genetic effects and assortative mating when partner similarity is caused by multiple co-occurring processes @jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

This was one of the most moving, courageous, and motivating scientific plenaries I have ever seen. In a time of fierce division, a person of any political affiliation could watch this and engage and learn about why we need science. I will be rewatching and referencing in years to come. 👩‍🔬🇺🇸 #evol2025

Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes. 🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA

We are excited to announce that tidypopgen – a new package for rapid population genetic workflows in R – is now available at evolecolgroup.github.io/tidypopgen/ 🧬💻 Read more in the preprint describing its features here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #popgen #Rpackage #genetics 1/2

oh hey, so the first talk in the Population Genetics Theory seminar section of virtual Evolution 2025 was by a well-known creationist Sal Cordova. it's.... pretty out there. youtu.be/aK8jVQekfns?...

I'm very excited to share the first research paper from my lab! My postdoc Surbhi led this amazing study. We combined genomics, evolution, and biochemistry to explain how telomeres evolved in monkeyflowers. If you're into unusual chromosome evolution please read! @plos.org tinyurl.com/bdeku44x

Of interest to my @bsky.app evol friends @carlzimmer.com @cbo.bsky.social @sandyanderson.bsky.social @cancerevo.org and more I can’t think of bc new platform

check out my new article published in @nautil.us on Sewall Wright's famous shifting-balance theory of evolution, told through the lens of his work with guinea pigs! nautil.us/evolution-an...

Inferring fitness seascapes from evolutionary histories https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.08.658500v1

Scientific timidity enables oppression www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #science #research

“The tools that feminist science studies has developed are **critical to the sciences** because they ask new questions, & develop new methodologies that help science account for gender & racial bias. Who is doing science? Who decides on the research questions? Who offers analysis & who benefits?”

Our paper on disentangling assortative mating and indirect genetic effects in empirical datasets has just been accepted in @jevbio.bsky.social ! It has been a long process (5 years in the making!) and I am very proud of the result 🥳 academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

Your daily Avian Hybrids story! A philosopher claims species do not exist. He is wrong. avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2019/07/18/a... #ornithology

In our most recent episode we talk with Bill Zamer and Sam Scheiner, two former BIO program officers at the NSF, about the recently proposed 56% budget cut to the NSF. 🎙️Listen now: bigbiology.substack.com/p/savensf-ep... #scicomm #science #sciencecommunication #SaveNSF #NSF

Pre-print is up for our new method - called "sandwrm" - an R package that estimates Wright's neighborhood size and species-level diversity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy. Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).

We're having a special issue at @aibsbiology.bsky.social BioScience to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial. Deadline for submissions is September 1. academic.oup.com/bioscience/p...

We’re excited to share new work on the continuous in vivo evolution of gene libraries towards arbitrary functions. Led by superstar Olek Pisera, our experiments show that gene evolution is highly versatile... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ancestral sequence reconstruction often assumes unrealistic homogeneous substitution models; however @rmuniztrejo.bsky.social et al. find that reconstruction accuracy is determined by phylogenetic signal, not model choice. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb... #evobio #molbio

Great to see this out in society journal @molbioevol.bsky.social @official-smbe.bsky.social! Venomous cone snails 🐚🍽️🐟 evolved from non venomous marine snails. We show how their venom gland evolved from homologous glands, affecting the evolution of their digestive system. doi.org/10.1093/molb...

New pre-print klaxon: "Discovery and characterisation of gene by environment and epistatic genetic effects in a vertebrate model" led by the excellent Bettina Welz + @saulpierotti.bsky.social from @wittbrodtlab.bsky.social, Felix Loosli, Kiyoshi Naruse and my own lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very excited to see this super fun collaboration with @jacanamama.bsky.social finally published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Like so many of the trends of the 1880’s-1920’s, eugenics is on the rise. Scientists have a moral obligation to speak up.

Check out my new article published in @aeon.co on the continued relevance of JBS Haldane's 1964 "A Defense of Beanbag Genetics". (Love that they chose the peppered moth as the cover for it!) aeon.co/essays/a-res...