Zhao, Quinteros & Machado describe unusually large and continuous pericentromeric transposable element-rich regions in all chromosomes of the genome of a Neotropical fig wasp, 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf158 #genome #evolution #TEsky

You may have missed this #ant poster at #ESEB2025, but be sure not to miss the article just published in #openacess in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come find me at #SMBE2025 to chat about transposable elements in ants 🧬🐜 S15 - P8

Now online! Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants

Worker ants increase their reproductive success by caring for their siblings instead of producing their own offspring. An international research team has now uncovered the genetic basis of ant evolution. (Orig. publ. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...) #ants #phylogenomics #evolution

Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants 🐜🐜🐜 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Glad to see this paper finally out! An episodic burst of massive genomic rearrangements and the origin of non-marine annelids @natecoevo.nature.com @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es @erc.europa.eu www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Over 50 researchers from over 25 countries have made this possible. Almost 10 years of work. I have 23,062 emails on this project. It is wonderful to see this published and I hope you enjoy it. There’s a lot on genome evolution in ants and much much more.

The Virological Society (Gesellschaft für Virologie - GfV), along with the German Society for Infectiology has issued a statement on lessons learned from the last pandemic. While it was originally issued in German, it is now also available in English. You can find it here:🧪 g-f-v.org/en/fuenf-jah...

This is also a useful complement to the "pivot" paper getting attention this week "...science marches backward when the participants are unwilling to consider preexisting information, and a certain level of push-back is warranted when such behavior is combined with excessive self-promotion"

#TEsky Advanced analysis of retrotransposon variation in the human genome with nanopore sequencing using RetroInspector doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Für viele Deutsche mit Migrationsgeschichte ist es keine Randnotiz, dass eine rechtsextreme völkische Partei in Umfragen führt. Es bedeutet existenzielle Bedrohung und verstärkte Ausgrenzung. Solche Zahlen ignorieren zu können, ist ein Privileg, das viele nicht haben.

Termites became the dominant decomposers of the tropics after two diversification pulses https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645184v1

New ant supergene just dropped.

Awesome work!

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇

🚨New preprint from @bonevlab.bsky.social 🚨: What are the key epigenetic mechanisms that drive species-specific gene regulation during primate neurogenesis - and how do they contribute to the evolution of the human neocortex? Here’s what we discovered 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

DAS KANN DOCH NICHT WAHR SEIN!?!?😱🤯 Wer kneift uns bitte mal eben ganz ganz kräftig? #FCBBOC 2:3

BREAKING: Nachdem die Polizei den Adenauer nicht mehr beschlagnahmen kann, hat sie gerade die Scheiben eingeschlagen, ihn gestürmt, umstellt und unser gesamtes Team verhaftet! Das ist so krass - uns fehlen die Worte. Wir sind auf der AfD-Wahlparty. Die Faschisten feiern weiter.

Zu heute.

Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin. – Buy a Tesla, support facism!

Ok. I am trying to find time to take pictures of the various Cardiocondyla species we have in the lab now. Starting with this tiny, really tiny!, Cardiocondyla wroughtonii worker. The larva she carries is even tinier! Hard to believe…

This is mind-boggling! TEs never cease to amaze.

Very exciting preprint: could stress-induced mutagenesis be adaptive (as opposed to simply a malfunction)? The presence of a mechanism to trigger mutagenesis in response to environmental alterations might indicate that it is an evolutionarily beneficial process

We recently published a paper in Genome Research and I now got a copy of the issue. It does hit differently to have a physical rather than just a pdf copy. 🤩

Queen loss fails to elicit physiological and transcriptional responses in workers of the invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.26.577224v1