New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Update – @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social got back to me with a download link to the obsolete software. Good service! (though I'm not quite sure why they don't just keep the old software on their website to save some admin).

Anyone out there have a copy of the old @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social‬ "Firecam" software? From the mid/late 2000s. I'm trying to resurrect a EZ4D with integrated camera, but the software for it seems to have disappeared from the internet... www.leica-microsystems.com/products/lig...

Last week to apply! nioo.knaw.nl/en/vacancies...

New paper led by Lily Amos, with @stuartwigby.bsky.social and myself- very rapid changes in male Drosophila mating behaviour in response to multiple stressors (academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...).

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... A 5 minute listen: @jojofoth.bsky.social describes exciting work at the Microbiome innovation Centre at the University of Liverpool

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...

Morning folks - it’s that time PLEASE vote for the bee-fly. They are majestic marvels. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @amentsoc.bsky.social @entcollnet.bsky.social @entsocamerica.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

PAPER ALERT: Inbreeding can be detrimental causing inbreeding depression resulting in lower fitness. Here, we track its consequences on sperm, testes, body, lifespan in a 🪲 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... #mattgage @jevbio.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social

We're recruiting a postdoc urban climate & environmental modelling at UCL Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering. You will be part of an established urban climate and health group working on active projects. Looking for someone with regional climate (pref WRF) modelling. Please share!

Masud has nailed it here. "Each of the administrative burdens that we are confronted with on a daily basis might seem small on their own but cumulatively they amount to a ‘mountain of small things’ that is killing academia"

My comments in @theguardian.com about a new study which suggests that men with higher quality sperm live longer www.theguardian.com/science/2025... courtesy of @iansample.bsky.social

Rethinking the relationship between the sex ratio and sexual selection doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @gcmcdon.bsky.social, @daniedmunds.bsky.social, @stuartwigby.bsky.social, and @jennyperry.bsky.social 📷: Dani Edmunds

Huge credit to @daniedmunds.bsky.social and everyone else for this work, and Dani's Drosophila Collage!

Does the ratio of males to females predictably influence the ability to monopolise mating partners? Is male sexual selection more intense when femaleIs are rare? 🪰 We investigated by manipulating sex ratios in polyandrous fruit flies in our new #OA manuscript published in @evolletters.bsky.social

Peto's Paradox—that cancer does not increase with body size of mammals—was wrong. A new, comprehensive study of 263 species documents higher cancer prevalence with increasing body mass. Some large animals (e.g. elephants) have some built-in genetic adaptations www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @pnas.org

Current reading. I rather like it! 🤓

Oh, this is us! With Tracey Chapman, Emily Fowler and Lucy Friend at UEA we have been trying to work out fine scale egg laying decisions by Drosophila females. Turns out it’s more complex than we thought (again)…🪰🧪

It’s never been more important to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 👩‍🔬 Here’s a collection of posts from last year about some of the remarkable historical #WomenInSTEM in the animal field:

Lifetime reproductive success (LRS) is a key metric in evolutionary biology and ecology. But what counts as a success? And whose successes do we count? @sevans.bsky.social doesn't shy away from the big questions in this new paper just out in @journal-evo.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

I'll give you my em dash when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

... and if you're interested in using the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab—the world's longest running climate manipulation experiment—in your fellowship work, then it would be great to hear from you! #grassland #climatechange #biodiversity #ecology #evolution

... and if you're interested in using the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab—the world's longest running climate manipulation experiment—in your fellowship work, then it would be great to hear from you! #pasture #climatechange #agriculture #ecology #evolution #biodiversity

BBSRC fellowships are open: 3yrs of funding, ECRs worldwide are eligible (including the US 👀). Deadline 7th May. If you've a some postdoc experience (but no prior independent fellowships) and fancy coming to my Dept/ Institute in @liverpooluni.bsky.social, drop me a message.

Looking for #PhD in behavioural and applied ecology? Our project will determine the importance individual level variation in #seabird #foraging for assessing the impact of wind farms @jon-seabirds.bsky.social @jaycee161.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The maintenance of genetic polymorphism underlying sexually antagonistic traits doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Ewan Flintham et al.

Dear All, I believe that this thread will become one of my most important contributions to the fly field (I hope I will make other contributions)! Here, I introduce the Soy Milk Machine Fly Food Method, a.k.a., DeepCook!#Drosophila#NewPI

Promises like this are vanishing fast from UK universities, on top of a challenging outlook for securing permanent positions in the sector. Well worth thinking about when choosing a host institution.

NERC Fellowships are open! We (Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, at the @liverpooluni.bsky.social) have a policy to provide a PERMANENT JOB to successful candidates at the end of the fellowship. Please in touch if you're interested!

BBSRC fellowships are open: 3yrs of funding, ECRs worldwide are eligible (including the US 👀). Deadline 7th May. If you've a some postdoc experience (but no prior independent fellowships) and fancy coming to my Dept/ Institute in @liverpooluni.bsky.social, drop me a message.

Also worth noting that UKRI fellowships are also open to International applicants. These are 'first group leader' positions (you have a mentor but are the PI). NERC is early March, BBSRC usually in May. Think you can add visa/relocation as costs on the application. And of course Liverpool is grand!

Indeed time has arrived not to just increase lifespan, but reproductive aging too!

There is still time to apply to this PhD opportunity funded BBSRC NWD PhD. Come join us at @livuni-ismib.bsky.social to study novel roles of Tau and Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules in neuronal ageing in Drosophila. Deadline: 31/1/2025. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Continuing the spider theme - check out this great short film made by Yuting Dong sharing the results from her first PhD thesis chapter. #spiders www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvT...

NERC Fellowships are open! We (Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, at the @liverpooluni.bsky.social) have a policy to provide a PERMANENT JOB to successful candidates at the end of the fellowship. Please in touch if you're interested!

Mixing up a potpourri if #Drosophila to use in the first week’s tutorials for #BI111! #DrosLife

Very cool new work on ageing seminal fluid in male flies!

Looking forward to a fabulous European fly meeting in Alicante! #EDRC2025 #Drosophila 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

@nehaagrawal.bsky.social and I have an exciting EastBio PhD opportunity investigating the interplay between obesity and immune dysfunction, in beautiful Edinburgh. Deadline 17th January. Please share! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

New review paper! @1jonevans.bsky.social @pacogarciagonzalez.bsky.social and I ask whether mature sperm cells might actively express genes. Really proud to see this one out - has been a long, difficult journey through much skepticism to publication. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

We're delighted to see our study, "Mating proximity blinds threat perception" pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39198656/, featured by Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Thank you for spotlighting our work!

Incredible energy at the 7th Insect Reproductive Molecules Meeting at Rydal Hall! 🚀 Huge thanks to Prof. Matthias Soller @matthiassoller.bsky.social and Prof. Tracey Chapmen for co-organizing and @gensocuk.bsky.social for the funding. 🧬✨ #InsectReproduction #lakedistrict #RydalHall

Fruit fly female’s seminal receptacle with GFP tagged sperm swimming

#PhD Advert: Please share! Are you looking for a PhD studentship in comparative- or population-genomics, using 300+ species of #Drosophila and 1000+ genomes of #melanogaster? #Entomology #Genomics #PopGen #Phylogenetics

4-year funded PhD: Urban green space as refuge for people and disease vectors under climate change: a double-edged sword Very interdisciplinary (topic, approach, team): vector ecology, human behaviour; mapping and modelling! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Application deadline: 6 Jan 2025 (1/2)

Thinking of applying for a fellowship? Fancy doing it Uni of Liverpool, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences? The fellowship group help applicants through the process from idea to interview. See liverpool.ac.uk/health-and-l... and get in contact👍

🧵SALT🧵 It's been snowing in the UK and the road gritters are out in force, begging the question: Have you ever wondered where that grit actually COMES from? The answer is more magical, beautiful and fascinating than you probably realised. 1/14

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana, and also cunnilingus. Yep, it's true. Some Drosophila practice oral sex. And that's probably not the wildest thing you're going to learn about fruit fly sex today.

Hafezi, Y., Omurzakov, A., Carlisle, J. A., Caldas, I. V., Wolfner, M. F., Clark, A. G. (2024). The Drosophila melanogaster Y-linked gene, WDY, is required for sperm to swim in the female reproductive tract. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Our paper, identifying all the cell types in the Drosophila melanogaster female reproductive tract (uterus, female-limited glands, sperm storage organs) is out today! We used single-nuclei RNA sequencing and a lot of in situ cross-validation www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409850121 🪰 🧬🧪 1/n