Jo Holley led an undergrad team for this study, about wasps that are trying to be bees, using a new microbiome.

The Mexican honey wasp is a bit of an oddball: it makes and eats honey like a bee, but when it’s hankering for protein, instead of pollen, it eats other insects. A new study finds its gut microbiome is more like bees than wasps. Funded by USDA and NSF. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#MicroSky #SymbioSky

Please share! Our lab is recruiting a PhD student to join us starting fall 2026. Our group is broadly interested in plant molecular evolution and comparative genomics. More info about our lab and grad programs at Colorado St. is available on our lab website. sites.google.com/site/danielb...

An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms. web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...

Looking for a postdoc on bacterial-insect symbiosis, combining evolution and molecular mechanisms? I'll have one open in my lab starting Sept 2025. If interested contact me (or find me at the GRC on Animal-microbe symbiosis if you'll be there). #SymbioSky

Unbelievable. Richard Youle, winner of the Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences, just got fired from the NIH. If you want to know what madness looks like, here it is, my friend.

#symbiosky bsky.app/profile/nanc...

We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.

We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.

It was a pleasure to sign this. It is a small step, but a step nonetheless…

Happen to be in central Texas this weekend, and interested in symbionts &/or evolution and/or insects? #SymbioSky

A woman studies embryos for decades, struggles for funding and respect. She publishes under her husband’s name, until they divorce. A single mother, she moves across an ocean to continue her studies. It all sounds quite modern, until you learn that she also worried she’d be burned as a witch. 🧵 1/15

Nice piece here from the organizer of the Austin Stand Up for Science event, @benjaminjriley.bsky.social‬ 👇. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Ben! buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/standing-u...

Hi BlueSkyers! I'm an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, entomologist, lover of nature, and long-time researcher on symbiosis. I'm realizing that BlueSky is useful and generally non-toxic so here I am (having quit Facebook in Jan 2017, and Twitter in Oct 2022).