And of course I am also very excited and happy about the joint project with @bfeldmeyer.bsky.social , @steigerlab.bsky.social , Peter and Mark on the evolution in brood care behavior in beetles and about the collaborations and scientific exchange with all the great colleagues in @gevol.bsky.social !

I am also super happy and excited about our joint project with @luisapallares.bsky.social as part of DFP SPP GEvol @gevol.bsky.social !

@jochenwolflab.bsky.social Check out the latest paper spearheaded by @chyiyin.bsky.social. She explored different methods for target enrichment of DNA extracted from thousands of years old crow bones. Long live ancient DNA! doi.org/10.1111/1755...

🎉We are happy to announce that our wonderful GEvol SPP will be funded by @dfg.de for another 3 years. Included are 17 great projects all over Germany with amazing people. You want to be part of this fantastic community? Soon you can find new PhD/Post-Doc positions here & on our website. Stay tuned🎉

Matrilines attack, for the hosts there is no hope. Egg kaleidoscope. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This month is my turn to bust science myths in our institute's mini-videos series. This month's topic: fruit flies and evolution! 🪰🧬 @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

Fantastic comparative study by Gina Calabrese in coop with Safran & Rabosky lab explores whether seasonal migration can promote speciation in birds. A large-scale comparative analysis packed with methodological insights! academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change. Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

SINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online: doi.org/10.1038/s415... It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...

Many thanks to all GEvol members for a truly wonderful annual meeting. It was really great to catch up with you all again.

Mutation load sits on the large chromosomes in birds. Fidel's comparative work on 19 bird species shows an interesting interaction between recombination, selection and gene conversion affecting the genomic distribution of genetic load. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Chongyi's paper from the biodiversity exploratories (@bexplo.bsky.social‬) is finally out ! How do genomic traits interact with community ecology? Antropogenic havoc. Communities shake. Genomes grow and break. doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Two million bases defy conformity. Meth rebels follow lead. Merondun (2025) Mol Ecol doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Sauna, vodka, tea. Inhale the North, speciate. Even ants must pee. Stankowski (2024) Evol J Linnean Soc doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Years of fury on ancient chromosomal dust. Peace regained. Helas! Mirarab et al. (2024) PNAS doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Swallows, match your love! tails and feathers, red or buff. And genes will couple. Shield et al. (2024) Science doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Two #LMU projects receive ERC #ProofOfConcept Grants! 🌿 Silke Robatzek is pursuing a novel approach in plant protection strategies. 🧠 @tobiasstaudigl.bsky.social optimizes deep brain stimulation with functional markers. #LMU #ERC #ResearchInThePractice Read more here: www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

We are quite delighted by the media coverage of our paper: This Jungle Plant Is a Good Landlord to Its Tenant Ants www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/s...

Also here: This tropical plant builds isolated ‘apartments’ to prevent battles among the aggressive ant tenants it relies on for survival theconversation.com/this-tropica...

Is there an independent role of epigenetic variation in speciation? We looked for answers in the crow hybrid zone. In brief: DNA seems to be in the driving seat. Congrats Justin! This was a long journey. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Compartmentalization reduces conflict in multipartner plant-insect symbioses | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Crows on ancient trees their twigs so discordantes! May they rest in piece. Gwee et al. (2025) Mol Ecol

New paper from the Wolf Lab.

A flower once wild, cast into digital chains. A meadow once free. Jiang et al. (2025) Sci Data www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a very interesting collaboration on how tricky is it to implement ATAC-seq on different insect species 🪲 🐝 🐜

Female neoteny does have an impact on colonization patterns in the big European firefly, Lampyris noctiluca ✨

This work shows the first overview on the population genetics and demographic history of the big European firefly, **Lampyris noctiluca**. Feeling very happy this work is out :) academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Despite their strikingly different plumage, carrion and hooded crows show strong asymmetrical gene flow hidden beneath the feathers #hybridzone #evolution #demography #bird onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Conservation genetics project: beautiful sunrise after a good night sleep high up in the mountains.

Further, we found – at least for a range of model parameter values – that the defence trait is indeed altruistic. That is, it reduces the direct fitness of the defender, such that, from the perspective of inclusive fitness theory, kin selection really matters.

Can genetic drift generate enough variation between subpopulations to allow for the evolution of defence against predators or parasites via multi-level selection? In www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we have explored this for a structured population model.