Masaki Mizutani, Shigeyuki Kakizawa and colleagues' paper on successful whole genome cloning of Spiroplasma using yeast is out! frontiersin.org/journals/micro… #Bacteria #genome #cloning

🧵Excited to share my first author preprint detailing much of my dissertation work! Here we used gene editing to retrace the horizontal transfer of a bacterial gene that now encodes an anti-parasitoid toxin in Drosophila: biorxiv.org/content/10.110… /1

Some time ago, I noticed this eriophyoid contamination in plant sequencing data. Recently, researchers released the entire genome of the contaminating eriophyoid. Amazing! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

There's still time to submit your abstract for #PEC2024

In celebration of #InsectWeek24, @royensoc has a new #Virtualissue. Our VI paper is: Acoustic communication in bark beetles (Scolytinae): 150 years of research, conducted at Carleton Biology by researchers including Leonardo Turchen Read all the papers ⬇️ resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.100…

Finally our ancient DNA study on Merovingian Flanders is out PNASNews! Discover our surprising capture of a fusion of 2 genetic ancestries on coastal Koksijde (Belgium) in 675-750 AD #EarlyMiddelAges Our paper 👉 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… 🧵1/9 KU Leuven Center for Human Genetics (KU Leuven - UZ Leuven) (Photo: Onroerend Erfgoed)

On this #phycologyfriday, I invite our European colleagues to sample #Ulva species: - Dried in silica gel for #EULVA project sites.google.com/view/eulva/home - Living samples from sites with Ulva blooms Help us understand diversity of this beautiful #seaweed 📨 me or Olivier De Clerck for info!

How can asexual reproduction survive long term? Our new study shows that involves nonrandom inheritance in ants. Out today in Nature Ecology & Evolution! Press Release from Rockefeller here: rockefeller.edu/news/36117-ase…

Genomes from single #flies! Sequencing of lab-cultured species results in taxon sampling bias. Bernard Kim Dmitri Petrov &co assemble #genomes of 183 single wild-collected #drosophilids & inbred lines, redressing the bias to lab organisms #PLOSBiology plos.io/3zS3Fe4

During our annual pilgrimage to Kraków, I finally paid my respects to Józef Poniatowski, a leading and inspiring figure during the Napoleonic era. Three days before his death in 1813, he was made a Marshal of the French Empire for his achievements during the battle of Leipzig

This has been a most engaging summer read, excellent bio by Walter Isaacson. The book explores all of Franklin's interests and outlines how Franklin helped shape the American character.

We have found that a strain of Rickettsia, common symbionts of insects, induces cytoplasmic incompatibility in a predatory bug. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

Some people get dry skin and wrinkles while ageing. Similar is kind of true for #phasmids. But in case of stick #insects, this plays a role for their #biomechanics.

The 16th Plant-Herbivore Interaction Gordon Research Conference (Feb. 9-14, 2025) that I'm chairing hasn't yet started to review applicants (that will happen in Fall 2024), BUT you **can** apply now! We are capped at 200 people and 52 have applied already: grc.org/plant-herbivor…

For the color nerds, egg lovers, or anyone who enjoys a good evolutionary mystery—join me at #ICE2024 on Monday 11:30 (Room C-2) for my egg-citing talk: ‘From Camouflage to Thermoregulation: Multiple selection pressures shape the reflectance of Stick and Leaf insect eggs.’

I'm thrilled to announce that I've just started a new position as a leader of the Comparative Invertebrate Zoology group Institute of Evolutionary Biology UW. Thanks to funding from NAWA Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange I will keep working on my beloved catenulids. You can find more details here: bit.ly/3AOoCad

the most incredible special effect in jurassic park is samuel l jackson’s ability to seamlessly deliver this 20 seconds of techsposition mumbo jumbo all while keeping a cigarette barely hanging out of his mouth