Caiti Smukowski Heil
@caitismuheil.bsky.social
Evolutionary geneticist studying recombination, hybridization, and domestication in yeast! Asst. Professor at NC State
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she/her
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she/her
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a #postdoc to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a #postdoc to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
If you've ever rolled your eyes about research claiming that complex traits (from chocolate preference to socioeconomic status) have simple genetic explanations, check out this great paper from @jbenning.bsky.social @jedidiahcarlson.com @oliviarxiv.bsky.social Ruth Shaw @arbelharpak.bsky.social 🧪🧬
Confounding fuels misinterpretation in human genetics | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The scientific literature has seen a resurgence of interest in genetic influences on human behaviour and socioeconomic outcomes. Such studies face the central difficulty of distinguishing possible causal influences, in particular genetic and non-genetic ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 5, 2025 at 9:35 PM
If you've ever rolled your eyes about research claiming that complex traits (from chocolate preference to socioeconomic status) have simple genetic explanations, check out this great paper from @jbenning.bsky.social @jedidiahcarlson.com @oliviarxiv.bsky.social Ruth Shaw @arbelharpak.bsky.social 🧪🧬
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Meiotic double strand DNA breaks and spontaneous mutation in Drosophila melanogaster https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685400v1
October 31, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Meiotic double strand DNA breaks and spontaneous mutation in Drosophila melanogaster https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685400v1
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Elevated mutation near crossovers inhibits the evolution of recombination https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.685904v1
November 2, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Elevated mutation near crossovers inhibits the evolution of recombination https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.685904v1
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
The Department of Biology at @eastcarolinauniv.bsky.social seeks to fill a tenure-track faculty at the Assistant Professor level with expertise in evolutionary Biology! Come join us!
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/89839
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/89839
Assistant Professor
The Department of Biology at East Carolina University (http://www.ecu.edu) seeks to fill a tenure-track faculty position (9-month appointment) at the Assistant Professor rank with expertise in evoluti...
ecu.peopleadmin.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
The Department of Biology at @eastcarolinauniv.bsky.social seeks to fill a tenure-track faculty at the Assistant Professor level with expertise in evolutionary Biology! Come join us!
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/89839
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/89839
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
The Johri Lab has an open postdoc position. Please send me an email, if interested. Start date is flexible. Please do share! Thank you in advance.
October 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM
The Johri Lab has an open postdoc position. Please send me an email, if interested. Start date is flexible. Please do share! Thank you in advance.
Congrats Sarah, @mafnoor.bsky.social, and team on such a cool paper!
Transposable elements drive much of naturally occurring genetic lethality in Drosophila melanogaster
Recessive lethal mutations are widespread across studied species, with estimates suggesting that each individual carries at least one. Numerous lethal alleles persist in wild populations at higher fre...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Congrats Sarah, @mafnoor.bsky.social, and team on such a cool paper!
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Fewer grad students means less science, but many STEM PhD programs in the US are cutting back on admissions this year due to federal funding uncertainties. Words by me for @nature.com:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@emsque.bsky.social @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social @julieposselt.bsky.social 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@emsque.bsky.social @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social @julieposselt.bsky.social 🧪
US PhD admissions shrink as fears over Trump’s cuts take hold
Some doctoral programmes are admitting no students at all amid uncertainty about federal science funding.
www.nature.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Fewer grad students means less science, but many STEM PhD programs in the US are cutting back on admissions this year due to federal funding uncertainties. Words by me for @nature.com:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@emsque.bsky.social @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social @julieposselt.bsky.social 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@emsque.bsky.social @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social @julieposselt.bsky.social 🧪
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
#PhD Position: Interested in the evolutionary and ecological impacts of whole genome duplication?
Join Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman @drtialynn.bsky.social
and I at the U. of Pittsburgh, to test what drives the competitive outcomes between diploids and #polyploids
Details: shorturl.at/nQ8UW
Join Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman @drtialynn.bsky.social
and I at the U. of Pittsburgh, to test what drives the competitive outcomes between diploids and #polyploids
Details: shorturl.at/nQ8UW
October 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
#PhD Position: Interested in the evolutionary and ecological impacts of whole genome duplication?
Join Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman @drtialynn.bsky.social
and I at the U. of Pittsburgh, to test what drives the competitive outcomes between diploids and #polyploids
Details: shorturl.at/nQ8UW
Join Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman @drtialynn.bsky.social
and I at the U. of Pittsburgh, to test what drives the competitive outcomes between diploids and #polyploids
Details: shorturl.at/nQ8UW
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Incredible new paper from @schacherer.bsky.social et al rdcu.be/eLcTH
From genotype to phenotype with 1,086 near telomere-to-telomere yeast genomes
Nature - A newly compiled atlas of species-wide structural variants and gene-based and graph pangenomes derived from highly complete assemblies of genomes from 1,086 natural isolates enable...
rdcu.be
October 15, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Incredible new paper from @schacherer.bsky.social et al rdcu.be/eLcTH
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
What started as a project characterizing variation in metabolic rates across yeasts turned into an interesting story about convergent evolution acting on the same key genes through distinct molecular mechanisms with @hittingerlab.bsky.social & @rokaslab.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Convergent evolution of aerobic fermentation through divergent mechanisms acting on key shared glycolytic genes
As the tree of life becomes increasingly accessible to molecular investigations, describing mechanisms underlying evolutionary convergence and constraint will be crucial to understanding diversificati...
www.biorxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
What started as a project characterizing variation in metabolic rates across yeasts turned into an interesting story about convergent evolution acting on the same key genes through distinct molecular mechanisms with @hittingerlab.bsky.social & @rokaslab.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
This is an excellent piece from @georgianndavis.bsky.social on the wave of anti-scientific censorship sweeping the country and what it means to teach honestly in the moment.
Contributor: I'm an intersex professor. Am I supposed to lie by teaching 'only male and female'?
A campaign against teachers who acknowledge realities of human biology forces a choice: Teach truth and risk your job, or lie and maybe keep it.
www.latimes.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
This is an excellent piece from @georgianndavis.bsky.social on the wave of anti-scientific censorship sweeping the country and what it means to teach honestly in the moment.
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
The Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky is hiring a Microbiologist (broadly defined). Microbial eco-evo folks, this is your sign to come work with us. Not in the search committee, but happy to answer questions.
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology
Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology
The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...
ukjobs.uky.edu
October 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
The Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky is hiring a Microbiologist (broadly defined). Microbial eco-evo folks, this is your sign to come work with us. Not in the search committee, but happy to answer questions.
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology
Excited that we could share some of our recent work on how temperature affects sporulation and recombination rate in Saccharomyces 🎤🌡️🧬🔬
Thanks for having us Mike & @heredityjournal.bsky.social!
Thanks for having us Mike & @heredityjournal.bsky.social!
🎙️ 📻 New Heredity Podcast!
We talk with @caitismuheil.bsky.social and Jessica McNeill about their work showing the sensitivity of meiosis to temperature and what this might mean for populations in a warming world.
@ncstate.bsky.social
@gensocuk.bsky.social
Episode:
shows.acast.com/heredity-pod...
We talk with @caitismuheil.bsky.social and Jessica McNeill about their work showing the sensitivity of meiosis to temperature and what this might mean for populations in a warming world.
@ncstate.bsky.social
@gensocuk.bsky.social
Episode:
shows.acast.com/heredity-pod...
September 25, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Excited that we could share some of our recent work on how temperature affects sporulation and recombination rate in Saccharomyces 🎤🌡️🧬🔬
Thanks for having us Mike & @heredityjournal.bsky.social!
Thanks for having us Mike & @heredityjournal.bsky.social!
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]
September 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 18, 2025 at 8:56 AM
We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Breaking genetics news‼️🌱🌽 A natural DNA trick triples recombination in maize. What we first saw in Arabidopsis (@hendersi lab) a decade ago is now confirmed in crops—opening new doors for plant breeding. Published today in Nature Plants! More details 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Enhancing local meiotic crossovers in Arabidopsis and maize through juxtaposition of heterozygous and homozygous regions - Nature Plants
This study discovered that locally confined DNA differences boost crossover rates in both Arabidopsis and maize, revealing a conserved mechanism that can accelerate plant breeding and trait introgress...
www.nature.com
September 2, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Breaking genetics news‼️🌱🌽 A natural DNA trick triples recombination in maize. What we first saw in Arabidopsis (@hendersi lab) a decade ago is now confirmed in crops—opening new doors for plant breeding. Published today in Nature Plants! More details 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
We often talk about THE whole genome duplication in yeasts, but we find new evidence of additional whole genome duplications in other yeast species!
Check out this preprint led by @kylethedavid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Check out this preprint led by @kylethedavid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Discovery of additional ancient genome duplications in yeasts
Whole genome duplication (WGD) has had profound macroevolutionary impacts on diverse lineages, preceding adaptive radiations in vertebrates, teleost fish, and angiosperms. In contrast to the many know...
www.biorxiv.org
September 5, 2025 at 8:05 PM
We often talk about THE whole genome duplication in yeasts, but we find new evidence of additional whole genome duplications in other yeast species!
Check out this preprint led by @kylethedavid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Check out this preprint led by @kylethedavid.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
Early view: we find that brown anole lizards are one of, if not the most, lead tolerant vertebrates known to science combining measures of field exposure, responses to lab dosing, performance assays and functional genomics. Led by PhD student Annelise Blanchette
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Unprecedented lead tolerance in an urban lizard
Lead (Pb) is an extremely toxic heavy metal pollutant pervasive in many environments with serious health consequences for humans and wildlife. We foun…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 8, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Early view: we find that brown anole lizards are one of, if not the most, lead tolerant vertebrates known to science combining measures of field exposure, responses to lab dosing, performance assays and functional genomics. Led by PhD student Annelise Blanchette
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!
August 6, 2025 at 5:10 PM
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
My department @utoronto.ca (www.utm.utoronto.ca/biology/) is hiring a molecular biologist in any field (e.g., ecology, evolutionary biology, etc.). Please encourage any excellent finishing PhD students, postdocs or assistant professor to apply here:
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...
www.utm.utoronto.ca
July 30, 2025 at 2:55 PM
My department @utoronto.ca (www.utm.utoronto.ca/biology/) is hiring a molecular biologist in any field (e.g., ecology, evolutionary biology, etc.). Please encourage any excellent finishing PhD students, postdocs or assistant professor to apply here:
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...
Reposted by Caiti Smukowski Heil
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14
This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.
Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14
This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.
Dear all, PLEASE add comments on the importance of model organism research at this link:
July 12, 2025 at 12:11 AM
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14
This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.
Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14
This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.
Yay Aldo and team!
The #GENETICS July cover shows male (top) & female (bottom) cichlid fish of the species Aulonocara koningsi at Mbenji Island in Lake Malawi, East Africa, key in revealing the genetic basis of gut length variation associated with trophic level in Lake Malawi cichlids.
1/2🧵
1/2🧵
July 9, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Yay Aldo and team!