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rokaslab.bsky.social
The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
@rokaslab.bsky.social
280 followers 93 following 6 posts
The Laboratory of Antonis Rokas at Vanderbilt University. Tweets should be interpreted as bookmarks, not as endorsements. All opinions are Antonis'.

http://www.rokaslab.org
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Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
evolutionvu.bsky.social
🎉 Fall 2025 Evolutionary Studies - the Magazine is live!
Horses that ignore genetic stop signs, humans adapting to extreme deserts, the #evolution of birdsong, and our Friend of Darwin award.
Read it: https://loom.ly/cACR5HY
#science
Cover of Evolutionary Studies Magazine Fall 2025 issue featuring a black Darwin's finch with a large beak perched on green succulent vegetation. The magazine title and ESI logo appear in white text at top left. Cover stories listed include 'Kate Snyder: Evolution & Birds', 'The Evolution of Exercise in Horses', and 'The Scopes Monkey Trial Centennial Symposium'.
January 21, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
events.embl.org
📣 #EMBOEvoEco returns in 2026 to uncover the mechanistic foundations of ecological and evolutionary change!

Keynote lectures will spotlight the ecology and evolution of symbiosis.

Submit your abstract for the EMBO Workshop: https://s.embl.org/eae26-01-bl!
January 13, 2026 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
Are you a scientist studying population, evolutionary, or quantitative genetics in Drosophila, mice, mammals, maize, humans, Arabidopsis, Zebrafish, yeast, plants, worms, or other model organisms? 🪰🐁🌽👤🐟🍺🌱🪱

#PEGQ26 is the conference for you! Submit an abstract: buff.ly/ue9xUSY

#PopGen #Evo
January 15, 2026 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
stelkens.bsky.social
We made a new lager beer! "Indomitus" for wild and untamed. Brewed with a wild yeast strain from Patagonia! This is the result of a super fun collaboration (and lots of hard work) with Francisco Cubillos in Chile (@fcocubillosr.bsky.social) and Andrés Furukawa at the Nils Oscar Brewery in Sweden.
January 15, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
Dive into the latest Special Issue of #GENETICS, spotlighting cutting-edge experimental and computational methods shaping the future of genetics research. These papers showcase what’s possible when method development leads the way. Read more: buff.ly/eKVzqHq
January 14, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
hyphaltip.bsky.social
2026 is the 50th anniversary of the Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology GRC. It will be June 21-26, 2026. Consider attending this is a great meeting if you work in the fungal biology field at genetic / genomic / molecular scale. www.grc.org/cellular-and... 🍄🧬🖥️
Flier for conference with list of name of speakers and discussion leaders, Title for conference "Evolutionary Perspectives of Metabolic, Cellular and Genomic Diversity in Fungi", 50th Anniversary Conference Chairs: Bridget Barker & Elaine Bignell. held June 20-21 GRS, June 21-26, GRC. URL https://www.grc.org/cellular-and-molecular-fungal-biology-conference/2026/ and list of speakers names.
January 13, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
vscooper.micropopbio.org
🚨Call for papers🚨
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me

This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health Call for Papers A defining characteristic of infectious diseases is that they evolve. The consequences of this evolution are among the most pressing medical issues facing humanity, including emerging pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and the success or failure of vaccines. Pathogen evolution profoundly influences virulence, transmission, and responses to a broad array of human interventions. While the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens have historically been challenging to study, large-scale genomic sequencing, novel computational tools, and experimental methods are rapidly changing the field. We encourage submissions on the broad topic of the evolution of infectious diseases. This Special Issue aims to feature research that blends evolutionary approaches to understanding pathogen heterogeneity and ongoing genetic change in clinical samples and models of human infection. It also seeks to highlight opportunities to design treatment and prevention strategies that remain effective in the face of ongoing pathogen evolution. Submission – open until January 31, 2027 Guest editors Robert Woods, MD PhD, University of Michigan Camilo Barbosa, PhD, University of Michigan Silvie Huijben, PhD, Arizona State University
January 9, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
gillesfischer.bsky.social
Last work of the lab showing that Repeated losses of self-fertility shaped heterozygosity and polyploidy in yeast evolution | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
January 8, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
jomcinerney.bsky.social
Sponges are notoriously difficult to understand in evolutionary biology terms. I think this paper is a big step forward : www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history
Sponges have a cryptic Ediacaran history because ancestral sponges were soft-bodied and had low fossilization potential.
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
evolutionvu.bsky.social
Last week, faculty, trainees, alumni and friends gathered for our annual retreat. It was a day of talks, trivia and conversation spanning #evolution, medicine, ecology, and genomics. A great reminder of the interdisciplinary community that makes ESI work. More retreat highlights soon…
Group photo of faculty, trainees, alumni, and staff from the Evolutionary Studies Initiative standing together at the ESI Retreat. The group is arranged in several rows inside an industrial event space with exposed beams and wood floors, smiling toward the camera. A holiday wreath hangs on the wall behind them, and tables with notebooks and coffee cups are visible in the foreground. The photo captures a large, interdisciplinary academic community gathered for a full-day retreat.
December 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
nanditagarud.bsky.social
Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Gene-specific selective sweeps are pervasive across human gut microbiomes - Nature
Development and application of the integrated linkage disequilibrium score (iLDS) reveals both selective pressures impacting the human gut microbiome and the mechanisms by which gut bacteria adapt to ...
www.nature.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
stamatak.bsky.social
Our raxtax tool for taxonomic classification is published: it is 2.7–100 times faster than competing tools but equally accurate - raxtax has increasing speedups with growing query and reference sequence numbers compared to existing tools: academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
December 17, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
morgancarterphd.bsky.social
We are excited to present the accepted paper on the Mycetohabitans pangenome now in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social! 🧬🦠

Thanks to @bhuwanabbot.bsky.social
for leading and collaborators:
@raw937.bsky.social @andrabuchan.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...
Comparative genomics reveals multipartite genomes undergoing loss in the fungal endosymbiotic genus Mycetohabitans
Abstract. Endosymbiotic bacteria extensively impact phenotypes of their eukaryotic hosts, while experiencing dramatic changes to their own genome as they b
academic.oup.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
fungage-lab.bsky.social
Just a few days left to apply to the PhD position in our group. It focuses on selfish genes in #fungi and how they might affect the spread of giant #TEs called Starships.
fungage-lab.bsky.social Aaron Vogan @fungage-lab.bsky.social · Nov 19
We're looking for a PhD student! If you're interested in #fungal #genomics & #TEs, meiotic drive, or pathogens, please consider applying. The project is about toxin/antidote genes in the human fungal pathogen A. fumigatus. uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Image of yeast spotted on an agar plate. Some grow well, others are dying.
December 17, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
ncse.bsky.social
Did you miss of Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet Awards webinar last week? No worries, we have you covered. It's up on our youtube page now, so you can watch at your leisure. https://youtu.be/XV56GYpLmX4?si=7v58y5BlefZ16EnX
December 13, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
hittingerlab.bsky.social
New preprint with @rokaslab.bsky.social! We used genomic, metabolic, environmental, and phenotypic data sets from 1,154 Saccharomycotina strains to asses filamentation variability and predict filamentation types across the subphylum. 🧩
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The Macroevolution of Filamentation Morphology Across the Saccharomycotina Yeast Subphylum
Saccharomycotina yeasts are a highly diverse and widely distributed subphylum of ascomycete fungi that exhibit diversity in their asexual growth morphologies; the human commensal yeast Candida albican...
www.biorxiv.org
December 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
ncse.bsky.social
Join us online tomorrow, Thursday, December 4 at 6 PM ET as we honor this year's Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet recipients! The event is free and open to the public. To register - us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#celebrate #sciencesky #edusky #evobio #climatesky #ecosky #webinar
Flyer for the event. Text: 2025 Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet Awards. December 4 at 6:00 ET. Register for this virtual event to receive a link. Imagery: Headshots and group photos of each of the recipients: Katie Hinde, Evolutionary Studies at Vanderbilt, Randolph M. Nesse, John Toohey-Morales, The CLEO Institute, and Kim Cobb.
December 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
🚨Last chance! Submit an abstract to #Fungal26 by tomorrow, December 4: buff.ly/1AMwJhf

They can cover an array of topics including #ComparativeGenomics #FunctionalGenomics #Pathogenic #GeneRegulation #CellBiology #Biochemistry #Metabolism #FungalEcology #Evo #DevelopmentalBio #PopGen and more.
December 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
billhanage.bsky.social
Essential reading if you care about the health of scientific inquiry in the US

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
ncse.bsky.social
Reminder! Our Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet webinar is coming up this Thurs., 12/4! Join us virtually as we celebrate 2025's award recipients. This online event is free and will include a Q&A after brief comments from the winners. Register - us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#soundscience
ncse.bsky.social National Center for Science Education @ncse.bsky.social · Nov 13
Join us virtually on 12/4 at 6 ET as we celebrate our 2025 Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet recipients. Register in advance for a link - us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #CelebrateScience #ScienceSky #ClimateSky
Flyer image. The text reads: 2025 Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet Awards. December 4 at 6:00 ET. Register for this virtual event to receive a link. 6 images featuring this year's recepients: Katie Hinde, a group photo of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Vanderbilt, Randolph M. Nesse, John Toohey-Morales, a group photo of the CLEO Institute, and Kim Cobb. The text reads: NCSE's 2025 Friends of Darwin. Join us virtually 12/4 at 6 ET. Recipients: Katie Hinde, Evolutionary Studies Initiative at Vanderbilt, Randolph M. Nesse. Images: Headshot of Katie Hinde, group photo of Evolutionary Studies Initiative at Vanderbilt, headshot of Randolph M. Nesse. The text reads: NCSE's 2025 Friends of the Planet. Join us virtually 12/4 at 6 ET. Recipients: John Toohey-Morales, The CLEO Institute, Kim Cobb. Images: Headshot of John Toohey-Morales, group photo of the CLEO Institute, headshot of Kim Cobb.
December 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
helsenjana.bsky.social
How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery?

Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.

👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
November 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
molbioevol.bsky.social
Gonçalves, @rokaslab.bsky.social @hittingerlab.bsky.social et al. surveyed 1,154 yeast genomes to examine gene repertoires linked to genome stability and elevated evolutionary rates, showing hypermutators persist across macroevolutionary timescales.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf285

#evobio #molbio
Stable Hypermutators Revealed by the Genomic Landscape of Genes Involved in Genome Stability Among Yeast Species
Abstract. Mutator phenotypes are short-lived due to the rapid accumulation of deleterious mutations. Yet, recent observations reveal that certain fungi can
doi.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
evolutionvu.bsky.social
Check out Brynn Wooten's work featured in @livescience.com and covered on our website - https://loom.ly/rVt1O2o! Proud alum of Fort Hays State University @vuartsci.bsky.social #HellPig
November 20, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
Debating submitting an abstract to present at #Fungal26?

Share your science with a supportive community, ready to provide important feedback, exchange ideas, and build new collaborations to further the field of fungal genetics.

Submit an abstract: buff.ly/SSt7GDF
November 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by The Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University
morgancarterphd.bsky.social
We are hiring!! Biological Sciences as UNC Charlotte has a broad search for a new assistant professor.
Apps reviewed 12/15.

Please spread the word! 💚⛏️
#PlantSci 🧪🦠🧬
jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/65141
Assistant Professor
Applicants should possess a Ph.D. in the biological sciences or related fields.Candidates are expected to document expertise in their specialty by a record of postdoctoral training, peer reviewed publ...
jobs.charlotte.edu
November 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM