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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie
@aedownie.bsky.social
120 followers 160 following 15 posts
Postdoc studying evolutionary ecology, trait evolution, and immunity at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social‬; he/him
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Reposted by Alec Downie
taurvil.bsky.social
Tauras Vilgalys @taurvil.bsky.social · 15h
🚨🧪 Interested in primate genomics and GxE interactions?

My lab is recruiting graduate students and postdocs to help start projects on primate gene regulation and immune evolution. Reach out if you would like to learn more, and please spread widely!

#ScienceJobs
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Reposted by Alec Downie
fidydvm.bsky.social
Fidy Rasambainarivo @fidydvm.bsky.social · 6d
🚨🚨 New Paper alert! 🚨🚨 :

Evolutionary history, longevity and terrestriality predict Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in primates 🌳🐈‍⬛️🦠🐒. #zoonosis #conservation #primates #wildlife #Madagascar #lemur #parasites

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Evolutionary history, longevity and terrestriality predict Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in free-ranging non-human primates
Evidence from captive populations indicates that lemurs are particularly vulnerable to toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii.…
www.sciencedirect.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
MPI-EVA Leipzig @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social · 8d
Why women live longer than men. A new study #ScienceAdvances by an intl. research team led by Johanna Stärk and Fernando Colchero @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social traces the evolutionary roots of the #lifespan gap between women and men. tinyurl.com/yrt4ju9u & www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Why women live longer than men
Study traces the evolutionary roots of the lifespan gap between women and men
tinyurl.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
hasikadam.bsky.social
Adam Hasik @hasikadam.bsky.social · 7d
New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer
Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer
www.nature.com
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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie @aedownie.bsky.social · Sep 1
I await in joyful hope the day someone demonstrates the evolution of reproductive isolation occurring downstream of diversifying selection on immune phenotypes. That'll be a difficult one to prove though...
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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie @aedownie.bsky.social · Sep 1
The Vancouver island sticklebacks have supplied a lot of tantalizing evidence of such processes occurring in nature. This preprint feels like an exciting piece of that: advantageous immune variants driving genome-wide introgression and evolution, potentially changing a number of phenotypes.
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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie @aedownie.bsky.social · Sep 1
@jarome.bsky.social asked me during my PhD defense about immune variation as a driver of genuine diversification, whether it might occur and whether any cases are known. I said at the time that in theory it might occur, and although I didn't know of any, it would be a dream to find such a case.
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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie @aedownie.bsky.social · Sep 1
Once again a fascinating stickleback paper! I can't wait to dig in properly.
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Aug 29
In the earliest stages of adaptive introgression, beneficial immigration can drive genome-wide changes. In a new preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... colleagues & I document exceptionally rapid genomic introgression in a lake population of stickleback.
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Reposted by Alec Downie
jamescdownie.bsky.social
James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · Aug 31
Trump says the DC occupation is about crime. Some pundits say the fed presence isn't noticeable, and life hasn't really changed.

I was born in DC, I've lived almost my whole life here, and I can tell you: all those claims are crap.

My latest for @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Life under Trump’s D.C. takeover is not what you think
Pretty much anyone living in D.C. can see every day that the White House’s justification is a lie.
www.msnbc.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
perrybaconjr.bsky.social
Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · Aug 28
Great @meredithshiner.com piece. newrepublic.com/article/1996...
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Reposted by Alec Downie
msnbc.com
MSNBC @msnbc.com · Aug 27
OPINION by @jamescdownie.bsky.social

"Whether it’s polls or jobs numbers, though, if Trump doesn’t like the numbers, he tries to change the rules."

READ MORE:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Trump’s Indiana redistricting push shows his fear of midterm voters
The president and his allies say he's very popular. Their actions suggest otherwise.
www.msnbc.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
jamescdownie.bsky.social
James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · Aug 20
One of ICE's checkpoints is ~0.5 a mile south of my house, outside the church where I got married, and next to a playground where I take my child to play. I have never felt unsafe there, and for people who don't live here to give cover for snatching my brown neighbors off the street is despicable.
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Reposted by Alec Downie
jessmetcalf.bsky.social
Jessica Metcalf @jessmetcalf.bsky.social · Aug 17
New paper from Burcu - working towards describing 'immune education' journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
A model of early-life interactions between the gut microbiome and adaptive immunity provides insights into the ontogeny of immune tolerance
The developing immune system must learn which microbes to tolerate and which to resist, but how this process unfolds is unclear. This study develops a mechanistic mathematical model of early-life gut ...
journals.plos.org
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Reposted by Alec Downie
annttate.bsky.social
Ann T. Tate @annttate.bsky.social · Aug 15
Pls RT: We are recruiting a postdoc (and potentially an RA or staff scientist) to work on the evolution of stage-structured immune systems! Experimental evolution, natural variation in immunity, and/or evo genomics in flour beetles (Tribolium). See ad here: my.vanderbilt.edu/tatelab/join...
Scale highlighting trade-offs between larval and adult beetles in response to infection A teaser of panels illustrating potential approaches to studying stage-structured immune systems, including transcriptomics, experimental evolution, and experiments in wild-derived populations
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Reposted by Alec Downie
sashagusevposts.bsky.social
Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · Jul 19
Nice discussion here. A particularly good point about why we both do and do not care about heritability.
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Reposted by Alec Downie
bennyrice.bsky.social
Benny Rice, PhD @bennyrice.bsky.social · Jul 17
Out today in Science: Our work on tropical cyclones and malaria in Madagascar. Work inspired by many and done in collaboration with many www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Vaccination to mitigate climate-driven disruptions to malaria control in Madagascar
Extreme weather is common in high malaria burden areas and is likely to increase in severity owing to climate change–related severe weather events. Yet, data on infection rates after these events and ...
www.science.org
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Reposted by Alec Downie
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Jul 8
New paper in Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social by an undergrad in my lab!
academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
We modeled eco-evo dynamics of infection & immunity and then analyzed 50 years of data from stickleback & tapeworms (thanks to museum samples!)
Dynamics of infection and immunity over 50 years as marine stickleback adapt to freshwater
Abstract. When a species colonizes a new environment, it may encounter new parasites to which its immune system is poorly adapted. After an initial spike i
academic.oup.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
archielab.bsky.social
archielab.bsky.social @archielab.bsky.social · Jun 18
Daughters who have strong relationships with their fathers live longer in adulthood! Check out the latest paper from the Amboseli Baboon Project: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Early-life paternal relationships predict adult female survival in wild baboons | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Parent–offspring relationships can have profound effects on offspring behaviour, health and fitness in adulthood. These effects are strong when parents make heavy investments in offspring care. Howeve...
royalsocietypublishing.org
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Reposted by Alec Downie
hakha.bsky.social
Hakhamanesh Mostafavi @hakha.bsky.social · Jun 17
It was fun writing this short piece on the omnigenic model. Sharing it here, though it's a painful time as my family, along with millions of others, is at risk in Iran and the region.
natrevgenet.nature.com
Nature Reviews Genetics @natrevgenet.nature.com · Jun 16
New online! Making sense of the polygenicity of complex traits
Making sense of the polygenicity of complex traits
Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 16 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00866-7Hakhamanesh Mostafavi recalls a landmark paper by Boyle et al. on the omnigenic model, which proposed that complex traits are influenced by thousands of genes across the genome, including many that are only indirectly related to a trait through regulatory networks.
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
fyguo.bsky.social
Fengyi Guo (Freda) @fyguo.bsky.social · May 30
1. Did you know that the Corn Belt in the Midwest USA is so vast you can see it from space? 🌽 How would this affect billions of migrating songbirds passing through each year? 🐦 Check out our new study in @conbiology.bsky.social
to find out! 🧵1/8 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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aedownie.bsky.social
Alec Downie @aedownie.bsky.social · May 26
Oh, now this is a fun one. I love modeling papers that can explain the differences between in vitro and in vivo outcomes, and this one is particularly clever and interesting in its insight.
biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social
bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · May 26
Social interactions shape antiviral resistance outcomes in poliovirus via eco-evolutionary feedback https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.20.655113v1
Reposted by Alec Downie
jlzung.bsky.social
Jessica Zung @jlzung.bsky.social · Apr 22
Kicking off my Bluesky account by sharing a new review I wrote with @lindymcbr.bsky.social for @currentbiology.bsky.social! If you’ve ever wondered about the source of your stank or just want to learn why humans smell weird (it's true!), then this review is for you! 👃🧪🤔 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
a diagram showing a cross-section of human skin, showing that sebaceous compounds are broken down under UV radiation
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Reposted by Alec Downie
jamescdownie.bsky.social
James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · Apr 25
"Making the wealthy pay more in taxes 'is a no-brainer.' But if hiking taxes on the rich is a no-brainer, cutting taxes for the rich is the GOP’s primary reflex."

My latest for @msnbc.com, on Trump's present to Sanders and AOC: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | How Trump’s tax announcement handed a win to Bernie Sanders and AOC
MAGA populism is still faux populism.
www.msnbc.com
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Reposted by Alec Downie
jessmetcalf.bsky.social
Jessica Metcalf @jessmetcalf.bsky.social · Apr 7
Princeton EEB Scholars program now open eeb.princeton.edu/graduate/eeb...
EEB Scholars Program
The 2024 EEB Scholars Program application is now open and will close on June 15th, 2024.As part of efforts to increase the diversity and accessibility of graduate studies in ecology and evolutionary b...
eeb.princeton.edu
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