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Reposted by Andres Bendesky

Cahir O'Kane @cahirokane.bsky.social · 1d

Sad to hear of the death of John Gurdon this morning, aged 92.

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College

Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.

www.magd.cam.ac.uk

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

This was a fun collaboration with the group of Johannes von Lintig.

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

Our findings suggest that conversion of dietary pro-VA carotenoids to retinal by bco1l is essential for retinoic acid-dependent processes in larval and juvenile betta fish.
bco1l is not redundant with bco1 and it's been preserved in ray-finned fishes since its emergence in their stem lineage.

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

Without bco1l, young animals don't grow nor swim properly and they have a deficit of VA and retinoic acid after they exhaust the retinoids stored in the yolk.
Growth and behavior are rescued by retinoic acid supplementation.

Vitamin A production during betta development. From 0 to 5 dpf, maternally deposited retinal in the yolk is utilized to produce the essential metabolite retinoic acid and the visual chromophore (11-cis retinal). Once the yolk stores of retinal are depleted, developing betta transition to retinoid production through the metabolism of dietary carotenoids. From 5-15 dpf, betta convert β-carotene from rotifer feeds to retinal via the 15,15’ oxygenase activity of bco1l. From 15 dpf to adulthood, betta rely on the provitamin A ketocarotenoid content of Artemia feeds. These molecules are likely converted to β-carotene through an unknown pathway and subsequently cleaved by bco1l.

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

bco1l is 4x less abundant than bco1l in the skin and 4x more abundant in the intestine.
Consistent with such expression, pearl danio fish mutant for bco1 only have a subtle pigmentation defect (doi.org/p8jx). By contrast we found bco1l to be essential for betta fish juvenile development and survival

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

Whereas other vertebrates use bco1 for converting dietary beta-carotene and other carotenoids into Vitamin A, we found that bco1-like evolved via duplication from bco1 in the ray-finned fishes. These are the most speciose, abundant and commercially important group of fishes.

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 1d

Excited to share our new work, led by undergrad extraordinaire Lochlan Krupa.
Vitamin A and its product, retinoic acid, are essential in vertebrates. We either get VA preformed in diet or make it from carotenoids.
Using betta fish we discovered a gene that is essential for VA production
doi.org/p8h5

Retinoic acid production via the ray-finned fish gene beta-carotene oxygenase 1-like is essential for juvenile development

In vertebrates, vitamin A (VA) is crucial for development, tissue homeostasis, vision, and immunity. Retinal, a form of VA, is produced via enzymatic cleavage of β-carotene by beta-carotene oxygenase ...

doi.org

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Mia Levine @levine-lab.bsky.social · 3d

Check out this new Levine-Lampson collaboration, led by the talented Hyuk-Joon Jeon.

We explored the consequences of inheriting long telomeres from dad and short telomeres from mom. Or the reciprocal. Turns out, parent-of-origin matters (in mice, at least).

authors.elsevier.com/c/1loW-3QW8S...

authors.elsevier.com

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 7d

A maternal-fetal PIEZO1 incompatibility as a barrier to Neanderthal-modern human admixture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679417v1

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Anita Devineni @anitadevineni.bsky.social · 7d

My department at Emory is a hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist!

Anyone who's talked to me in the last 4 years knows I cannot say enough good things about my dept and the neuroscience community here. My colleagues are so wonderfully supportive. Postdocs, please apply!

apply.interfolio.com/174371

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apply.interfolio.com

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Akiyoshi Kitaoka @akiyoshikitaoka.bsky.social · 8d

How to create a demo of color illusion

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 12d

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 14d

Holy shit, this is a huge deal

James Harvey @keepof4worlds.bsky.social · 14d

Wonderful news. A salutary reminder of the absolute benefits of scientific progress, and the absolute evil of conspiracist bollocks.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time www.bbc.com/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that could transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC

www.bbc.com

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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 13d

HHMI adopts Plan U journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 13d

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

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Matt Rockman @wormsrock.bsky.social · 13d

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 🧵]

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The Onion @theonion.com · 13d

Nation’s 56,000 Acres Of Spinach Crops Cooked Down To Single Half-Cup Serving

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Tiffany Ito @tiffanyito.bsky.social · 15d

University of Colorado Boulder Psychology & Neuroscience is searching for TWO tenure track assistant professors!!

jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

#socialpsychology #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #PsychJob
#psycjobs #psychology

1/n

Assistant Professor

jobs.colorado.edu

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Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 15d

📣 Our department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Cell and Molecular Biology to join the @weillinstitute.bsky.social PLS spread the word!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30607

Cornell University, Molecular Biology & Genetics

Job #AJO30607, WDR-00055221 Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

academicjobsonline.org

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Adria LeBoeuf @adriatica.bsky.social · 18d

If you are from the US and interested in applying for a PhD with me (or anyone else @camzoology.bsky.social @cambridgebiosci.bsky.social), your deadline for the gates scholarship is October 15!
(You’ll need to write a research proposal, so contact PIs now) www.gatescambridge.org/programme/th...

Postgraduate Cambridge University Scholarship | Gates Cambridge

A fully funded graduate education for future leaders committed to improving the lives of others.

www.gatescambridge.org

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 18d

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Computational Ecology and/or Evolution @columbiauniversity.bsky.social.
Deadline to apply September 30.
Reach out if you have questions.

apply.interfolio.com/172496

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apply.interfolio.com

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 17d

Massive sibling regression study finds that human traits are largely environmentally driven (average heritability = 0.3)

Within-family heritability estimates for behavioural and disease phenotypes from 500,000 sibling pairs of diverse ancestries

Quantification of the direct effect of genetic variation on human behavioural traits is important for understanding between-individual variation in socio-economic and health outcomes but estimates of ...

www.medrxiv.org

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 18d

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Computational Ecology and/or Evolution @columbiauniversity.bsky.social.
Deadline to apply September 30.
Reach out if you have questions.

apply.interfolio.com/172496

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apply.interfolio.com

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World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 18d

Patience is a virtue.
#WorldBollardAssociation

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