Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Pável Matos @pavelmatosm.bsky.social · 3d

It's been great hosting you, @marcinwiorek.bsky.social! Looking forward to more collaborations together 🦋🧬

10kLepGenomes @10klepgenomes.bsky.social · 4d

(1/2)🚀 New successful STSM of CA23122 – 10kLepGenomes!
@marcinwiorek.bsky.social (Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals Polish Academy of Sciences) joined @pavelmatosm.bsky.social for a 2-week collaboration at the Institute of Entomology - Biology Centre CAS (České Budějovice) 👇🏼

Pável Matos-Maraví (STSM supervisor) and Marcin Wiorek (STSM researcher).

Marcin Wiorek inspecting the collection of Lepidoptera at the Biology Centre CAS (České Budějovice).

2 4

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Max Fürst @maxfus.bsky.social · 3d

Un-frigging-believable. I have waited for something like this for so long!

2 11 45

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Edward T Eng @edwardteng.bsky.social · 4d

Muyuan Chen has turned structural biology into an immersive experience with his new video game Meowtabolism, now available on Steam.
Try the demo here: store.steampowered.com/app/4045010/...
Give Muyuan feedback: steamcommunity.com/app/4045010
#ScienceGaming #StructuralBiology #CryoEM #STEMOutreach

1 24 47

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · 19d

@nicolasdussex.bsky.social et al. investigate the genomic basis of adaptation in the Svalbard reindeer, an endemic subspecies that colonized the High Arctic ~7,000 years ago, adapting to extreme cold, day length changes, and resource scarcity.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf160

#genome #evolution

GBE | The Genomic Basis of the Svalbard Reindeer's Adaptation to an Extreme Arctic Environment

6 18

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Guy Leonard @guyleonard.bsky.social · Jul 1

Early bird applications are now open! Go go go genomics!

Workshops @evomics.bsky.social · Jul 1

Applications are now open for the Workshop on Genomics 2026 (11-24 Jan) in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia. For the first time, we are offering Early Bird Registration discounts! 🐣 Do not miss the chance! 🤩 Help us spread the word among friends and colleagues! 🙆🏽‍♀️ #evomics2026
evomics.org/apply-worksh...

5 7

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Riccardo Pianezza @rpianezza.bsky.social · 4d

We discovered an endogenous retrovirus that's still spreading in natural D. melanogaster populations! It was horizontally transferred from D. erecta in Central Africa, so we named it "Kuruka", which means "jump" in Swahili. Read its cool story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1 12 22

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Emily Troyer @fishfetisher.bsky.social · 4d

Happy Anatomically Incorrect Invertebrate season to all who celebrate

A fake snail with a skull for a shell and bony body

5 34 140

Christopher Wheat @chriswheat.bsky.social · 4d

I see you fellow fan!!! From today:

1 1 4

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 5d

Rapid, accurate long- and short-read mapping to large pangenome graphs with vg Giraffe www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/vgteam/long-...

1 6

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Ana Ignatieva @anaignatieva.bsky.social · 5d

Delighted that our paper about the distribution of genomic spans of clades/edges in genealogies (ARGs), and using this for detecting inversions and other SVs (and other phenomena that cause local disruption of recombination) is out in MBE academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... (1/n)

The Length of Haplotype Blocks and Signals of Structural Variation in Reconstructed Genealogies

Abstract. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the accurate inference of large-scale genealogies. Through modelling the impact of recombination on the correla

academic.oup.com

4 37 60

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · 6d

Schall & @jeffreymkidd.bsky.social characterized structural variation in dogs using a combination of long- and short-read data and genome assemblies. Several SVs have frequency profiles across breeds consistent with selection.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf173

#genome #evolution #TEsky

Structural variation makes an important contribution to genetic diversity. An integrated analysis of long-read and short-read sequencing data created an expanded database of structural variation in canines. Several structural variants, including multiple mobile element insertions, have frequency profiles across major clades of modern dog breeds consistent with selection.

4 8

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Physalia-courses@Online @physaliacourses.bsky.social · Apr 23

Interested in the analysis on Transposable elements? 🧬
Have a look at our course with @valentinapeona.bsky.social & @ritarebollo.bsky.social

We'll cover everything from TE biology to de novo library construction, quantification, & transcriptomic analysis.

www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

9 8

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 7d

Great stuff from Leland also involving my research group - there is a whole new previously hard to access layer of molecular control via RNA modifications on mRNA

Oxford Nanopore @nanoporetech.com · 7d

Methylation goes beyond just 5mC, but legacy sequencing methods do not.

Join our CoLab at #ASHG to learn how Dr Leyland Taylor is unravelling the dynamic regulatory role of multiple RNA mods in type 2 diabetes using Oxford Nanopore sequencing. nanoporetech.com/about/events...

1 2 6

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

10kLepGenomes @10klepgenomes.bsky.social · 7d

Congratulations to our webpage manager @marcinwiorek.bsky.social !

Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS @iseapas.bsky.social · 7d

Our 🦋 lepidopterist, Dr Marcin Wiorek, has been elected a co-Editor-in-Chef of Nota Lepidopterologica @notalepido.bsky.social! ⬇️

Nota Lepidopterologica @notalepido.bsky.social · 8d

Eight years after joining Nota Lepidopterologica's editorial team, David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social is stepping down from his role as our co-Editor-in-Chief. Taking his place is Marcin Wiorek @marcinwiorek.bsky.social , whom we warmly welcome!

blog.pensoft.net/2025/09/30/n...

2 4

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · 11d

Another year using @kitchensjn.bsky.social + @gcbias.bsky.social's intuitive circle plots to discuss human genetic variation in my undergrad genetics class james-kitchens.com/blog/visuali...

Visualizing Human Genetic Diversity

A key insight from human genetics is that, as a species, we are all very genetically similar to one another and share much of our genetic variation. Our genome can be depicted as a string of letters (...

james-kitchens.com

1 16 46

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Joachim Mergeay @jmergeay.bsky.social · 12d

Viktoria köppä presenting genetic EBVs in Sweden’s genetic monitoring 🧪🧬
for the #GenMonFin project

1 2 5

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Henry North @henrylnorth.bsky.social · 12d

k-mer-based diversity scales with population size proxies more than nucleotide diversity in a meta-analysis of 98 plant species.

academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...

k-mer-based diversity scales with population size proxies more than nucleotide diversity in a meta-analysis of 98 plant species

Abstract. A key prediction of neutral theory is that the level of genetic diversity in a population should scale with population size. However, as was note

academic.oup.com

2 8 14

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Jon Velotta @jpvelotta.bsky.social · 14d

Check out our new deer mouse paper @sse-evolution.bsky.social! A truly collaborative effort with @drgodwit.bsky.social, @mstager.bsky.social, and Zac Cheviron. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Incomplete genetic compensation and countergradient variation of blood-oxygen transport in deer mice

Abstract. Novel environments can induce fitness-reducing responses (i.e., maladaptive plasticity) that should be eliminated by selection via genetic compen

academic.oup.com

5 20

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

🧬Jacob L Steenwyk @jlsteenwyk.bsky.social · 13d

#PhyKIT update! v2.1.2

9 functions have been #optimized 🏃💨

Speed ups range from 1.34 - 17.9x faster!💥

Many thanks to #Codex for the helping hand👋😄

1 8 14

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Karl Schmid @kjschmid.bsky.social · 13d

This looks interesting: Reference genome choice compromises population genetic analyses

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Reference genome choice compromises population genetic analyses

Using a species-specific reference genome significantly improves the accuracy of population genetic analyses, as exemplified by mapping gray fox sequence data to genomes of several canid species. Mapp...

www.cell.com

5 11

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Physalia-courses@Online @physaliacourses.bsky.social · 19d

Many thanks to @ambarbosa.bsky.social & this group of participants for another amazing edition (10th) of the Species Distribution & Ecological Niche Modelling in R course!

See you next week for the course on SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELING WITH BART METHODS: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

1 1

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Alice Godden @alicegodden.bsky.social · 22d

Our new paper is out in Dev Biol! 🎉 🐸🧬
We show #miR-196a directs #neural crest fate in #Xenopus by repressing immature neural #ectoderm — evidence #miRNAs can potentially drive, not just fine-tune, early patterning
👉 Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.yd...
@devbiol.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social

Schematic overview of our project. Dissection of Xenopus neural crest following morpholino knockdown of miRNA, then extraction of RNA for RNA-seq

1 12 49

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

James Bonfield @jbonfield.bsky.social · 23d

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change.

Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

2 130 140

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Marianna Karageorgi @mkarag.bsky.social · 23d

How do populations maintain an evolutionary memory? I am happy to share that our work with Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social, Paul Schmidt, and colleagues on dominance reversal and stabilization of insecticide resistance in changing environments over time is now published at Nature EE.

Beneficial reversal of dominance maintains a large-effect resistance polymorphism under fluctuating insecticide selection - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Measuring selection and dominance in fitness of the insecticide-resistant Ace alleles in Drosophila melanogaster, the authors show evidence for beneficial reversal of dominance, a mechanism that can s...

www.nature.com

3 19 54

Reposted by Christopher Wheat

Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social · 23d

Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

1 29 67