Does bird migration 

increase bird speciation? 

The methods decides. 

                                                   Calabrese et al. (2025) Syst Biol
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Die EU-Kommission will Messenger-Dienste zwingen, ALLE privaten Nachrichten und Fotos in Echtzeit zu scannen. Die #Chatkontrolle bedeutet das Ende von verschlüsselter Kommunikation. Das verstößt gegen unsere Grundrechte. Jetzt dagegen unterzeichnen: 👇

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

Well, depends... In some fields "noise" refers to stochasticity that is necessary e.g. for tissue differentiation or adaptive immune response, see e.g. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

SINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...

Many thanks to all GEvol members for a truly wonderful annual meeting. It was really great to catch up with you all again.

Congrats Dr. @roriwijnhorst.bsky.social @lmumuenchen.bsky.social for an impressive PhD-presentation and defence. Thanks partner in crime @cdegroot.bsky.social and collaborators @ali--wilson.bsky.social, Henrik Jensen & Jon Wright and @dfg.de for funding his project on social evolution in sparrows

Our study on a male-essential microRNA and the evolution of other dosage compensation mechanisms in birds is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two #LMU projects receive ERC #ProofOfConcept Grants!
🌿 Silke Robatzek is pursuing a novel approach in plant protection strategies.
🧠 @tobiasstaudigl.bsky.social optimizes deep brain stimulation with functional markers.
#LMU #ERC #ResearchInThePractice Read more here: www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Also here:

This tropical plant builds isolated ‘apartments’ to prevent battles among the aggressive ant tenants it relies on for survival theconversation.com/this-tropica...

We are quite delighted by the media coverage of our paper:

This Jungle Plant Is a Good Landlord to Its Tenant Ants www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/s...

🧬 Shift between specialized & generalized diets in #bees is associated with evolutionary changes in their sensory genes. Generalists lose odorant receptors (ORs) and gain gustatory receptors (GRs), while specialists diversify existing genes 🌸🐝 #genomics #pollinators
academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Compartmentalization reduces conflict in multipartner plant-insect symbioses | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Female neoteny does have an impact on colonization patterns in the big European firefly, Lampyris noctiluca ✨

This work shows the first overview on the population genetics and demographic history of the big European firefly, **Lampyris noctiluca**. Feeling very happy this work is out :) academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Despite their strikingly different plumage, carrion and hooded crows show strong asymmetrical gene flow hidden beneath the feathers #hybridzone #evolution #demography #bird

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Further, we found – at least for a range of model parameter values – that the defence trait is indeed altruistic. That is, it reduces the direct fitness of the defender, such that, from the perspective of inclusive fitness theory, kin selection really matters.

Can genetic drift generate enough variation between subpopulations to allow for the evolution of defence against predators or parasites via multi-level selection? In www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we have explored this for a structured population model.

👏 Congratulations to the organization of the SMBE satellite meeting on 'Origin, Maintenance, and Evolution of Biological Noise' that was held in Tübingen!