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Reposted by German Lagunas-Robles

Charlotte Wright @charlottewright.bsky.social · 27d

How many chromosomes can an animal have?

In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

tinyurl.com

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · 27d

ggplot2 ethusiasts, new update just dropped! 🔥🔥🔥

Thomas Lin Pedersen @thomasp85.com · 28d

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

ggplot2 4.0.0

A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

www.tidyverse.org

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Reposted by German Lagunas-Robles

Thomas Lin Pedersen @thomasp85.com · 28d

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

ggplot2 4.0.0

A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

www.tidyverse.org

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Reposted by German Lagunas-Robles

Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

go.nature.com

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Sep 2

Check out our latest preprint in Formica ants! We investigate how the sex ratio supergene evolved. We find that a colony-level sex ratio supergene evolved twice! This likely occurred as a result of recombination between the the ancestral queen number supergenes present in Formica. 🧬🐜🧬🐜🧬🐜

bioRxiv Genomics @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · Sep 1

Multiple origins of a sex ratio supergene in Formica ants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.27.672632v1

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Jul 24

Led by Jessica Purcell. The team included @giuliascarparo.bsky.social , Madison Sankovitz, Mari West, Zul Alam, and Alan Brelsford.

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Jul 24

There were ~10% of colonies showing mismatches between supergene genotype and phenotype, but we only observed this at one site. This raised the possibility that environment may override supergene control of colony queen number.

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Jul 24

Colonies with single queens were more common in the north, but the queen number polymorphism was present throughout the gradient. The supergene haplotype frequency reflected this as the frequency also varied with latitude.

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Jul 24

We sampled Formica podzolica colonies across a latitudinal gradient between Alaska and New Mexico. Surprisingly, Formica podzolica has SIX(!) common supergene variants that are differentiated by three distinct cassettes.

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Jul 24

Excited to share some of the latest work coming from the Formica ant supergene system 🐜🧬! This project represents many collection trips and years of work!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Variation in social organization and supergene control along a latitudinal gradient

Widespread species often experience vastly different environmental conditions across their range. In species with polymorphic traits under strong genetic control, we can investigate how environmental ...

doi.org

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Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · Jun 27

Very pleased to see this officially out - Genome Architecture and Speciation in Plants and Animals. With @siluwang.bsky.social, @dortizba.bsky.social and Loren Rieseberg. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by German Lagunas-Robles

Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · Apr 23

The #EditorsChoice for this month from EIC @maxreuter.bsky.social is

"Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants" by

@g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social et al

academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants

Abstract. Ants exhibit many complex social organization strategies. One particularly elaborate strategy is supercoloniality, in which a colony consists of

academic.oup.com

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

Thanks to Zul Alam and Alan Brelsford for their work on this! (4/n)

German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

Taken together, these results suggest that supercoloniality isn't as simple as having the multi-queen supergene haplotype. (3/n)

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

We find that the multi-queen haplotype is missing from a supercolonial population. Additionally, we find a similar pattern with the multi-queen haplotype being absent in one supercolonial species, but present in another. (2/n)

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

Is supercoloniality a simple extension of polygyny?Supercolonies, networks of interconnected nests with many queens, have been proposed as a natural extension of multi-queen nests. In many Formica ants, a supergene determines whether a colony has a single queen or many queens. (1/n)

Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · Apr 9

An ancient Formica supergene is associated with single queen vs many-queen nests; the many-queen haplotype is missing from a supercolonial population and similar patterns noted in other supercolonial species

@g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social, Zul Alam and Alan Brelsford

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants

Abstract. Ants exhibit many complex social organization strategies. One particularly elaborate strategy is supercoloniality, in which a colony consists of

doi.org

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

Thanks to Zul Alam and Alan Brelsford for their work on this! (4/n)

German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

Taken together, these results suggest that supercoloniality isn't as simple as having the multi-queen supergene haplotype. (3/n)

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Apr 9

We find that the multi-queen haplotype is missing from a supercolonial population. Additionally, we find a similar pattern with the multi-queen haplotype being absent in one supercolonial species, but present in another. (2/n)

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Reposted by German Lagunas-Robles

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Mar 26

A novel supergene controls queen size and colony social organization in the ant Myrmica ruginodis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.24.644106v1

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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Mar 3

Dynamics of a supergene. A study of the BC supergene in wing color morphs of the African monarch #butterfly by @rishidekayne.bsky.social &co reveals dynamic evolution of #supergene haplotypes, fueled by incomplete recombination suppression 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3DiFhnL

Top: Topology weightings across chr15 showing how the karamu haplotype is related to the klugii and orientis haplotypes. Upper panel shows three possible rooted genealogical topologies. Second panel shows weights for each topology along the chromosome, smoothed with a 20 kb span. Arrows above the plot indicate the locations of inversions. Third panel shows unsmoothed topology weightings across a 1.5 Mb region corresponding to Inversion 2. Bottom: Ancestry painting across a 100 kb region within Inversion 2, showing ancestry tracts for two homozygous karamu individuals compared to two representative individuals homozygous for the orientis and klugii haplotypes. Coding regions are indicated below the plot, with the candidate gene for background colouration yellow indicated. Green triangles represent the top 10 SNPs for background colour in our GWAS. There is evidence for recombination throughout the supergene region, and specifically in the vicinity of yellow, consistent with the hypothesis that orientis ancestry at this locus (i.e., the B allele) is associated with darker colouration in karamu individuals.

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Jana Helsen @helsenjana.bsky.social · Jan 17

Centromere evolution isn't a sudden switch!

Our study shows centromere transitions are a step-by-step process driven by a combination of drift and selection. Discover how the kinetochore interface shapes this gradual change in our new preprint 🥳 doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.16.633479 🧵(1/8)

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David Toews @davetoews.bsky.social · Oct 14

🦉🧪 Questions about high latitude myrtle warblers have been "up in the air" (pun intended) since 1899! @stephszarmach.bsky.social used fancy new geolocators that track light AND barometric pressure to add an unexpected chapter to this tale ......

Steph Szarmach @stephszarmach.bsky.social · Oct 11

Excited to share our preprint on the migration of high-latitude breeding myrtle warblers! Using barometric geolocators and stable isotopes we found most birds migrated >5,000km to the Gulf Coast rather than to the closer Pacific Coast wintering area.

biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Left panel shows a myrtle warbler wearing a geolocator backpack and right panel shows a map with a migration track for one bird traveling from Alaska southeast across Canada and then southwest to Texas

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German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Sep 19

Thanks to Zul Alam and Alan Brelsford who contributed to this work! (and are not on Bluesky)

German Lagunas-Robles @g-lagunasrobles.bsky.social · Sep 19

Our preprint on the unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype in supercolonial populations is up on bioRxiv! We found that the P haplotype is not necessary for supercoloniality in the Formica rufa group, despite its longstanding association with non-supercolonial polygyny.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · Sep 19

Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.15.613148v1

Ants exhibit many complex social organization strategies. One particularly elaborate strategy is sup

www.biorxiv.org

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