#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

🌍🦋 Across 6 continents, 21 sites & 15,000 paper moths, we joined a worldwide experiment led by @wlallen.bsky.social & Iliana Medina, showing how ecological context shapes the evolution of animal colouration.

Proud to be part of this global team effort: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org

We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interested in #virulence? Not sure what it is - or how to explain it? Just curious? 🧐🦠🧬🦋

@kayla-king.bsky.social and I just wrote a Primer for @currentbiology.bsky.social on the ecology and evolution of virulence!

Check it below and share :)

#MicroSky #EvoSky #pathogens

New accepted manuscript (preprint) on the evolution, phylogenetic types, expression, and fxns of a male-killing gene from a phage in a common endosymbiont of animals. Credit to many lab coauthors and led by Dr. Emilie Lefoulon. Lots of fun and insights in this one. academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...

Our new review paper with @daisukekageyama.bsky.social is out in Trends in Genetics (@cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social)!
We summarise the current knowledge on the diversity of male-killing microbes and their mechanisms.

Available here:
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Check our latest paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social about the unique sex determination system in Nautilus ➡️ XX/XY chromosomes unlike other cephalopods (ZZ/Z0).
with @reef-combo.bsky.social and @anariesgo.bsky.social et al., and led by Hector Torrado.
Get it: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lbs~_LsQS...

I had the pleasure of presenting on MK microbes at #ESEB2025 (JMS lecture) — many thanks to everyone who attended! I also learnt a lot from inspiring studies — thanks to all the speakers. On the way, I was fortunate to come across a beautiful book: 흰 (The White Book, Han Kang)

Recent achievements:
Our review paper on the striking diversity of male-killing (MK) symbionts and mechanisms has just been accepted in Trends in Genetics! I’m grateful to the reviewers for their thoughtful and valuable suggestions, and I look forward to sharing the article once it’s published

Our New Paper is out! Great work by Mashaneh Ahrar and the team - thank you all, especially @makaefer.bsky.social and Greg Hurst (is he on Bsky???)! TBC :)

Wolbachia bacteria hijack insect reproduction by killing off males, but it turns out they don’t use the same weapon in every species. New research uncovers species-specific genes with a license to kill.

Thank you very much, Seth! (from Okinawa)

Our final version of eLife paper (VOR) is now out! (doi.org/10.7554/eLif...). I investigated functions of wmk and Oscar homologs in a native host (moth) with @daisukekageyama.bsky.social and others:))

Very happy to receive two great news after the long flight : current biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) and JMS prize (eseb.org/prizes-fundi...)

This year's Runner-Up for the JMS Prize is Kaleda Denton!

Her research was highly commended by the Prize Committee and you can read more about her work here:

eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

⭐2025's John Maynard Smith Prize Winner is Hiroshi Arai⭐

Hiroshi will give the JMS Prize Lecture in Barcelona this August at #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social

Read more about his prize-winning research here: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

@haraipapilio.bsky.social paper on evolution of Wolbachia MK mechanism through prophage acquisition in molina butterflies - avoiding suppression by the host. Now out! #symbiosky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... With @daisukekageyama.bsky.social @bolinabug.bsky.social and others

New preprint from @haraipapilio.bsky.social with @bolinabug.bsky.social @daisukekageyama.bsky.social and others not on bluesky #symbiosky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...