Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · 19d

To anyone else searching, this has been an extremely useful resource: udel.edu/~mcdonald/my...

Most of the visible traits used to demonstrate human genetics, such as attached earlobes and tongue rolling, are NOT determined by single genes; these pages review the evidence.

udel.edu

1 2

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · 19d

Thanks Jannice - that is very helpful!

1

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · 20d

A while back (maybe 3-4 years?) there was a paper on common misconceptions of the genetics of various traits. One of them was eye colour in humans. I have lost this reference and can't find it anywhere. Does anyone recognise what I mean?

2 5 1

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 25

Nice to see this preprint on the factors shaping Macaronesian chaffinch microbiomes out. A fantastic collaboration with @andalgalornis.bsky.social and his team. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Host filtering and biogeography structure island bird gut microbiomes

Gut microbiomes are central to host ecology and evolution, yet the mechanisms driving their diversification remain elusive, partly because host evolution and biogeography are often confounded. The rec...

www.biorxiv.org

2 9

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Susan Johnston @susanjohnston.bsky.social · Aug 18

I'm missing #eseb2025 but the lab is well-represented 🤩

📊 Kenneth Aase: genomic prediction of crossover rates (Mon S03)
🎤 Lisa Ammer: sex-differences in CO landscape (Thu 11.30am S28)
📊 Gina Henderson: (no) selection on immunity (Thu S48)
📊 Marie Raynaud: recombination hotspot variation (Thu S02)

3 7 35

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 19

katja heuer @k4tj4.bsky.social · Aug 19

Alex Kirschel taking us to African song birds, showing how genetics and environment shape vocal frequency variation in birds, including the effects of temperature, body size and beak length.
At #ESEB2025 @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social @ebablab.bsky.social @alealisousa.bsky.social @r3rt0.bsky.social

1

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Merve Nur Güler @meerf.bsky.social · Aug 18

Our genetic kinship estimation tool “DeepKin” is now available! Our neural network models trained on simulated data work effectively on real ancient data from diverse backgrounds and often outperform available tools. @compevohumang.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

DeepKin: Predicting Relatedness From Low‐Coverage Genomes and Palaeogenomes With Convolutional Neural Networks

DeepKin is a novel tool designed to predict relatedness from genomic data using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Traditional methods for estimating relatedness often struggle when genomic data i...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

14 29

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Jonathan Fenn @jfennbio.bsky.social · Aug 17

I have arrived in Barcelona for ESEB 2025!

I will be talking about microRNA and the evolution of the mammalian placenta on Tuesday at 14:30 in Meeting Room 113
@eseb2025.bsky.social

1 6 17

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Hernán E. Morales @hernmoral.bsky.social · Aug 17

🎤 Symposium: Evolution in Small Populations
I’ll be speaking on Evolutionary legacies of population collapse
🗓 Thursday, 11:00–13:15, Room 115

Looking forward to this #ESEB2025 week!

@hologenomics.bsky.social

2 9 26

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 16

Oh. Embarrassingly easy 😂

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 16

marinamartinmaroto.bsky.social and especially the extensive and impressive PhD work from @jack-harper.bsky.social who sadly isn't here (he's writing up)!

Marina Martín Maroto (@marinamartinmaroto.bsky.social)

Envision PhD Student at the University of Nottingham investigating urban adaptation in birds 🐦🏙

marinamartinmaroto.bsky.social

1 2

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 16

Also, I'm talking at #eseb2025 on the evolutionary history of a commensal species at 2 pm on Monday in S51-02. Come along to hear about how cool house sparrows are and all the exciting work from the sparrow team @melissahrowe.bsky.social @eriksroeed.bsky.social @ruthfawthrop.bsky.social

1 5 12

Mark Ravinet @markravinet.bsky.social · Aug 16

Ok firing up bluesky again because I'm back from paternity leave and heading to #eseb2025 (with the kids too)! Can someone help an old Dino out and show me how to follow the conference hashtag?

1 10

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Henry North @henrylnorth.bsky.social · Aug 16

On my way to #ESEB2025 ! I’ll share some new results showing bi-directional introgression of structural variants, which cause resistance to different insecticides, between native and invasive agricultural pests 🐛 Monday 10:30am, S05 rooms 120-121

3 6 40

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Melissah Rowe @melissahrowe.bsky.social · Aug 16

Interested in host-associated microbiomes? Attending @eseb2025.bsky.social? Then come check out Symposium S07 on Monday August 18th and hear all about how microbiomes contribute to adaptation. Gut microbiomes, climate change, thermal physiology, behaviour, invasion biology, blood-feeding, and more!

1 18 31

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Joana Meier @joanameier.bsky.social · Jun 2

Dr Eva van der Heijden (first PhD in my group, not on Bluesky) finished her PhD with flying colours and a new hat! The hat represents her PhD with CRISPR DNA, butterflies, a tiny net, GWAS dots, etc. What a great day of celebration! @sangerinstitute.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social

Three very happy people, including a PhD student who just successfully defended her PhD and her two supervisors standing in a sunny garden in Cambridge, UK.

Black hat with knitted butterflies, laminated real butterflies, a DNA strand missing a bit due to CRISPR knockout, colourful dots resembling a GWAS plot and a small butterfly net.

Happy people celebrating with a picnic in a garden in Cambridge, UK.

1 3 40

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Joana Meier @joanameier.bsky.social · Jun 2

Many thanks to @emiliapsantos.bsky.social and @markravinet.bsky.social for challenging her as examiners and @chrisjiggins.bsky.social for being a wonderful second supervisor.

Note, the knitted butterflies are from Ecuador interculturalinnovation.org/knitting-con....

Knitting for Conservation: Awakkuna - The Intercultural Innovation Hub

View projects awarded and supported by the Intercultural Innovation Award.

interculturalinnovation.org

1 2 5

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Systematics Association @systassn.bsky.social · Feb 13

The LinneSys call is open!

Deadline: March 10th, 23:59PM GMT+0

All you need is a systematics-based proposal and to be a member of the @systassn.bsky.social or @linneansociety.bsky.social!

Don't leave membership applications to the last minute!

Apply: systass.org/linnesys/

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund The Councils of The Linnean Society of London and The Systematics Association jointly administer this fund for the benefit of systematics research. The Fund has …

systass.org

6 5

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

José Cerca @naturalselection.bsky.social · Jan 23

[Position 2] on plants, repeated/parallel evolution, genomes, structural variants, ecological niches, w/ me, Filip Kolář, Mathieu Gàrdere, and others! 🍃

recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

PhD student in evolution of Diplotaxis in Cape Verde

The Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics is offering a four-year PhD position focused on analyzing population- and species-level genomic data from museum plant samples. The project will employ cu...

recruit.visma.com

3 3

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

José Cerca @naturalselection.bsky.social · Jan 23

[please share widely!]

We have two PhD positions available at the Swedish Museum of Natural History:

[Position 1] Birds, hybridization, genomes, island biology, biogeography, sexual selection 🦚, w/ me, Knud Jønsson, Martin Iredstedt and @stelkens.bsky.social et al
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

PhD student in Evolution of Indo-Pacific birds

The Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics is offering a four-year PhD position focused on analyzing population-level genomic data from museum bird samples. The project will employ cutting-edge gen...

recruit.visma.com

1 50 41

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Katie Wagner @cewagnerlab.bsky.social · Jan 9

Delighted to share our new review paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... This was a whole-lab effort for my group ~2021, and these students were a dream team 🤩 (yes it took us 4 years...but I'll take credit for that...turns out having a baby in a pandemic slows things down 😜).

Population Genomics of Adaptive Radiation

Adaptive radiations are rich laboratories for exploring, testing, and understanding key theories in evolution and ecology because they offer spectacular displays of speciation and ecological adaptati....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 20 35

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · Dec 13

Looking without bias is very hard to do. We want to “let the data do the talking” but data must be interpreted against backgrounds that are not bias-free.
I want to tell you about an experiment showing how when looking at a plot, we come with bias that frames our perception.🧵⬇️

3 18 55

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Ostevik Lab @osteviklab.bsky.social · Dec 7

Excited to see this paper out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Inversions contribute disproportionately to parallel genomic divergence in dune sunflowers - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Analysis of habitat data, quantitative trait locus mapping of seed size and selective sweeps show parallel selection acting on inversions in two independent dune ecotypes of the prairie sunflower, Hel...

www.nature.com

14 21

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Joana Meier @joanameier.bsky.social · Dec 7

I made a starter pack of speciation researchers. Please let me know if you or someone you know would like to be added. I am particularly sad that so far there are not many speciation researchers from the Global South represented.
go.bsky.app/J7qDY56

44 53 120

Reposted by Mark Ravinet

Grant Kinsler @grantkinsler.bsky.social · Dec 5

Do mutations that drive evolution improve many traits or few?

Does this change over the course of evolution?

Excited to share our work in PLOS Biology exploring these questions in the first 2 adaptive steps w/ Yuping Li, @gsherloc.bsky.social, @petrovadmitri.bsky.social 🧵

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

A high-resolution two-step evolution experiment in yeast reveals a shift from pleiotropic to modular adaptation

Evolution is expected to involve mutations that are small and modular in effect, but recent findings suggest that mutations early in an adaptive process can have strong and pleiotropic effects. This s...

doi.org

1 40 84