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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 3h

Cooperation and conflict in termite societies -- Judith Korb
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cooperation and conflict in termite societies

Termites are social cockroaches that evolved eusociality independently from social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps). Thus, they are diploid organis…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 21h

Which journal would publish such a fragmented mess?
www.cell.com/current-biol...

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Richard Benton @bentonlab.bsky.social · 3d

Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection

Odor detection differs fundamentally in vertebrates, which use G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and insects, which employ ion channels. Here, we report the first evidence for a GPCR defining tunin...

www.biorxiv.org

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 2d

Visiting UT Austin in Integrative Biology and came across this fantastic opportunity for senior grad students in the life sciences.

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Rupinder Kaur, PhD @kaurr.bsky.social · 5d

#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...

Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?

Kaur et al. demonstrate reduced histone acetylation as a key mechanism underpinning Wolbachia’s paternal-effect embryonic lethality trait in Drosophila melanogaster. Recapitulation of this trait by in...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Mia Levine @levine-lab.bsky.social · 4d

Check out this new Levine-Lampson collaboration, led by the talented Hyuk-Joon Jeon.

We explored the consequences of inheriting long telomeres from dad and short telomeres from mom. Or the reciprocal. Turns out, parent-of-origin matters (in mice, at least).

authors.elsevier.com/c/1loW-3QW8S...

authors.elsevier.com

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Amanda Amodeo @aaamodeo.bsky.social · 9d

Just a few days left to apply! If you do cool molecular/cell biology things and want to start a lab in a supportive department in New England please check out our ad.

Amanda Amodeo @aaamodeo.bsky.social · Aug 14

My Department (Biology) at @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social is hiring this year! We have an opening for a Tenure Track Cell and/or Molecular biologist (broadly defined).

Please share with your trainees/labmates/friends and reach out if you have questions.

apply.interfolio.com/171625

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 15d

📣 Our department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Cell and Molecular Biology to join the @weillinstitute.bsky.social PLS spread the word!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30607

Cornell University, Molecular Biology & Genetics

Job #AJO30607, WDR-00055221 Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

academicjobsonline.org

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eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 27d

New #miRNA paper from Lai lab!! 🧬🔥

some think this field, despite recent Nobel to Ambros and Ruvkun, doesn't have much surprises left. but, do we EVEN KNOW WHAT a miRNA precursor LOOKS LIKE? we found some conserved miRNA hairpins up to 10x longer than suspected. this is mir-12, just bonkers! 1/n

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Rupinder Kaur, PhD @kaurr.bsky.social · 29d

Excited to share that I’ll be joining @uicbios.bsky.social as an Asst. Prof. in Jan 2026! My lab will explore the epi/genetic principles of host–microbe interactions, symbiosis, and vector biology. We’ll be hiring postdocs and techs—details and lab website coming soon!

bios.uic.edu/news-stories...

Meet the Faculty | Biological Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago

bios.uic.edu

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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · Sep 5

Rapid protamine evolution suppresses meiotic drive in Drosophila by @ching-hochang.bsky.social @harmitmalik.bsky.social et al. 🤩

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · Sep 3

Save the date! #PEQG26 June 9-12 2026 in Asilomar, CA. Happens only every 2yrs, but is my favorite conference. Full website coming soon, and registration and abstract submission opens November 14, but I'm allowed to tease that keynotes will be @jnovembre.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social and me!

Homepage - Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference

Visit our website to learn more.

genetics-gsa.org

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Sushant Potdar @sushantpotdar.bsky.social · Aug 30

Day 6 of #Behaviour2025 @behaviour2025.bsky.social and I am finally presenting, on my last PhD chapter, and my current postdoctoral work at 11:45 AM in Hall 2. If anyone is interested in butterflies, flies, ejaculate, brain, and behaviour, do come to my talk 😁🦋🪰🧠
@asab.org
@wolfnerlab.bsky.social

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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · Aug 29

how can I get a set of the Ago cards lol

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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · Aug 21

Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila

Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other. This coevolution implies that...

www.biorxiv.org

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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · Aug 24

Flybase in fact is a key resource for people working on ANY #insects! So many folks developing non-model organisms get an idea of what a gene does based on what’s known in the closest model organism like flies. Help support this database for everyone interested in genes in 🦋🪲🐝🦟🪰🐜 … or ANY organism!

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 23

The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share

Dear Fly Community,

In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled.

The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).

Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options.

To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum).

To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

Our immediate goals are:

1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online

2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance).

Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data.

At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise.

Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028.

We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide.

Sincerely,
The FlyBase Team

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Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Colin Conine @colinconine.bsky.social · Aug 23

New from the lab led by @natrigg.bsky.social. We started by characterizing mRNA in sperm, EVs, and the epithelium across epididymal transit. This revealed evidence that sperm acquire specific mRNAs through fusion with epididymal EVs, which we further established with in vitro co-incubation assays

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Aug 22

Epididymal extracellular vesicles harbor and convey mRNA to sperm for transfer to zygotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.18.670952v1

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Josefa González @gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks for sharing! All activities were spearheaded by Roberto Torres @lcatmon.bsky.social in collaboration with the "44 Perills" association and with the support of @sesbe-org.bsky.social @eseb2025.bsky.social and @ajuntamentbcn.bsky.social. Big shout out to #eseb2025 scientists that participated!

Henry North @henrylnorth.bsky.social · Aug 20

Surely one of the all-time best conference outreach activities: an evolution-inspired decorated street for Les Festes de Gràcia #ESEB2025

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Jonathan Nelson @flyscinelson.bsky.social · Aug 22

Our department is hiring TWO tenure-track Assistant Professor positions! Join a fantastic group of biochemists, molecular, cell, and developmental biologists!

www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/bioc...

Opportunities | Biochemistry & Cell Biology

Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University

www.stonybrook.edu

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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Aug 22

A. James Hudpseth, who died 16 August at age 79, devoted his 50-year career to untangling how the ear converts sound into electrical signals.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/hearing/reme...

Remembering A. James Hudspeth, hair cell explorer

Hudspeth, who died 16 August at age 79, devoted his 50-year career to untangling how the ear converts sound into electrical signals.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Elizabeth Rideout @ejrideout.bsky.social · Aug 22

I watched the video and donated - it was super easy! Please donate if you’re able, and help spread the word so that we can keep this essential resource going.

FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social · Aug 15

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki

wiki.flybase.org

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FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social · Aug 15

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki

wiki.flybase.org

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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · Aug 19

so pretty!!

Reposted by Peiwei Chen

Di Jiang @dijiang319.bsky.social · Dec 5

🦋A #butterfly paper @science.org 👀 A #microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus by @tianshenbio.bsky.social et al.
#genetics #evolution #development #evodevo #moth #lepidoptera #insects #entomology
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Shen Tian 田申 @tianshenbio.bsky.social · Dec 5

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus

In Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the genomic region around the gene cortex is a “hotspot” locus, repeatedly implicated in generating intraspecific melanic wing color polymorphisms across 100 mi...

www.science.org

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Baptiste Rafanel @baptisterafanel.bsky.social · Aug 14

1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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