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chriswheat.bsky.social
Ecological & Evolutionary Functional Genomics, mostly butterflies. Biology Professor, Stockholm University.
59 posts 1,835 followers 367 following
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PHD POSITION ALERT! I am looking for someone with a background in animal behaviour who is interested in working with me on a large-scale, international project on behavioural problems in dogs. Application deadline June 5th 2025 Please spread the word 🧪 🌍 🦊 #AcademicSky liu.se/en/work-at-l...

Finally out: Predicting adaptation to climate warming www.nature.com/articles/s41... We find that there are many genomic routes to heat-adaptation, but this can also make genomic data of limited value for prediction. A tour de force by @denovorego.bsky.social , with @stelkens.bsky.social.

Absolutely thrilled to see Dr. Brandon Gaut receive the inaugural @genetics-gsa.bsky.social Mentorship Award! 🏆🎉 Brandon brings humanity back to science, supports inclusive training, and pushes back on the publish-or-perish culture. So well deserved—congrats! 👏🙌 genestogenomes.org/distinguishe...

Are you interested in the genomic basis of repeated adaptation? The RepAdapt group now has >70 members working to re-run their whole genome shotgun datasets through a common SNP calling pipeline, sharing VCFs, and working together to analyse data. Please contact me if you'd like to contribute!

I see it the same way.

Are you a US-based academic that has prior ties to Sweden? Are you also 7-12 years from your PhD? If so, the Foundation for Strategic Research is providing funds of up to $1.5 mil (15m SEK) to bring you back to Sweden! Application deadline Sep 23. strategiska.se/pressmeddela...

The European Commission is trying to woo American researchers with a new €500 million program (with France contributing another €100 million) called “Choose Europe for Science.”

Ancestral sequence reconstruction often assumes unrealistic homogeneous substitution models; however @rmuniztrejo.bsky.social et al. find that reconstruction accuracy is determined by phylogenetic signal, not model choice. đź”— doi.org/10.1093/molb... #evobio #molbio

I have updated the program to include all the variant genetic codes - yesterday's version only had two genetic codes. Also I have included a comprehensive manual. github.com/mol-evol/gcua

Explicit value trade-offs in conservation: integrating animal welfare. Check out our latest TREE paper, led by Kate Lynch. Click here for free access to the article for the next 50 days: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kzlecZ3X3... #BobWongLab 📸 Patrick Tomkins

Thank you @erictopol.bsky.social and @stemcells.bsky.social for being consistent voices of data- and knowledge-based reason (which was entirely absent from the colossal vat of dire gibberish in company pronouncements and TV coverage of their "achievement").

When lepidopterist Michael Braby spotted something odd on a rare butterfly specimen, an old case was re-opened: a heist involving Scotland Yard & a forgery that created a flutter throughout the taxonomic world. cosmosmagazine.com/nature/butterfly-heist-70-years-ago-is-still-causing-flutter/

The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🥳 My latest digest for Evolution is now available online! Digest: Demographic changes and ancient introgression events might resolve Lewontin’s Paradox in Australian geckos doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Another new species for #InverteFest, a carnivorous, cannibalistic caterpillar that wears a suit of the corpses of their prey, meticulously stitched together. Yeah, you read that right. www.sciencefocus.com/news/bone-co...

Hearty congratulations to Anurag Agrawal, Amy Angert, and Graham Coop upon their election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, for their work illuminating the natural world around us. This recognition is very much deserved.

🟢The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) aims to coordinate the production of high-quality #genome sequences that represent eukaryotic #biodiversity in #Europe. ⏩ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

When I was 3, I wandered off into the forest, protesting the new babysitter. My Weimaraner Max followed me, barking whenever my parents called my name. Yea, he gave me up .. I’m forever thankful. Here’s another good boy: Rancher’s dog leads two-year-old Arizona child to safety

I am elated to share that our manuscript describing Variant-EFFECTS, a high-throughput technology we developed to precisely and quantitatively measure the effects of CRISPR-mediated edits on gene expression, is now published at @cellpress.bsky.social: authors.elsevier.com/c/1kxgiL7PXu...

Two hybrid Coenonympha species inherited most of their genome from one parent species but prefer mating with the other! By analyzing chemical profiles, we show that non-random trait sorting likely drives reproductive isolation, fueling hybrid speciation @pdvsky.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Somatic mutations in plants can be transmitted to offspring leading to highly variable fitness effects. This raises the possibility that somatic mutations can impact genetic variation and affect evolutionary processes in plants 🌱 Streisfeld et al. @aidanwshort.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Come and join fellow lepidopterists at the 24th European Congress of Lepidopterology in the Czech Republic August 18-23, 2025! Abstract submission deadline April 30, registration deadline May 31. See you :-) sel.entu.cas.cz/important-da...

Intriguing paper out of the Jander lab. The same tandem paralogues has repeatedly been used to evolve novel chemistry in the brassicas for both glucosinolates and cardenolides. What if specialized metabolism has things akin to NBS-LRR families built to create new. #secmet doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A little tutorial to make interactive maps with GBIF data for any species, including any metadata you want - pictures too Great work by intern Edgar Signe from Brest University www.montejo-kovacevich-lab.com/projects/

🧪 #consgen I’m leaving NOAA on April 28. I never anticipated resigning at any time when I joined the agency 5 yrs ago to help modernize fisheries management and conservation with genomics. Making the work more effective and efficient was the central objective. I loved working at NOAA because… 1/x

Awesome new paper by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... in @currentbiology.bsky.social on the evo-devo of a butterfly color variation enjoy the show!

“De-extinction” is nothing but a marketing term

Kurt Vonnegut man

We have known for a long time that CRISPR works - gene editing - “traditional” indel inducing, base editing and funkier types. We have a set of traits in a set of organisms where we know causal genes or alleles, and the consequences of knockouts.

I say this every time de-extinction comes up: it makes no sense to devote science to bringing back extinct animals when we can’t be bothered to keep extant ones alive in the first place.

How #genome-wide sequence divergence maps to species status www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #biodiversity #genomics

The #CoolGenes team from @cpgsthlm.bsky.social is in place in Alicante! Very excited to start the kick-off meeting for our HFSP-funded project, with colleagues from Spain, UK and USA, aimed at disentangling the molecular basis of animal cold adaptation!

PhD position on Evolution of Seasonal Camouflage in my group. Fully funded 4 year position in Stockholm University and SciLifeLab! :-) su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Excited about these new results on a butterfly-plant arms race where one butterfly has overcome a physical plant defence - hooked trichomes- with a combination of external and internal adaptations. Well done @ritabrata1907.bsky.social

We'd like to start this week by welcoming Milan Malinsky @millanek.bsky.social on board as a new Associate Editor! Their expertise in #Evolutionary & population genomics makes them an asset to our team, welcome aboard! www.milan-malinsky.org @linneansociety.bsky.social

Adolescence on Netflix might be the best thing I’ve ever seen there …. I’m still drying my eyes while overwhelmed by the acting/filming/directing/writing effort .. final something worth watching

Autocrats hate universities

Nice example of genetics of convergent evolution by @plantpollinator.bsky.social and her group at the John Innes

Professor Josephine M. Pemberton FRS is a British evolutionary biologist. In 2024, we were honoured to award her the Honorary Membership, one of the categories in the BES prizes.

"Why don't you buy a new centrifuge" Because everyone knows that any appliances in that shade of yellow will outlive you and your entire family, look at it

Exactly this