New paper alert: Paralog interference contributes to the preservation of genetic redundancy www.cell.com/current-biol...
28.02.2026 02:00
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New paper alert: Paralog interference contributes to the preservation of genetic redundancy www.cell.com/current-biol...
Call for applications, pls share!
2026 Evolutionary Medicine Summer Institute (EMSI) advances research in a frontier of evolutionary medicine. They provide training in methods needed to address cutting edge questions in that frontier.
2026 focus: Climate Change and Health
sites.duke.edu/emsi/
New paper out in MBE! 🧵
"Genomic Perplexity and the Evolution of Context-Dependent Function"
The big idea: genes don't have fixed functions. Function emerges from context - genomic, cellular, environmental. And we can quantify this. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Working on a 🧵 Bacterial Tad pili extend
and retract pili using a single motor ATPase with a unidirectional catalytic mechanism. We find that the Tad motor achieves bidirectionality by physical inversion; alternating which face of the ATPase toroid engages the IM platform complex. #microsky
In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨
Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)
Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇
doi.org/10.1093/fems...
1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.
We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.
Measles cases are resurging globally, but genomic surveillance at the global scale is sparse. In our new preprint, we show wastewater can provide population-level and low-cost data on virus spread and evolution.
See @kgandersen.bsky.social's post for a high level summary, more detail here though!🧵
Make no mistake this is a concerted and organised attempt to completely undermine science and expert opinion. This is Covid denialism on steroids and it’s on all of academia to see this for what it is and push back as strongly as possible
The fundamental premise behind AI-enabled cheating is that coursework is merely busy work, because your'e just doing it for professors.
We would never say that showing up for football practice is merely busy work because you're just doing it for your coaches.
ICYMI, our work building on the recent "aeonophily" proposal.
We define anergiobiosis (an-er-jee-oh-biosis) as "life without energy" to describe life persisting on maintenance energy inputs alone.
So-called "aeonophiles" may be specialists under this umbrella.
Feedback welcome!
Next one in a storm of preprints from our lab's amazing scientists.. Recent-ex-postdoc, #newPI @cathyhernandez.bsky.social studied thermal ecology of marine bacteria isolated near New Haven. Turns out, response of this bacterium to temperatures is shaped by prophages!
#phagesky #microsky
Super cool! Look forward to reading.
🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 In the largest study of its kind to-date, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving within-patient evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Read here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)
Je ne connais aucun scientifique qui n'est pas d'accord avec ces nouvelles normes. Les élu.e.s ne voient que les coûts, mais les bénéfices seront énormes pour la protection de l'eau potable de plusieurs villes québécoises. ici.radio-canada.ca/info/videos/...
Last year, we proposed a model of plasmid evolution via fusion and fragmentation (via mge mediated recombination) generating mosaics, by studying historical isolates. Excited to see a MASSIVE paper from @jrpenades.bsky.social , @epcrocha.bsky.social expanding on this
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Dear friends and fans of evolutionary biology & medicine (#EvMed), deadlines for the 2026 meeting in Kiel Germany are coming up. Looks to be excellent!
March 1, 2026: Abstract submission deadline and travel award decisions
April 1, 2026: Abstract decisions
open.substack.com/pub/evmedrev...
Make that 20 goals
Marie-Philip Poulin smiling on the bench after scoring her 19th career goal at the olympics. She’s wearing a Team Canada jersey with the captain’s C.
Jersey #29 celebrating with arms raised after scoring a goal.
#29 with 19 career goals in the Olympics. MPP is the GOAT!
🧵 New preprint! Our 4-lab team evolved Streptococcus pneumoniae in antibiotic-treated mice of varying immune states and discovered something surprising: bacteria rarely evolved resistance. Instead, they found a different way to survive — by rewiring RNA turnover.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
a winnipeg rapid transit bus and a pickup truck head-on collision that crumpled the hood of the truck. the bus banner says “SORRY”
a winnipeg transit bus hovering awkwardly behind a smashed up sedan. the bus is steadfastly avoiding eye contact but its banner reads “SORRY”
a winnipeg transit bus facing a cop car as if they are two people in a hallway who shifting the same direction so neither can pass. it’s awkward. the bus banner reads “SORRY”
a winnipeg transit bus slumping away, guiltily. the banner sign on the back reads “SORRY”
current favourite genre of photo: winnipeg bus looking sheepish
CIHR funding rate: 13.6%.
Early 2000s: 30%+.
Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system.
We’re calling for $1B over 5 years.
Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46
Excited to share this new Preprint from our lab led by PhD Candidate Carl Stone (defending Tuesday).
Here we present a framework for longitudinal rbTn-Seq and apply it to the Microbial extended growth curve to resolve the fitness seascape through growth, death, and long-term stationary phase!
I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
Wrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...
Strategy to generate a DMS plasmid library for Your Favorite Gene (YFG) using short, degenerate libraries. 1. Segmentation of YFG into sub-fragments, each fragment corresponding to a DNA region to be synthesized. The same approach can be applied to promoter and terminator regions, if desired. 2. Example of a pool of degenerate oligonucleotides (oPool) derived from one YFG fragment associated with DNA barcodes. Each oPool contains: (i) ~40 bp of homology upstream of the YFG fragment of interest, (ii) the YFG fragment sequence with a single NNK codon, (iii) BsaI cloning sites, (iv) a DNA barcode composed of codon-position specific regions and six degenerate nucleotides (N), and (v) a conserved i7 primer binding site (PBS_i7) present in all oPools and used for rapid and efficient sequencing library preparation. Current oligonucleotide synthesis technologies allow for a total of nine degenerate positions per fragment: three are used for the degenerate codon (NNK), and six for the barcode. A complete list of all oPool sequences and their detailed composition is provided in S1 Table. 3. Protocol for constructing YFG DMS plasmid library from oPools using two cloning steps that maintain the physical barcode-mutation association. The libraries of oPools are cloned into the plasmid template by Gibson cloning. Following this step, for each fragment, a necessary short-read sequencing using PBS_i5 (included in the 5′ sequencing primer) and PBS_i7 is performed to associate each barcode with its corresponding mutation and to assess both barcode diversity per mutation and mutation coverage for the whole fragment. The ultimate step consists in Golden Gate cloning of the missing 3′ gene fragment between the degenerate fragment and the barcode. An additional short-read sequencing step of the barcodes can be performed to make sure that coverage and diversity have been maintained. Figure created in BioRender.
#DeepMutationalScanning (DMS) experiments are limited by gene size due to library complexity & costs. @christianlandry.bsky.social &co develop an efficient & cost-effective barcoded cloning strategy for plasmid-based DMS libraries that enables study of large genes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4abhyUf
Oh please no
The e stands for epigenetic right?