Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
What I am pretty sure is Porpidia crustulata, although it seems Porpidia is a difficult genus. All I can say is that I can find no reason for it not to be crustulata. Potential second county record. #lichensGB
Lichens in situ.
#Viewpoint: Flexible or fortified? How #lichens balance defence strategies across climatic harshness gradients
Inger K. de Jonge, et al. 👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue
Life on a fence post... #Lichen #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2025/01/12/l...
Lichen on a Maple! So much to see... #lichen #NaturePhotography @licheomancy.bsky.social #nature themeaningofwater.com/2025/02/02/l...
Lichen on a Twig... On my walk today, I picked up some twigs blown on the ground by the wind and found them covered by Star Rosette Lichen (Physcia stellaris) with abundant apothecia and picnidia! What a beautiful thing on the ground! #Lichen #beauty #NaturePhotography
I enjoyed teaming with Garima, Francesco and Marnix to write this piece for @newphyt.bsky.social ...
Breaking into nature's secret medicine cabinet: lichens – a biochemical goldmine ready for discovery
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
A meme with 4 panels showing a lichen with a cartoonish face drawn on it. The text says: “A lichen sits in a community. Is the community made of lichen? Or is the lichen made of community? It screams, for it does not know”.
Our study on #lichen #symbiosis is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! How can multiple microbes create a large, 3D, and structurally complex organism? To answer this question, we used #metagenomics, #metatranscriptomics, and a bit of protein structure modeling 🧵1/7
🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky
Illustration depicting the ways in which fungi can exchange genetic material with each other. Starship mediated HGT is confirmed experimentally in this preprint.
We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New Bergman Lab paper now online at GBE: "Horizontal transfer and recombination fuel Ty4 retrotransposon evolution in Saccharomyces"
An inversion polymorphism under balancing selection, involving giant mobile elements, in the invasive fungal pathogen responsable for the chesnut blight disease!
doi.org/10.1093/molb...
Fungal phylogeny highlighting genome size changes
Summary of genome size variation among groups
@tbadet.bsky.social and I have a preprint out on transposon silencing in fungi!
Genome size evolution is fascinating and showcases the dynamic nature of transposon activation.
What we understand less are the dynamics of transposon defense systems encoded by the genomes.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The two toxins—cytolethal distending toxin B (cdtB) and apoptosis inducing protein of 56kDa (aip56)—are implicated in a defensive endosymbiosis in aphids. Our lab found HGT of these genes to insects in multiple orders, where they function in anti-parasitoid defense (2/n): tinyurl.com/m9mufn9a
Excited to share the major work of my dissertation, out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We use Drosophila genetics to dissect the evolution of phage-derived toxins that were horizontally transferred to insects and now function as potent anti-parasitoid defenses (1/n): tinyurl.com/2k9ypyxr
Environmental DNA: The next chapter
🧬🔬🐟🧬🦠🧬🦋🧬
Molecular tools, incl. #eDNA, have become an indispensable part of #ecology & #biodiversity sciences.
What is needed to concretely move the field forward?
Retrospect & outlook out now @molecology
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
a🧵
In desert, withered and burned,
On ground that is dry and sultry,
Anchar, alone in the world,
Stands like an awful, silent sentry.
The nature of the thirsty land,
Has borne him on the day of terror,
And flesh of roots and boughs, dead,
Was filled with venom blood forever.
shorturl.at/cBoGW
Very cool, Gavin!
