Our paper on Multiclass Synonymous Substitution (MSS) models is now in Molecular Biology and Evolution (MBE).
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article/doi/10.1093/molbev/msaf068/8092905
#evolutionarybiology
2 posts2 participants1 post today
Now published in Peer Community Journal, #evolutionarybiology section: Detection of domestication signals through the analysis of the full distribution of fitness effects
https://buff.ly/TOSIK1N
I finally finished "The Blind Watchmaker" by Dawkins, and while I definitely won't remember all the details, I absolutely have a better holistic understanding of #evolution and #EvolutionaryBiology. It feels nice learning all the things I should have learned as a kid.
Are you signed up for our 'Developmental biology and evolution' updates? 
Here's our latest newsletter listing upcoming meetings and training opportunities in the field – make sure to mark your calendar and register to join us this year in Heidelberg or virtually 
Tiny Sparks in Water May Have Triggered Life on Earth, a New Study Suggests
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a64211848/microlightning-life-on-earth/
Popular Mechanics · Tiny Sparks in Water May Have Triggered Life on Earth, a New Study Suggests
New #preprint on work with Dr. Stacey Smith. We followed up on previous work to identify the transcription factor largely responsible for the shift to red flower color in Iochroma. We found a subgroup 7 Myb TF related to Myb12 that is tightly associated with variation in floral pigmentation in a backcross, strongly co-expressed with the flavonoid pathway branching enzyme F3'H, and drastically down-regulated in plants producing red pigments. #plants #EvolutionaryBiology
ecoevorxiv.orgFlavonol-regulating MYB underlies the evolution of red flowers in Iochroma (Solanaceae)
Paleontology (Earth sciences )
Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the history of life in the geologic past. It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments. Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The s...
Now published in Peer Community Journal, #evolutionarybiology section: Discordant population structure inferred from male- and female-type mtDNAs from Macoma balthica, a bivalve species characterized by doubly uniparental inheritance of mitochondria
https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.529/
Microbial population biology (Evolutionary biology )
Microbial population biology is the application of the principles of population biology to microorganisms.
en.wikipedia.orgMicrobial population biology - Wikipedia
"L’une des causes fondamentales est la longue histoire du christianisme évangélique aux Etats-Unis. L’Amérique est une sorte de dépotoir pour fanatiques religieux. Des versions étranges de la religion protestante et une fraction importante de la population américaine ne croient pas à l’évolution biologique" #RobertProctor #interview #lemonde #science #evolutionarybiology
https://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2025/03/09/robert-proctor-historien-des-sciences-nous-vivons-un-age-d-or-de-l-ignorance_6577603_1650684.html
Le Monde · Robert Proctor, historien des sciences : « Nous vivons un âge d’or de l’ignorance »
Šťastný Mezinárodní den žen! Dnes jsem napsal o brilantní nadcházející knize Feminism in the Wild (Feminismus v divočině) od Ambiky Kamath a Meliny Packer. Tato kniha bude vydána v úterý 11. března. Vypadá to, že to bude skvělé čtení, a velmi, velmi důležité.
#feminism #feminisminthewild #biology #evolutionarybiology #science #humanities #criticaltheory #feministtheory #animals #animalbehaviour #zoology #culture #internationalwomensday
https://blogorgonopsid.blogspot.com/2025/03/kniha-feminism-in-wild-vychazi-jiz-za.html
blogorgonopsid.blogspot.comKniha Feminism in the Wild vychází již za pár dnůK příležitosti Mezinárodního dne žen, který je každoročně příležitostí k reflektování úspěchů feministického hnutí cílícího dosáhnout rovnos...
Happy International Women's Day! Today, I wrote about the brilliant upcoming book Feminism in the Wild from Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer. This book will be released on Tuesday, March 11th. It seems that it's going to be a brilliant read, and very, very important.
#feminism #feminisminthewild #biology #evolutionarybiology #science #humanities #criticaltheory #feministtheory #animals #animalbehaviour #zoology #culture #internationalwomensday
https://blogorgonopsid.blogspot.com/2025/03/kniha-feminism-in-wild-vychazi-jiz-za.html
blogorgonopsid.blogspot.comKniha Feminism in the Wild vychází již za pár dnůK příležitosti Mezinárodního dne žen, který je každoročně příležitostí k reflektování úspěchů feministického hnutí cílícího dosáhnout rovnos...
Genetic assimilation (Evolutionary biology )
Genetic assimilation is a process described by Conrad H. Waddington by which a phenotype originally produced in response to an environmental condition, such as exposure to a teratogen, later becomes genetically encoded via artificial selection or natural selection. Despite superficial appearances, this does not require the inheritance of acqu...
en.wikipedia.orgGenetic assimilation - Wikipedia
Fossil Jackpot! 500,000-Year-Old Ice Age Graveyard Discovered in Florida River
Big Biology Library!
Trevor Price is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. Check out his most recent papers!
Very happy and proud of Yannick Woudstra, who just won a MSCA postdoctoral fellowship with my lab at Stockholm University as a host! His project will investigate the evolutionary fate of pollen in asexual plants, using dandelions (Taraxacum) as a model. #evolgen #EvolutionaryBiology #HorizonEU
Scientists investigating human sperm competition stumble upon an intriguing paradox
PsyPost · Scientists investigating human sperm competition stumble upon an intriguing paradox
The Conversation: Evolving intelligent life took billions of years − but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted…
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare... #evolution #physics #evolutionarybiology
for much deliberation · The Conversation: Evolving intelligent life took billions of years − but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted…A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare… #evolution #physics #evolut…
Happy to share our latest pre-print: a historical review of a century of theories of balancing selection.
A great international collaboration funded by #eseb #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #population_genetics
bioRxiv · A century of theories of balancing selectionTraits that affect organismal fitness are often very genetically variable. This genetic variation is vital for populations to adapt to their environments, but it is also surprising given that nature (after all) ″selects″ the best genotypes at the expense of those that fall short. Explaining the extensive genetic variation of fitness-related traits is thus a longstanding puzzle in evolutionary biology, with cascading implications for ecology, conservation, and human health. Balancing selection—an umbrella term for scenarios of natural selection that maintain genetic variation—is a century-old explanation to resolve this paradox that has gained recent momentum from genome-scale methods for detecting it. Yet evaluating whether balancing selection can, in fact, resolve the paradox is challenging, given the logistical constraints of distinguishing balancing selection from alternative hypotheses and the daunting collection of theoretical models that formally underpin this debate. Here, we track the development of balancing selection theory over the last century and provide an accessible review of this rich collection of models. We first outline the range of biological scenarios that can generate balancing selection. We then examine how fundamental features of genetic systems—including non-random mating between individuals, differences in ploidy, genetic drift, and different genetic architectures of traits—have been progressively incorporated into the theory. We end by linking these theoretical predictions to ongoing empirical efforts to understand the evolutionary processes that explain genetic variation.
### Competing Interest Statement
We declare no competing interests. Please note that this manuscript includes aspects of narrative review, but also new and confirmatory results that can be found in the Supplemental materials.
First keynote #Biology25: Susana Coelho. Brown algae are the youngest complex multicellular group, they resemble plants but are an independent evolution of multicellularity, with many convergent features with plants: apical meristems, long range transport (≈ phloem), etc. Brown algae, like animals and plants, have converged towards an hourglass pattern of development (evolutionary conservation of mid-embryonic development). #Algae #EvolutionaryBiology