Krish Sanghvi

The effects of a second pregnancy on women’s brain structure and function - Nature Communications Extending their previous findings of brain changes in a first pregnancy, the authors show that a second pregnancy uniquely alters women’s brains, involving both a further fine-tuning of first-pregnancy effects and distinct changes in other networks.

Extending previous findings of brain changes in a first pregnancy, a study in Nature Communications shows that a second pregnancy uniquely alters women’s brains, involving both a further fine-tuning of first-pregnancy effects and distinct changes in other networks. #Neuroskyence #medsky 🧪

Differential investment in growth and reproduction optimizes a life-history trade-off in a species characterized by alternative reproductive tactics Abstract. Alternative reproductive tactics often involve trade-offs between mating success and survival to sexual maturity, resulting in differential inves

Differential investment in growth and reproduction optimises a life-history trade-off in a species characterised by alternative reproductive tactics

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Cornwell & Neff

Phenotypic polymorphism via mate copying Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 9, March 2026. SignificanceSocial learning is a fundamental learning mechanism shared by both humans and nonhumans. An intriguing example of such learning includes the influence on mate choice, leading to mate copying. We study the evolutionary outcomes of mate copying ...

Phenotypic polymorphism via mate copying @PNAS.org

Our TREE paper is now out in its final published form! Well done @yoricklambreghts.com for leading this and doing the heavy lifting! DM him for a PDF. @cellpress.bsky.social

Toxic evolution: How wasps and frogs mimic pain molecules to deter predators Certain species of wasps and frogs share a pain and inflammation peptide similar to one found in vertebrates to help defend against predators—a discovery that contributes to a shifting view of how evolution works, say researchers.

Wasps and frogs have independently evolved pain-inducing peptides that mimic vertebrate molecules, illustrating how convergent evolution shapes similar defenses across unrelated species. doi.org/hbrkdn

Multi-tissue transcriptomic aging atlas reveals predictive aging biomarkers in the killifish - Nature Aging Characterizing molecular aging features is crucial for understanding systemic and local factors contributing to the aging process. Here Costa, Chen et al. performed RNA sequencing on 13 tissues across...

Multi-tissue transcriptomic aging atlas reveals predictive aging biomarkers in the killifish
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Music exposure reduces anxiety- and depression-like #behavior in rodents: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis Anxiety and depressive disorders impose a major global burden, prompting interest in non-pharmacological interventions that may influence affective processes. Music exposure has often been reported to affect anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, but preclinical findings remain heterogeneous and have not been quantitatively synthesized. Prior work has also focused almost entirely on mean behavioral responses, largely overlooking inter-individual variability as a biologically meaningful dimension. We conducted a preregistered systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis of experimental studies testing music exposure in laboratory rodents. Following PRISMA and PRISMA-EcoEvo guidelines, we synthesized 298 effect sizes from 20 studies using multilevel models to account for non-independence among effect sizes. We quantified effects on mean behavior with the log response ratio (lnRR) and effects on variability with the log variability ratio (ln VR). Overall, music exposure was associated with a statistically significant reduction in anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, corresponding to an average decrease of about 18% relative to controls. This mean effect was detected across outcome types and life stages despite substantial heterogeneity. By contrast, music exposure did not produce a statistically significant overall change in inter-individual behavioral variability. Instead, variability responses were context dependent: behavioral assay type and music meta-genre significantly moderated lnVR, with anxiety-like assays tending to show increased variability and depression-like assays tending to show reduced variability under music exposure. These results suggest that music exposure reliably shifts average affect-related behavior without uniformly changing behavioral stability across individuals. Because the evidence comes mainly from short-term exposures in young adult laboratory rodents, generalization beyond similar contexts should remain cautious.

Music exposure reduces anxiety- and depression-like #behavior in rodents: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis bioRxivpreprint

mRNA therapy restores fertility in genetically infertile mice Researchers have found that targeted delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) can restore sperm production and fertility in genetically infertile male mice.

Targeted mRNA therapy has restored sperm production and fertility in genetically infertile male mice, enabling the birth of healthy offspring without permanent genetic modification. doi.org/hbrjmh

Male-benefit adaptation under sex-limited selection shaped by compensatory evolution in Drosophila melanogaster. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.03.709222v1

Estropausal gut microbiota transplant improves measures of ovarian function in adult mice - Nature Aging To investigate the link between the gut microbiome and ovarian health, here the authors transplant gut microbiota from estropausal female mice to young adult female mice. Microbial transplantation imp...

Surprising and notable if it holds up in humans: Extending ovary function and fertility via gut microbiome (fecal) transplant from young mice to old. estropausal mice

"a direct link between the gut microbiota and ovarian health"

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

New paper showing that bacteria with more genes for cooperation can live in a broader range of habitats and that genes for cooperation are more more likely to be in the accessory genome www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @lauriebelch.bsky.social

MBE | Mammalian mitochondrial DNA accumulates insertions and deletions with age in energetically demanding tissues

@edmundotogo.bsky.social et al. studied de novo indel mtDNA mutations across multiple age groups in three mammalian species, showing that indels accumulate rapidly with age in somatic tissues with high energetic demand or high proliferation.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb...

#evobio #molbio #mtDNA

Frontiers | Molecular mechanisms underlying the lifespan and healthspan benefits of dietary restriction across species Dietary restriction (DR), defined as reduced caloric intake or selective limitation of specific nutrients without malnutrition, is one of the most robust int...

Molecular mechanisms underlying the lifespan and healthspan benefits of dietary restriction across species
www.frontiersin.org/journals/gen...

Cockroaches that eat each other's wings become exclusive partners Scientists have discovered that, far from being solitary insects, some cockroaches appear to form an exclusive bond with a partner.

Wood-feeding cockroaches that engage in a mutual wing-eating ritual form exclusive partnerships, displaying selective aggression toward intruders and maintaining long-term pair bonds.

Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature - Nature A survey of tropical insect populations and thermal tolerance limits indicates that species from lowland areas have low capacity to survive increased temperatures, and that thermal tolerance is limited by fundamental properties of protein architecture.

Nature research paper: Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature

go.nature.com/4ua5R82

The final part of the story: "The arduous path to obligate asexuality in Daphnia" is out in #ProcB 🥳 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article.... 1. Instead of comparing long-established asexuals to sexuals, we generated new asexual lineages to observe the transition in action.

Moths use magnetic compass and visual cues to guide them during migration Nocturnal insects may use both Earth's magnetic field and visual cues to guide their migratory flight behaviors, according to recent findings.

Nocturnal moths rely on both Earth's magnetic field and visual cues to navigate during migration, with visual cues proving essential for maintaining accurate orientation. doi.org/hbq964

Selfish Y chromosome may explain why some families mostly have sons A family in Utah with a disproportionate number of boys has been traced back over hundreds of years, revealing that its lack of female members is probably due to a selfish Y chromosome

A family in Utah with a disproportionate number of boys has been traced back over hundreds of years, revealing that its lack of female members is probably due to a selfish Y chromosome

Chimps' love for crystals could help us understand our own ancestors' fascination with these stones Crystals have repeatedly been found at archaeological sites alongside Homo remains. Evidence shows that hominins have been collecting these stones for as long as 780,000 years.

Experiments show that chimpanzees are naturally attracted to crystals, suggesting that early humans may have shared this fascination due to the stones’ unique transparency and geometric shapes.

Very happy about this nice piece of work by @eugeniapitsili.bsky.social on developmentally controlled cell death in plants @dev-journal.bsky.social‬ !
Special thanks also to @ingridtsang.bsky.social for a terrific editorial job bringing out the best of this manuscript!!
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Many organisms, including humans, reshape their environments in ways that influence the conditions faced by future generations. We ask whether this can favour biological variation with @irisprigent.bsky.social in our new paper. Thanks to @dee-unil.bsky.social @snsf.ch
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Organization and evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila adult sexual circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.28.708756v1

Sperm attraction by female reproductive fluid in a fish with an unconventional fertilisation strategy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.27.708519v1

Color shortcut reveals bumblebees are efficient decision-makers During their search for food, most insects head specifically for the flowers that promise the highest reward. But how do they know which ones to choose?

Bumblebees prioritize flower color over shape when foraging, adapting their memory strategies based on how easily features can be distinguished to optimize decision-making efficiency. doi.org/hbq7cp

Categorical identity signatures can reduce host error rates during brood parasitism by Tanmay Dixit, Ming Liu, Jana M. Riederer, Jonah M. Walker, Cameron J. Blair, Jess Lund, Collins Moya, Claire N. Spottiswoode Biological recognition is often modeled as involving discrimination of continuously-distributed (and continuously-perceived) traits according to decision thresholds. However, traits such as animal signals can be categorically distributed. Here, we test how such categorical distributions may influence fundamental trade-offs in signal recognition, using a brood parasite–host system involving identity recognition. The African cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis parasitizes several host species, each of which has evolved inter-individual variation in egg appearance (“egg signatures”) that facilitates recognition and rejection of mimetic cuckoo finch eggs. We demonstrate that egg signature traits in one host species, the zitting cisticola Cisticola juncidis, are categorically distributed. Field experiments reveal that zitting cisticolas make fewer Type II errors (accepting parasitic eggs) and Type I errors (rejecting their own eggs) than hosts exhibiting continuous variation. This challenges the long-standing expectation from classification models, statistics, and signal detection theory that there must be a strict trade-off between these two error types. Individual-based simulations clarify mechanisms by which categorical variation can generate low error rates, especially when combined with “category-based rejection,” whereby hosts only reject eggs of different categories to their own. Our findings show that the categorical distribution and category-based perception of trait variation can shape error trade-offs and coevolutionary dynamics, which should inform studies on other mimicry or self/non-self recognition systems, including immune recognition. They also highlight the importance of quantifying trait distributions and how they are perceived, when understanding coevolution between deceivers and those they deceive.

Categorical identity signatures can reduce host error rates during brood parasitism @PLOSBiology.org

No evidence for squaring the survival curve: lifespan-extending treatments increase variation in age- at-death Abstract. Geroscience has the goal of extending lifespan through geroprotective interventions. These interventions are typically imparted on groups of indi

New paper out with @tahliafulton.bsky.social and Alistair Senior! A complementary meta-analysis of Ivimey-Cook, Sultanova & Maklakov (2025) where we find that lifespan extending treatments dont square the survival curve.
Longer life ≠ compressed mortality.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

Axolotls retain fertility throughout lifespan - BMC Biology Background Salamanders such as axolotls exhibit exceptional regenerative abilities and longevity. While many ectothermic species reproduce into old age, axolotls have been proposed to experience post-...

Axolotls retain fertility throughout lifespan
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#evolution of Senescence by Damage Accumulation That Accelerates With Age Throughout an Organism's Lifespan Ecology and Evolution, Volume 16, Issue 3, March 2026.

#evolution of Senescence by Damage Accumulation That Accelerates With Age Throughout an Organism's Lifespan Ecol&Evol

Changes in age-related sexual selection in a humpback whale population recovering from exploitation Using epigenetic aging, Eichenberger et al. showed that the age structure of male humpback whales shifted over 19 years, indicating signs of recovery from past exploitation. Concurrently, there was a ...

Eichenberger: young male humpback whales have higher relative mating success at low population density, suggesting lower sexual selection. Older males increase their relative share of matings as population age structure and density recover from whaling 🧪 www.cell.com/current-biol...

An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.

The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.

From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...