New preprint on pop #genomics of #spittlebug—the main insect vector of Xylella, the bacterium that has ravaged olive groves in southern Italy 🇮🇹 🫒
Take-home: problematic insect vector may be less widespread than initially thought—important implications for disease control 💥
👇
Whole-Genome Population Genomics Reveals Lineage Structure and Adaptive Potential of Philaenus spumarius, the Principal Vector of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.693891v1
We have a new preprint!
In this study, we use #genomic data to uncover population structure and adaptive potential in the meadow #spittlebug, the main European #vector of #Xylella fastidiosa.
Photo of Bradysia coprophila by Sam Ebdon
Does anyone have a photo of Charles W. Metz by any chance? He originally isolated the Holo2 line of Bradysia coprophila we still use after more than 100 years after their original capture.
Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬
We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.
Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
Preprint Alert! 🦥
We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Second cut of the year for the rosemary hedge. The most fragrant job in the garden!
Now out! Paper led by @philmor1964.bsky.social and the The Cetacean Genomes Project. An effort by many, we present 13 new, high-quality reference genomes for cetaceans 🐬🐋 following @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social and @ebpgenome.bsky.social standards for a group that is very hard to sample from.
Albuquerque characterized the satellitome of the pea aphid, with results suggesting that satDNAs contribute to genome evolution, biotype divergence, and the “fast-X” effect.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf104
#genome #satellitome
😱 Simultaneously curating all 8 haplotypes of octaploid Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam).
One set of chromosomes down, many more to go...
@sangerinstitute.bsky.social Darwin Tree of Life.
Great to see this out. Hopefully very useful assemblies for the community.
These were very challenging to assemble due to high heterozygosity and lots of recent repeat activity. Tom Heaven put in a huge effort with manual #HiC #curation to get them in good shape.
Heaven @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social et al. generated chromosome-level genomes for three psyllid species that are plant disease vectors, revealing detoxification gene expansions and genetic substructure across Europe.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf116
#genome #entomology
Helenium Moerheim Beauty doing well in the dry conditions.
Join us on the Wellcome Genome Campus of the Sanger Institute and EBI for a symposium on biodiversity genomics from 27th-29th October! Abstract deadline on 14 July. There is also an option to join via Zoom, but in-person is much nicer if you can make it.
Veg plot poppies.
First group three clematis flowers. Early this year due to the hot spring.
super-happy, three TE invasions in Dmel during the last 30 years; the crazy thing - Transib1 spread in just 2-3years in global populations academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... great work everyone @rpianezza.bsky.social @almoroscarpa.bsky.social @signor-molevol.bsky.social Anna Haider
Shropshire lad, grown from a cutting.
Thanks for posting @reviewcommons.org
If you're interested you can also find the reviewed version here:
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Really keen to get people's perspectives on the population genetics of reservoirs, and what they tell us about variation associated with emergent crop pathogens.
Our recent paper is out where we propose kmer-based phylogenetics for fungal Starship TEs (which are unalignable as highly variable). We think it could help with spotting bonafide HGT events (and suggest direction of transfer?)
doi.org/10.1093/g3jo...
@mcmullan0.bsky.social @norwichmicro.bsky.social
Our paper on phylogenetics of fungal Starship TEs is now on the cover of the June issue of Genetics @genetics-gsa.bsky.social 🙂
academic.oup.com/genetics/iss...
@mcmullan0.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @rothamsted.bsky.social
New pub on genome sample collection and processing: "Best-practice guidance for Earth BioGenome Project sample collection and processing: progress and challenges in biodiverse reference genome creation"
academic.oup.com/gigascience/...
Starship giant transposable elements cluster by host taxonomy using k-mer-based phylogenetics. #TransposableElements #TEs #Kmer #Phylogenetics #Genomics #Bioinformatics #G3 🧬 🖥️
academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...
An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky
Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms.
web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...
Unicore is now published on GBE 🚀
Unicore rapidly identifies structural single-copy core genes from input species proteomes for phylogenetic analysis. Powered by Foldseek and ProstT5, Unicore enables linear-scale structure-based phylogeny of any given set of taxa. 🧵1/n
📃 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf109
Oh wow, a new lepidopteran fossil dated to 236 My! Along with a reanalysis of molecular data using the new calibration. Are Lepidoptera really older than 300 My?
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
if you have an interest in improving the genomic resources available for mosquitoes, please fill in our google form at tinyurl.com/MosquitoReferenceGenomes. please share this with colleagues who might be interested. thank you! [3/3]
Roses
Rosa Charles de Mills with Geum Totally Tangerine.
Thanks!
The gene set in the current version is tailored for birds but no reason why this approach couldn’t help with other species using a custom gene set. We started with birds as there had been a long-standing problem finding all the micros.
