Gustavo A. Bravo

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GBE | From Trees to Traits: A Review of Advances in PhyloG2P Methods and Future Directions

In a new Review article in GBE, @scientific-arlie.bsky.social et al delve into the growing field of phylogenetic genotype to phenotype mapping (PhyloG2P), discussing advances and future directions for using phylogenomic data to map traits to genomes

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf150

#genome #evolution

A black vulture sits on a sign that says "black vulture notice."

Here, have some birds perched on appropriate/delightful signage. You're welcome. 🧵 ⤵️

1. Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) by tysmith on iNaturalist

Big news for everyone who makes use of museum collections, VertNet is back online!

www.vertnet.org

Genomic resistance in historical clinical isolates increased in frequency and mobility after the age of antibiotics Antibiotic resistance is frequently observed shortly after the clinical introduction of an antibiotic. Whether and how frequently that resistance occurred before the introduction is harder to determin...

What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years?

Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Promotional graphic for Corrie Moreau’s Scopes Symposium lecture titled Teaching Evolution through Museum Exhibits. On the left, Moreau is shown speaking at a podium, wearing glasses and a patterned jacket, gesturing with her hands. On the right, text reads “Corrie Moreau – Teaching Evolution through Museum Exhibits.” Logos for Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies and the National Center for Science Education appear at the bottom, along with a small photo of framed butterfly specimens in a museum display.

Museums aren’t just collections — they’re classrooms. 🦋🏛️
@corriemoreau.bsky.social's #Scopes100 talk shows how exhibits make #evolution accessible & engaging.
https://loom.ly/vFnwcRo

@ncse.bsky.social

Old maps and dead birds reveal the story of grassland and bird decline in the Nilgiris Since the mid-1800s, the Nilgiris have lost 80% of their grasslands, a new study finds by comparing a colonial-era map with satellite images.

india.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-...

How sex shapes transcriptome evolution in the songbird brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.21.671601v1

Determinants of mutation load in birds https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.18.670172v1

When populations evolve different strategies to defend against a recently acquired parasite (e.g., tolerance, resistance), what sets of gene expression responses are conserved, or diverge? Using a vaccination experiment with #stickleback @laurenfuess.bsky.social reports some fun results...

History of divergence and gene flow shaping geographic variation in Andean warblers (Myioborus) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.12.667688v1

Convergent evolution through independent rearrangements in the primate amylase locus Structurally complex regions of the genome are increasingly recognized as engines of evolutionary convergence due to their propensity to generate recurrent gene duplications that give rise to similar ...

Our latest preprint explores the evolution of the primate amylase locus, uncovering structural innovations, regulatory shifts and molecular convergence.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Music to my ears. This is brilliant. Either 90% of us can claim to be better musicians than Beethoven or… maybe just maybe polygenic scores aren’t perfect?

Prevalence and implications of sex reversal in free-living birds | Biology Letters The ability to unequivocally identify the sex and reproductive status of individuals is crucial across many fields of study. Recent evidence indicates that avian sex determination is more flexible tha...

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Um pássaro preto com uma faixa amarela brilhante em suas asas está sentado em um galho de árvore. O pássaro está olhando para a direita e seu bico está aberto. O fundo é desfocado, mas parece ser um céu nublado. Atenção: O alt da imagem foi gerado automaticamente.

🇧🇷Saudade
🌎Lipaugus ater
Conservação:Quase Ameaçada

A saudade é uma ave passeriforme da família Cotingidae, monotípica

📷 Cal Martins

A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree, Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation reduces range size, bu...

Happy to share our latest paper in which we use a new big phylogeny of birds to analyze the relationships between dispersal, geographic range size and diversification rates across all birds. See also post by
‪@sheardcat.bsky.social‬ and @josephtobias.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Increased drought drives avian community declines in the warm deserts of the United States The frequencies, intensities, and durations of extreme weather are increasing under climate change, furthering biodiversity loss. In the Southwestern …

New research from our lab documents important drought impacts on desert bird communities in the SW United States 🌎🐦

25 years of bird data across the Mojave & Sonoran deserts, show drought drives clear declines in bird abundance & species richness.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Hints of hidden heritability in GWAS - Nature Genetics Although susceptibility loci identified through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) typically explain only a small proportion of the heritability, a classical quantitative genetic analysis now argu...

Does anyone know who first used the term "Manhattan Plot"?

Wikipedia links to a 2010 paper by Greg Gibson. I haven't yet found an earlier use, but Greg's phrasing suggests that he did not invent the term.
doi.org/10.1038/ng07...

Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds - Nature Communications Elaborate traits like birdsong are thought to be sexually selected in males but are poorly understood in females. This study shows that year-round territoriality and biparental care are selected for f...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Liquid nitrogen tanks in a cryogenic facility

Door sign for the cryobank

Success!! We just moved our tissue collection into a brand new cryogenic facility. Top infrastructure to preserve Colombia's genetic resources, one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth #institutohumboldt

Complementary genetic and epigenetic changes facilitate rapid adaptation to multiple global change stressors | PNAS To persist under unprecedented rates of global change, populations can adapt or acclimate. However, how these resilience mechanisms interact, parti...

If you're interested in the interaction between genetic and epigenetic changes during rapid adaptation, take a look at our recent paper in @pnas.org ! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Hidden white and black feather layers enhance plumage coloration in tanagers and other songbirds Colorful songbirds use hidden white or black feather layers to enhance plumage color, an optical trick well known to artists.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Origins and Diversification of the Caatinga Dry Forest Endemic Avifauna Aim Understanding the geographic origin of lineages is critical to comprehending their biogeographical and evolutionary histories and the historical connections among biomes. In northeastern Brazil,...

Have you ever wondered about the origin of birds restricted to specific regions? Led by doctoral student Hevana Lima, we attempt to unravel the origins of birds endemic to the Caatinga dry forests in Brazil. Check our ms out! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback As Brazil gears up to lead COP30, its Congress pushes the worst environmental setback in 40 years.

Lawmakers approved a bill that weakens Brazil’s environmental licensing framework, which creates self-approving licensing and hands decisions to local politicians.

The new law eases critical impact studies for large-scale enterprises and threatens hundreds of Indigenous and Quilombola communities.

The next generation of colour pattern genomics - Nature Ecology & Evolution Convolutional neural networks and genetic association analysis decode the evolution of colour pattern diversity and its underlying complex genetic architecture in the Trinidadian guppy.

‪A really lovely commentary on @vdbijl.bsky.social's paper by Nidal Karagic and Claudius Kratochwil in @natecoevo.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats, Brian!!

Staff scientist position (computational):

I am looking for a computational scientist to join my genomics lab at Stanford. They should have an outstanding skillset in ML/statistical methods for genomic applications, postdoc experience and a strong publication record.
#sciencejobs

An adult bird is feeding a begging chick on a moss-covered forest floor. The adult holds a small piece of food in its beak, while the chick stands with its mouth wide open, calling eagerly.

This was a very special encounter, watching an adult Equatorial Antpitta feeding its offspring. At Hacienda el Bosque #Colombia

#birds #nature #feedme

Communities and ecosystems in Venezuela learn to adapt to life after glaciers MÉRIDA, Venezuela- José Betancourt, 75, climbed to the glacier of Pico Bolívar, Venezuela’s highest peak, 158 times before it disappeared in 2017. He’s also summited the nearby Pico Humboldt, the…

In 2023, La Corona, Venezuela’s last standing glacier in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida National Park, was reclassified as an ice field, having shrunk to the size of barely two football fields.

The country is now the first tropical nation to lose all of its glaciers.

The Biodiversity Collections Task Force is a nascent effort to help collections through anticipated difficult times in the near future.

We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.

Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN