@yjluo.bsky.social
Evolutionary biologist at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. We study the evolutionary genomics of marine invertebrates and use sequencing approaches to explore their biodiversity. More at: https://sgel.biodiv.tw/
Registration now open for @embo.org workshop on the evolution of biological interactions on April 24 - 27, 2026! Come join us in Taipei, Taiwan to see how interactions shaped the genomes of various organisms and meeting people from across the globe. Info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio...
07.01.2026 01:15 β π 31 π 23 π¬ 1 π 2
Happy New Year! γγγΎγγ¦γγγ§γ¨γγγγγΎγοΌζ°εΉ΄εΏ«ζ¨οΌFeliz AΓ±o Nuevo! Manigong Bagong Taon!
The SymGenoEvo Lab wishes everyone a wonderful New Year!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!πβ¨
19.12.2025 18:08 β π 339 π 64 π¬ 4 π 14
watercolor of DNA gel
#ArtAdventCalendar Gel Electrophoresis in Green and Blue, watercolor, 2023 #sciart
12.12.2025 18:56 β π 138 π 33 π¬ 3 π 0
Can't believe my postdoc paper is finally out. Christmas came early this year, holy moly π
Molecular basis for de novo thymus regeneration in a vertebrate, the axolotl | Science Immunology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This is an INCREDIBLE advance in our understanding of coral diversification. πͺΈπ Fantastic new work led by @claudiavaga.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very happy to announce that our article in multimodal single cell analyses in planaria is out in Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com ! Thank you very much to everyone that made this work possible. I am very happy to see it out (: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
27.11.2025 16:07 β π 14 π 6 π¬ 2 π 0Congratulations!!! Wonderful news!
09.12.2025 17:21 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Top: The phylogenetic position of Nematostella and localization of Vasa2 +/Piwi1+ cells within the juvenile polyp body plan. (A) Simplified phylogenetic tree highlighting the phylogenetic position of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis and other animal taxa relevant for this study. All animal silhouettes are licensed under CC0,1.0 Universal Public domain and taken from https://www.phylopic.org. (BβD) Schematics showing the localization of Vasa2+/Piwi1+ cells in a juvenile polyp, depicted in longitudinal (B) or cross-section (C, D). (E) Schematic representation of the multipotent, Vasa2+/Piwi1+ stem/progenitor cell population and a simplified summary of their germinal and somatic progeny. (F) Schematics of cell cycle phases, highlighting the incorporation of EdU during S-phase (black line) and the phosphorylation of Histone H3 (pH3+) during metaphase. Bottom: Confocal image of two Vasa+/Piwi+ stem-like cells in the inner epithelial folds of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Immunolabelling of mOrange2-Piwi1 fusion protein (yellow) in a transgenic knock-in line combined with nuclear stain (white). Image credit: Paula MiramΓ³n-PuΓ©rtolas.
How do animals with lifelong growth modulate cell #proliferation? @eudaldpascual.bsky.social @ktgarschall.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social show that starvation induces G1/G0 #CellCycle arrest in Vasa2+/Piwi1+ #SeaAnemone cells; cycle re-entry is TOR-dependent @plosbiology.org π§ͺ plos.io/48J2o6P
09.12.2025 13:50 β π 25 π 12 π¬ 0 π 0
Honor to join the EMBO Young Investigator Network as a Global Investigator! Very grateful to @embo.org for the support in promoting international exchanges. Excited to strengthen collaborations with colleagues across Europe and beyond.
www.embo.org/press-releas...
Twelve scientists from Chile, India, Nigeria, Singapore and Taiwan have been selected as new EMBO Global Investigators β Congratulations to the new cohort! π§ͺ
Read the press release:
https://www.embo.org/press-releases/twelve-scientists-become-embo-global-investigators/
#funding #training
Cover image for the December issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution. The image shows a male Korean seahorse and its young. The cover line reads "Role reversals"
Our December issue is now live: www.nature.com/natecolevol/...
Featuring research on π§ͺ
π¦ rhinocerotid dispersal in the mid-Cenozoic
π biodiversity responses to freshwater stressors
π¦ evolution of butterfly eyespots
Cover shows a Korean seahorse, from Meyer et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congratulations to the new cohort of 28 EMBO Young Investigators! They are joining an international network of more than 800 life scientists β Welcome!
Read the press release here:
https://www.embo.org/press-releases/twenty-eight-group-leaders-become-embo-young-investigators/
I'm very excited that our paper on Project Psyche is now published! π¦π§¬
Over the last two years we've built an incredible community & already made huge progress. Read about this & how @projectpsyche.bsky.social will drive exciting and collaborative science here:
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Apply now for EMBO Workshop "Evolving together: From #genomics to biological interactions" in Taipei, Taiwan, 24β27 Apr 2026.
Abstract submission/Registration deadline: 20 Jan/28 Feb 2026
meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio...
#EMBOEvoGenBio #GeneSky #EvoSky #EcoSky #EMBOevents π§ͺ
Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote π¦ , not so if you're multicellular ππ±π. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9
18.11.2025 12:00 β π 164 π 85 π¬ 7 π 6
Our paper on the role of neurons in Nematostella head regeneration is now out at @currentbiology.bsky.social Big thank you to all collaborators, it was a pleasure!
Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
On the cover: A phoronid (Phoronis australis) extending its crown-like feeding organ, the lophophore, from its tube on the seabed. These sedentary marine invertebrates belong to the spiralian branch of bilaterian animals. For over a century, their closest relatives have been debated, with competing hypotheses linking them to either brachiopods or bryozoans. In this issue, Lewin et al. present a chromosome-level genome of P. australis and reveal that it shares seven derived chromosome fusions with bryozoans. This provides rare, sequence-independent evidence supporting bryozoans as the closest relatives of phoronids and offers new insights into the evolution of genome structure and animal body plans. Photograph Β© Fred Bavendam; used with permission.
Lophophorates get way too little publicity...
Latest issue is out!
www.cell.com/issue/S0960-...
Thank you, Ryan! Our pleasure to be on your journal club reading list.
18.11.2025 01:58 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Glad to see our phoronid genome study featured on the cover of @currentbiology.bsky.social! It shows how genome structure can be used to test competing hypotheses of nested topology and how derived structural changes provide evidence for monophyly.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Some synteny exists with choanoflagellates, but few orthologous genes remain, given the long evolutionary distance. This probably increases the likelihood of homoplasy. Genome structure may thus be more informative for testing nested relationships than for determining the root of the tree.
17.11.2025 09:22 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Really interesting study - thank you for this work. Genome structure can carry phylogenetic signals, but only when ingroup similarities are derived and the outgroup remains ancestral. In ctenophores, extensive early rearrangements likely made their genomes too derived for rooting purposes.
17.11.2025 09:19 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social
13.11.2025 15:18 β π 64 π 34 π¬ 2 π 3
A truly refreshing perspective on an age old debate. Big implications for animal evolution but also useful techniques to address many other remaining phylogenetic questions.
Congrats to you both on a wonderful piece of work!
NEW pub in @science.org π₯³
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
π: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eLbaZ
Tissue-specific transcriptomics, comparative genomics and genome editing identify a taxon-specific promoter of a Hox gene that controls eyespot size plasticity and probably contributed to wing eyespot diversity in satyrid butterflies π§ͺ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
11.11.2025 13:40 β π 7 π 2 π¬ 0 π 1
Cover of book titled The Tree of Life: solving science's greatest puzzle.
My book 'The Tree of Life' is published in the USA and Canada today.
Available as book, on kindle and as audio.
I would be really grateful for reposts.
www.amazon.com/Tree-Life-So...
www.amazon.ca/Tree-Life-So...
π¨οΈ Just published in Nature Biotechnology: Our CellWhisperer AI enables chat-based analysis of single-cell sequencing data. You can talk to your cells & figure out the biology without writing any computer code. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Annotated walkthrough in a thread below (1/11)
11.11.2025 12:52 β π 62 π 36 π¬ 2 π 2
Many thanks to everyone who contributed β it was truly an incredible team effort. A real pleasure working with @tomlewin.bsky.social and @tosuke-s.bsky.social, and wonderful to close the circle together in Japan with Mayuko.
10.11.2025 17:44 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0