Daniele Battilani

Welcome! Get to know GINAMO in 10 questions Welcome to the GINAMO (Genetic Indicators for NAture MOnitoring) blog! Whether you’ve already attended one of our workshops or are just discovering us, we&#…

🧬 Interested in monitoring & reporting on genetic diversity?

🏞️ Our project GINAMO (Genetic Indicators for NAture MOnitoring) now has a blog & newsletter!

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#Conservation #Genetics #Biodiversity #Nature #consgen #KMGBF #SciComm

Marine heatwaves as hot spots of climate change and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 07 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00058-5Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have become more intense and widespread globally, affecting species, ecosystems and people. After summarizing how and why MHWs are changing, this Review explores these impacts and their underlying mechanisms, highlights knowledge gaps and considers opportunities to mitigate the effects of MHWs.

New online! Marine heatwaves as hot spots of climate change and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services

a gorilla is standing in the woods with trees in the background and looking at the camera . ALT: a gorilla is standing in the woods with trees in the background and looking at the camera .

Another pathetic DMCA takedown by @dailyimagesde, for figs published under CC-BY 4.0; so silly because they only had to attribute the images to use them. Again, I can't prove this was at the bequest of #ColossalBio co-founder Ben Lamm but lets this opportunity to learn about gorilla sperm! 🧪

Thanks also to the brave audience, who endured the mild 38°C heat with me. As we say in Italy: “shared misery is half joy”. 🫢
We made sure to replenish our lost minerals afterward with some hop juice. 🍻

A special thanks to Giobbe for the kind invitation, and to ChatG… I mean Umberto, for the amazing poster artwork! You are such a talent! 🎨

Back to the roots! 🌱
It was truly emotional to give a seminar in the historical Ghigi classroom. I spent so many hours listening and taking notes here during my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Bologna. 🎓

Methylomes Reveal Recent Evolutionary Changes in Populations of Two Plant Species Abstract. Plant DNA methylation changes occur hundreds to thousands of times faster than DNA mutations and can be transmitted transgenerationally, making t

Korfmann et al. compare methylome and genome data in two plant species, showing that CG methylation captures recent demographic events missed by SNPs, and present a new deep learning method using methylation to infer demographic histories.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf101

#genome #plants #epigenetics

Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolve...

Scientific communication is the way by which researchers share their results and their plausible implications. As such, it must be rigorous, transparent, and realistic. When it’s inflated to chase sensationalism and media attention, it loses its purpose, and this is a shameful example.

An image of two lionfish. Overlay text reads: Major New Resource, Global Impacts Dataset of Invasive Alien Species

🗞️Authors from the @ipbes.net #InvasiveAlienSpecies Report have published the Global Impacts Dataset of Invasive Alien Species derived from the report, creating a global resource for investigating and managing the impacts of invasive alien species. 🌍🧪

Read more in ‪@nature.com‬ bit.ly/43APoP7

Pan‐genome analysis highlights the role of structural variation in the evolution and environmental adaptation of Asian honeybees The Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, is an ecologically and economically important pollinator. Mapping its genetic variation is key to understanding population-level health, histories and potential capac...

Pangenomes are not just for humans 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧, livestock 🐮🐷, and crops 🌾🌱 --- highlight yours by adding it below! #biodiversity #genomics
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Yesterday, I defended my PhD thesis, marking the end of the most significant formative journey I’ve ever experienced. Despite being steeped in precariousness and inequality, Science, you push passion and curiosity beyond all barriers.
#Sapienza #ISPRA #PhD

🐻New preprint🐻
We analysed WGS data from the Apennine brown bear—a small and isolated population which has coexisted with humans for millennia—and found unique genomic diversity, including adaptation associated with reduced aggressiveness.
#ConsGen #Genomics #Bears
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Screenshot of article summary of: Toward Science-Led Publishing by Damian Pattinson, George Currie published as an opinion piece, in Learned Publishing Summary The current dynamic of scholarly publishing prioritises the wants of the publishing industry over the needs of the research community. This article explores this theme through the lens of ‘publisher-led science’ as a description of our current status quo, and through ‘science-led publishing’ as an improved future state. We argue that financial motivations central to most publishing distort how research is presented, how it is assessed and even what research is undertaken, leading to a system that hinders, rather than facilitates, scientific progress. We propose three elements of a science-led publishing approach that would accelerate research communication, incentivise collaboration between authors, editors and reviewers, and create a more transparent and equitable research landscape. We believe that research funding and research assessment are two of the primary levers for wider change in research and research culture and consider the future purpose of scholarly publishing in a world where these proposals have been widely adopted.

Does publishing serve science or is science serving publishing?

Damian Pattinson and I (@elife.bsky.social) argue scientific publishing has evolved into a system that, rather than facilitate scholarly communication, distorts and dictates it.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#OpenScience

Synteny Enabled Upgrade of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise Genome Improves Inferences of Runs of Homozygosity Here we update the reference genome for the Pinta Island Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis abingdonii) through rescaffolding against the most closely related chromosome-level genome assembly, the...

Upgraded CheloAbing_2.0 assembly resulted in individual estimates of inbreeding, including ROH proportion (FROH), number (NROH), and cumulative length (SROH), that were statistically different from those derived from the draft #genome onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... 🐢

Robin Waples with a delicate sociopolitical introduction before digging the concept of Ne.
#GINAMO

Genomes of critically endangered saola are shaped by population structure and purging The generation of whole-genome sequencing data from 26 saolas provides insights into the phylogenetic placement, population structure, historical decline, and genetic diversity in one of the world’s m...

Amazing work!

Genomes of critically endangered saola are shaped by population structure and purging: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

© D. Tome

🚨 New paper alert 🚨

🪶 Evolutionarily distinct lineages of a migratory bird of prey show divergent responses to climate change 🪶

👉 rdcu.be/ehvAA

#LesserKestrel #ornithology #ClimateChange #Conservation

🧵👇 1/6

Rescinding the Definition of “Harm” Under the Endangered Species Act The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of "harm" ...

📢 📢📢📢📢
Every biologist who cares about biodiversity should provide public comment on this rule proposed by the Trump administration that would REMOVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS for endangered species! This is extremely bad.

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

A whole-genome scan for evidence of positive and balancing selection in aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) utilizing a well-fit evolutionary baseline model Abstract. The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is one of the 25 most endangered primate species in the world, maintaining amongst the lowest genetic

Aye-ayes - amongst the lowest #genetic diversity of any primate measured to date - characterising genetic composition is key for future conservation efforts academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad... #biodiversity #genomics

Current approaches and future opportunities for climate-smart protected areas Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 08 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00041-0A crucial element of conservation planning is spatial prioritization: the identification of areas that are high priority for conservation. This Review synthesizes advances in climate-smart spatial prioritization, which takes into account the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

ICYMI: New online! Current approaches and future opportunities for climate-smart protected areas

Is the dire wolf back from the dead? Not exactly Genetically edited gray wolf pups became instant media darlings—and drew hefty skepticism from scientists

The biotech company Colossal Biosciences declared on Monday it had “resurrected” the dire wolf. The bold claim was immediately met with skepticism and outrage from scientists on social media. scim.ag/42imbGU

in case you're wondering, "what's the harm in claiming an extinct species has been brought back from the dead" when it most certainly has not, our interior secretary is already using it to justify taking animals off the endangered species list

Happy to see our new article out on "Promoting urban biodiversity for the benefit of people and nature" in #NatureReviewsBiodiversity led by the amazing Ingo Kowarik with D. Haase, L. Fischer, F. Kleinschroth, C. von Haaren, @anurbanforester.bsky.social and @tanjastraka.bsky.social
🎉 rdcu.be/ee3sX

This #WorldWildlifeDay, we call for urgent action to halt biodiversity loss. Preventing extinctions, protecting genetic diversity, & addressing human-wildlife conflict are key to achieving Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Learn more: www.cbd.int/gbf/targets/4 #WWD2025

Genetic diversity is key to restoring nature — Coalition for Conservation Genetics Find out how genetic diversity can be integrated into the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulations.

🚨New #policy research! A recent study explores how the #conservation of #GeneticDiversity can be integrated into the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulations & why safeguarding genetic diversity is key to ecosystem resilience🌿
Read more here: www.coalitionforconservationgenetics.org/resources-da...

The Idiot's Guide to Effective Population Size This is a reference manual for the elegant, yet hideously complex concept of effective population size (Ne), inspired by a classic, self-published manual of automotive repair ‘for the compleat idiot’...

Wow. This is sooo good. Echoing @urbanevol.bsky.social this user’s manual for Ne should be required reading for popgen and conservation genetics folks. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A few years ago, we started asking if the adaptation of Iberian wolves to anthropogenic landscapes could be associated with ancient introgression from domestic dogs. In our recently accepted paper at @genomeresearch.bsky.social we provide new insights: genome.cshlp.org/cgi/content/...
🐺🧬🐶

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss - Nature A comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity covering more than three decades of research demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation i...

Out now in @nature.com! Our comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation interventions that could mitigate this process
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪🌍🦤🧬
#consgen #PopGen

Bat genomes illuminate adaptations to viral tolerance and disease resistance - Nature A systematic analysis of 115 mammalian genomes, including 10 new bat genomes, reveals prevalent positive selection in immune genes in bats and shows key adaptations in the antiviral gene ISG15 that ai...

🚨Bat1K Paper Alert🚨There couldn’t be a better first post for us on this app - excited to share 10 new bat genomes and groundbreaking insights into bat immunity and viral resistance! 🌍🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Redlisting genetics: towards inclusion of genetic data in IUCN Red List assessments - Conservation Genetics Genetic diversity is critical for adaptation in response to changing environments and provides a valuable metric for predicting species’ extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Na...

Redlisting genetics: towards inclusion of genetic data in IUCN Red List assessments link.springer.com/article/10.1...