Petr Nguyen

It’s not just an opinion article. It’s a competent and comprehensive review of the state of the art in lepidopteran genomics (as Reviewer #1 put it). Huge shout-out to the whole community! Writing this together was a great and surprisingly smooth experience.

Our whitepaper on #ProjectPsyche is online now in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social! Psyche will generate reference genomes for all European butterflies. Just imagine what we’ll be able to learn from them. And if you can’t quite imagine it, have a look at the piece. :)

GBE | Polyommatine Blue Butterflies Reveal Unexpected Integrity of the W Sex Chromosome Amid Extensive Chromosomal Fragmentation Linked to Telomere Restoration

Hospodářská, @petrnguyen.bsky.social et al. investigated genome size and karyotype in Polyommatus and Lysandra butterflies, rejecting polyploidy to confirm karyotypic diversification via chromosome fragmentation in Polyommatinae butterflies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf157

#genome #evolution

Genome sequencing progress for Lepidoptera. Stacked bar charts represent the cumulative number of lepidopteran species with a reference genome per year. The colours represent the different levels of genome assembly quality, ranging from contig to chromosome-level. Numbers in brackets represent the range in numbers of species that have a given assembly level per year. Data derived from GoaT on 05.09.2025.

(1/6) 🦋 We are thrilled to announce the release of the 1,000th reference genome of Lepidoptera species found in Europe!
This goal was reached with the release of Stenoptilia islandicus, also known as the mountain plume moth.
Read the story below!👇🏽

Celebrating 1000 lep genomes with @kaybiodiversity.bsky.social. One beer for every hundred genomes. Looking forward to celebrating 10k!

PhD position in Butterfly Conservation Genomics at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Applications due by Sept 12, 2025. Requires a Master's degree. Details: https://www.prf.jcu.cz/en. Apply: pavel.matos@entu.cas.cz. #phd

With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

As expected, the scientific content of the meeting is being truly outstanding, we will have over 600 talks and over 1000 posters on display. Plenty to choose from and many opportunities for unexpected eye-opening discoveries for anyone. #eseb2025

#eseb2025 has started. So many friends and colleagues around. This is amazing. Welcome everyone to Barcelona!

True. In N. guentheri, we found few males which seem to have the XX sex chromosome constitution - confirmed by PCR assay and cytogenetics.

Big thanks to all my co-authors, especially @rogervilalab.bsky.social and @phylomigrationlab.bsky.social, for helping us collect all the species (and teaching us how to tell them apart!). It wasn’t easy, and it took a long time… but it was totally worth it! 😆

Thanks for letting me know. I added working link to the end of the thread. For aficionados, while sex chromosomes may not break, they do fuse - creating multiple sex chromosome systems (WZ₁Z₂) in some species. :)

Polyommatine blue butterflies reveal unexpected integrity of the W sex chromosome amid extensive chromosomal fragmentation linked to telomere restoration Abstract. Chromosomal rearrangements act as barriers to gene flow and can thus promote speciation. In moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), which possess ho

And since doi link does not work, try this one :) academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...

Fragmented chromosomes have their telomeres restored, stabilizing them.
But more than that. Telomeres become hypertrophically enlarged, hinting at telomerase activity as a force constraining karyotype evolution in Lepidoptera.

We confirmed that high chromosome numbers come from fragmentation, not polyploidy. Intriguingly, their repeat-rich W chromosomes resist to fissions, presumably due to their epigenetic silencing. This is more general phenomenon as we observed it also in a pale tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda).

Another paper on polyommatine blue butterflies just published in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social. Blues have high chromosome numbers associated with increased diversification and their karyotypes reveal strategies to maintain genomic integrity amidst profound karyotypic changes doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

Huge thanks to everyone involved in this multi-disciplinary effort! We celebrate tonight! 🥳🎉🥂

This helped us to reconstruct sex-linked genomic regions and infer their divergence. We found several sex-related genes on sex chromosomes, but no strong candidate for a master sex-determining gene.

We found at least four independent sex chromosome turnovers, all involving fusions between sex chromosomes and autosomes. To dig deeper, we sequenced draft genomes of F. thierryi and N. guentheri and analyzed population resequencing data.

We investigated multiple sex chromosome systems across African annual killifishes (Nothobranchius spp. & Fundulosoma thierryi) using cytogenetics and bioinformatics. We analyzed 6 species with X1X2Y sex chromosomes using comparative mapping by BAC-FISH and chromosome painting.

Excited to share our new paper in #MolEcol on sex chromosome evolution in African killifish! 🐟 A great collaboration with @alexandrsember.bsky.social . We uncovered ≥4 sex chromosome turnovers across Nothobranchius spp. using cytogenetics & genomics.
👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The release of sexual conflict after sex loss is associated with evolutionary changes in gene expression | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Sexual conflict can arise because males and females, while sharing most of their genome, can have different phenotypic optima. Sexually dimorphic gene expression may help reduce conflict, but the expr...

New paper out now in #ProcB @royalsocietypublishing.org

We explored how sex loss shapes gene expression patterns by comparing sexual & asexual aphid lineages 🧬🪲

🔑 #SexualAntagonism #Parthenogenesis #Asexuality #Transcriptomics #SexBiasedExpression #SexualDimorphism

🔗 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Another grant application submitted. The toll of sleep deprivation near the finish line feels heavier and heavier as I get older. 🤦🥱

We do not mind. Nobody is perfect 😁

Do you have any good excuse not to go? :)

The 12th international Workshop on molecular biology and genetics of the Lepidoptera REGISTRATION NOW OPEN We are delighted to invite you to join us at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, set just outside the lovely Cretan village Kolymbari, for a stimulating and enriching event. With 150 ...

Register for the International Workshop on Molecular Biology and Genetics of Lepidoptera! Let us meet on Crete! 😁

A microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus In Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the genomic region around the gene cortex is a “hotspot” locus, repeatedly implicated in generating intraspecific melanic wing color polymorphisms across 100 mi...

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sex-biased gene expression under sexually antagonistic and sex-limited selection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.622017v1 Sex differences in gene expression are ubiquitous, evolve quickly, and are expected to underlie phen

Sex-biased gene expression under sexually antagonistic and sex-limited selection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.622017v1

2 New #PhD positions in my institution to study #biodiversity and interactions #ants and #beetles in the tropics!

Joe, you do not pay attention! There is only one of us. We just need to figure out, which one 😀 But thanks!