Tree of Sex

For starters, there's not "one weird trick to ditch your X." There are multiple paths to sex determination turnover.

To read more about it, including what genes were gained or lost and how the genome looks in X chromosome scales, check out our preprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

6/n

Excited to be part of the amazing team behind our upcoming symposium on Sex Evolution at #SMBE2026!

🔹 Daniel Jeffries
🔹 Paul Jay
🔹 @sphaeromeria.bsky.social
🔹 @astridboehne.bsky.social
🔹 @cbenvenuto.bsky.social

Join us in Copenhagen for cutting-edge discussions on #sex #evolution

🔬 Uncovering the mechanisms of sex chromosome dosage compensation in skinks! 🦎 🧬

Our latest collaborative study on how a lizard species with an extraordinary ability to change sexual phenotype maintains genomic balance.

👇
rdcu.be/eVjqW

Chromosome‐Level Genomics and Historical Museum Collections Reveal New Insights Into the Population Structure and Chromosome Evolution of Waterbuck Advances in sequencing and chromosome-scale assembly have brought non-model animals into focus, deepening our understanding of genome and chromosome evolution. Here, we present the waterbuck (Kobus e...

🎯Excited to share our new collaborative paper in Mol Ecol - Beautifully lead by @marta-fb.bsky.social & @coreykirkland.bsky.social - Exploring the fascinating evolutionary story of the waterbuck, shaped by climate and unique chromosome changes

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Just one week left to submit your abstract for our symposium on eco-evolutionary dynamics of #sexualselection and #sexualconflict at @ece2026tours.bsky.social ! Join us in beautiful Tours, France, 29 June – 3 July 2026!

Organisers
- @aruizherrera.bsky.social | @ibb-uab.bsky.social
- Daniel Jeffries | University of Bern
- Paul Jay | Universite Grenoble Alpes
- @sphaeromeria.bsky.social | @ibb-botanic.bsky.social
- @astridboehne.bsky.social | @leibnizlib.bsky.social
- @cbenvenuto.bsky.social | @salforduni.bsky.social

Invited Speaker
- Nicole Valenzuela | @iastateresearch.bsky.social

SMBE2026 Symposium 9 | New frontiers in sex evolution: evolutionary patterns and innovations

📨 Abstract submission
smbe2026.org/abstracts

📋 Programme details
smbe2026.org/programme

#SMBE2026

Sex, males, and hermaphrodites in the scale insect Icerya purchasi* Abstract. Androdioecy (the coexistence of males and hermaphrodites) is a rare mating system for which the evolutionary dynamics are poorly understood. Here

I've written about this reproductive system, the mix of males and hermaphrodites without pure females (called androdioecy) before, here:
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

What's in a name? 🐙🦑 @ideaspermatheca.bsky.social @treeofsex.bsky.social

Cryptic female choice can maintain reproductive isolation Abstract. Sexual selection has long been considered an important mechanism of speciation. Despite growing empirical evidence that postmating sexual selecti

My latest paper, Cryptic female choice can maintain reproductive isolation, with @servedio.bsky.social and Suzanne Alonzo is now out in the October issue of @journal-evo.bsky.social ! (1/3)
academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

Sexual selection and speciation: a meta-analysis of comparative studies Abstract. Understanding the drivers of biodiversity is a central goal in evolutionary biology. In particular, sexual selection has long been proposed as a

Does #SexualSelection fuel #Speciation?

Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force.

doi.org/10.1093/evle...

This is a really interesting story. Microsporidia have genome architecture as no other creatures! Congrats @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social

Sex chromosome evolution Dates 6-10 October 2025 To foster international participation, this course will be held online

Join our online course on Sex Chromosome Evolution (6–10 Oct) with @astridboehne.bsky.social & @idarolti.bsky.social to gain hands-on experience in genomic and transcriptomic analyses.
www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

#SexChromosomes #GenomeEvolution #Transcriptomics #ComparativeGenomics

I'm very happy to share that our paper describing the evolution of sex chromosomes in brown algae is out!🎉 This project was a long journey, but it came together into a nice story 🧬 🌊 Grateful to everyone who helped along the way!

Family photo of the 2025 Workshop of the @treeofsex.bsky.social ! Thanks everyone for attending and see you soon!

Great work by @aruizherrera.bsky.social's lab! Amazing paper and have you see the graphical abstract? Happy reading!

This is insane! The Atlas blue butterfly has 227 pairs of autosomes and four sex chromosomes, the highest recorded chromosome number in non-polyploid Metazoa!!!! See below!🦋

Hot from the press: XX/XY sex determination in Nautilus (unique among cephalopods)!!!! 🐙

The day 2 of the #TreeOfSex annual workshop started with a great talk by @yannguiguen.bsky.social about B chromosomes and their role in sex determination in fish. Next up, Sònia Garcia is giving an update on the works of the Literature team.

GitHub - Tree-of-Sex/ToS-Ontology: The Tree of Sex Ontology (TOSO) covers any trait related to reproduction included in the Tree of Sex database The Tree of Sex Ontology (TOSO) covers any trait related to reproduction included in the Tree of Sex database - Tree-of-Sex/ToS-Ontology

Right now we are working on sorting the most important definitions in our Ontology TOSO. If you would like to join the discussion reach out or check: github.com/Tree-of-Sex/...

Tree of Sex annual workshop started today. It will be two days packed with reproductive biology.

Thank you for the interest. Worth noticing that we are an open consortium, you can register/join at our webpage and shape the way we catalogue knowledge 🦈

Good to see some of our US-based ToS members at #Evol2025! If you're at the meeting and interested or just curious about the project, say hi to @ajmongue.bsky.social @nicolevalenzuela.bsky.social @ideaspermatheca.bsky.social @emistasis.bsky.social, Mike White or Louise Heitzmann!

Officially (re-)annoucing the Tree of Sex! Read all about it in JEB below!

As work ramps up, we've created a Starter pack to follow members of the consortium.

go.bsky.app/QjiXdsc

Please comment below to be added!

Hi folks, this is the official Tree of Sex account. We are an open consortium of reproductive scientists with the aim to catalogue reproductive knowledge across Eukaryota. You can be part of it too: treeofsex.sanger.ac.uk

The @treeofsex.bsky.social is working on this! 🤞🏽