Gavin Douglas

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Introgression impacts the evolution of bacteria, but species borders are rarely fuzzy Nature Communications - It is commonly thought that bacterial species borders tend to be fuzzy, due to frequent exchange of DNA. Here, Diop et al. quantify the patterns of gene flow between core...

Our latest paper is out with @adiop.bsky.social and @gmdouglas.bsky.social. We analyzed the extent of homologous recombination between bacterial species (introgression) and how it affects species borders (it can vary a lot depending on the approach used to classify species!). rdcu.be/eQAMf

My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547

New diamond open access journal Replication Research welcomes reports of replication of previous works. #AcademicChatter
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ejournals/index.php/replicationresearch/index

Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book.

gitrepo: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
book: ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/

Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable

dm me with comments , ideas etc

What your Discussion section isn’t Today, the next instalment in a short series inspired by bad papers I’ve read (some of them, I have to admit, my own). I’ve let myself rant about what a Methods sections shouldn’t be, and what a Re…

Too many authors use a scientific paper's Discussion to thoroughly shred their own work. That, and two more common mistakes in writing Discussions:

I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) !
1/n

On life, entropy, and the heat death of the universe a poem

In case you missed it, check out my latest #substack on life, entropy, and the arrow of time.

Trying to get a bit more poetic with this one. If this isn't your thing, stay tuned next week, for another prose post.

gibbological.substack.com/p/on-life-en...

Haha, thanks!

This could be your view!

Obligatory new job swag and selfie. Excited to start as an Assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada!

Come work with me! douglaslab.ca

A high-quality genome assembly for carpenter bees We present a reference genome assembly from an individual male Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea, Linnaeus 1758). The assembly is 1.02 gigabases in span. 48% of the assembly is scaffolded into…

Lopezguerra & Douglas recommend the high-quality Xylocopa violacea reference genome by Nash et al., 2024, Heredity, the first annotated pseudo-chromosomal assembly for any Xylocopa bee! 🐝 A crucial step for pollinator research, conservation, and even cancer therapy studies #ERGA tinyurl.com/vwknzu2b

At PCI Genomics, we are pleased to have recommended all ERGA manuscripts and publications to date, helping to bring together this vital body of work at the heart of European biodiversity genomics.

🔗 genomics.peercommunityin.org
#ERGA #Genomics #Biodiversity #PCIGenomics #OpenScience

An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky

Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms.
web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...

Howard's: evolution of microbial genes, genomes and communities. Can be experimental or computational. If interested, contact Howard Ochman, howard.ochman@austin.utexas.edu
Homepage: web.biosci.utexas.edu/ochman/index...

We just published our first paper in the Peer Community Journal - diamond open access, no APCs!
Awesome experience, with less than a week from submission after receommendation by #pcigenomics.
Highly recommended!
#molpalmuc
@lmumuenchen.bsky.social
@peercommunityin.bsky.social

Assistant Professor (Research), Department of Microbiology & Immunology, (C2-240724) Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...

Come join us at @mcgill.ca as an assistant professor in virus-host interactions! Please share widely.

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments! This was a collaboration with several co-authors, including @cyanophage.bsky.social, @lbobay.bsky.social, @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social, Samuel Chaffron, and others!

A global survey of prokaryotic genomes reveals the eco-evolutionary pressures driving horizontal gene transfer - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors analyse 8,790 prokaryotic pangenomes to identify the ecological variables associated with recent versus old horizontal gene transfer events, finding that gene transfers are more common amo...

Our work complements a recent analysis focused on 16S data: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

By analyzing marine metagenome-assembled genomes, we identified widespread evidence for HGT across marine prokaryotes and found the association with co-occurrence remains robust after accounting for other factors!

Co-occurring microbes have previously been found to undergo more HGT, but other factors could explain this observation (esp. phylo distance and similar env pressures).

New preprint (and brief🧵)! “Co-occurrence drives horizontal gene transfer (HGT) among marine prokaryotes”. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments! This was a collaboration with several co-authors: @cyanophage.bsky.social, @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social, Samuel Chaffron, @lbobay.bsky.social, and others!

A global survey of prokaryotic genomes reveals the eco-evolutionary pressures driving horizontal gene transfer - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors analyse 8,790 prokaryotic pangenomes to identify the ecological variables associated with recent versus old horizontal gene transfer events, finding that gene transfers are more common amo...

Our work complements a recent analysis focused on 16S data: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

By analyzing marine metagenome-assembled genomes, we identified widespread evidence for HGT across marine prokaryotes and found the association with co-occurrence remains robust after accounting for other factors!

Co-occurring microbes have previously been found to undergo more HGT, but other factors could explain this observation (esp. phylo distance and similar env pressures).

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - Nature The root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...

I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt

Don't knock it until you've tried them!

Big news: we are setting up a new non-profit organization to run bioRxiv and medRxiv. It's called openRxiv [no it's not a new preprint server; it's dedicated organization to oversee the servers] openrxiv.org 1/n

Hi there, I'm definitely open to that! Please reach out to me by email and I would be happy to discuss further.