Gautam Dey

After several years of work, my lab is starting to put out our first papers on learning in a unicellular organism (Stentor coeruleus).

Here we show evidence for a form of associative learning in Stentor:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are one of the potential host labs for a Lecturer position in Molecular Genetics & Genomics — please share, and get in touch for more info! 🧬📣

I had fun writing this N&Vs on two fascinating new papers on centromere evolution in yeast. If you’re interested in how centromeres adapt yet stay functional, here’s my take. rdcu.be/e6DD0 @nature.com @gautamdey.bsky.social @gsherloc.bsky.social @helsenjana.bsky.social @maxhaase.bsky.social

Fungal Cryptography — The Evolution of Molecular Specificity at University College London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Fungal Cryptography — The Evolution of Molecular Specificity at University College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

⏰ Last chance to apply for this PhD position with my colleague Kabir Husain (not on bsky: kabirhusain.github.io) at @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social

Fungal cryptography & the evolution of molecular specificity

📆 Deadline: 4th March 2026

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

You are finishing your PhD and looking to continue in science?

The Martin lab @biology-unige.bsky.social has an open postdoctoral position in cell biology to study cell-cell fusion. For more information, please consult mocel.unige.ch/research-gro....

Thanks for reposting!

Our Lab is searching a postdoc for an exciting ERC-funded project that will start this summer. Apply if you’re passionate about multi-omics, cutting-edge computational approaches, and exploring biological questions across the animal 🪼 🪱 🐞 🦎 🦋 🕷️ tree of life www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Be part of OMGN! Open to all researchers with an interest in oomycetes, from molecular genetics & genomics to biology, population biology, and ecology, at either an experimental or a computational level. Investigators new to the field are always welcome oomycetes.com

We are excited to be recruiting a new tenure track group leader in the Structural Studies Division at MRC LMB! It is an amazing place to start your own lab.
@mrclmb.bsky.social

Please get in touch if you have any questions.
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Clonal-aggregative multicellularity tuned by salinity in a choanoflagellate - Nature The choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms motile and contractile cell monolayers purely clonally, purely aggregatively or through a combination of both processes depending on environmental condi...

Salinity tunes mode of multicellularity in a tidepool choanoflagellate www.nature.com/articles/s41... - paper in @nature.com

In addition to all the well-documented stresses on the system, reviewer fatigue/saturation drives worse reviews which in turn promotes more journal shopping by authors which leads to paper recirculation and, yes, you guessed it, more reviewer fatigue 😵‍💫

@reviewcommons.org @asapbio.bsky.social

The best stories are the personal ones. So before we get to the new preprint, stay awhile and listen

#MobileLabs #TREC

Have you ever wondered 🤔... Does phenotypic variance respond to environmental perturbation? Does it have a genetic basis? Are mean and variance regulating loci exposed to different selection pressures? These and more questions are explored in our new preprint 🔥

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Interested in the most recent developments in plant science? Join the Mendel Early Career Symposium on May 21-22 at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social to exchange with experts about their science and career trajectories. Register by March 13th for a talk. More here: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-eve...

🤩to see this behemoth of a story out !
Pushed by @nikobiota.bsky.social & the Amazing @embl.org AML Team (Tina, Michael, Paulina) and in Co. with the Best #science #family you can dream of!

This truck was #home, for weeks in a row & in my heart for a lifetime.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For what?

Excited to share our new preprint exploring how Paramecium achieves diverse flow functions, i.e. feeding and swimming, simultaneously. This work was spearheaded by our ExM expert, PhD student Daphne Laan @daphnelaan.bsky.social :
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fig. 2 Life cycle of Cyanidiophyceae.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

(🧵 1/2) Fascinating single cell red algae: models for evolution and adaptation
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PlantScience

@embl.org at its best: collaborative, open, transformative, and just the right amount of crazy. Dreaming of mechanistic cell biology *in the natural environment*? Dream no more, rent the AML.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jepb...

#WeFreezeOnTheBeach #ProtistsOnSky 🦠🌍🧪

Global genetic rewiring during compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network - EMBO Reports Functional defects resulting from deleterious mutations can often be restored during evolution by compensatory mutations. Importantly, this process can generate the genetic diversity seen in networks ...

And another paper!
We show that compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network leads to global genetic rewiring: restoring polarity reshapes gene disruption tolerance across the genome and rewires entire cellular processes—not just individual genes.
doi.org/10.1038/s44319-026-00709-4

📢 Institut Jacques Monod Seminar

📅 February 27th
📍 Institut Jacques Monod

Invited by the @ishier.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social will present the Institut Jacques Monod seminar "Evolution and diversity of mitosis"

➡️ buff.ly/uCSfjgQ

EMBO Press co-evolves with molecular ecology and evolutionary biology - The EMBO Journal The EMBO Journal - Molecular ecology and evolution are central to understanding how biological systems function, interact, and diversify. A special issue of this journal reflects the growing...

Read how @embopress.org is expanding its focus on molecular ecology and evolution as central underpinnings of functions/interactions/diversification of biological systems – by @yehumoran.bsky.social, @berndpulverer.bsky.social, and our new team of Editorial Advisors
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Explore how genetics, evolution and ecology intertwine at EMBO Workshop "Evolving together: From genomics to biological interactions" in #Taipei, TW, 24–27 Apr 2026.

Abstract submission/Registration by 20 Jan/28 Feb

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio-interactions
#EMBOEvoGenBio #EMBOevents 🧪

Evolution of error correction through a need for speed Kinetic proofreading is a class of error-correcting mechanisms in biology that expend energy to avoid mistakes during replication, transcription, and translation. Proofreading is typically assumed to ...

@science.org Evolution of error correction through a need for speed | Science #evolution 🧬🔬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Welcome ExE 2026 is a 3-day conference aimed at evolutionary ecologists from around the world, hosted by the University of Exeter in beautiful Cornwall. It provides a friendly and inclusive platform for all c...

For UK folks in #Ecology and #Evolution, we are hosting a conference here in Cornwall! Great chance for a summer staycation June 29-July 3.

Plus, we've managed to make it affordable: £250 + £49/night for accommodation.

#EvolBiol #EcoEvo

sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/

Quand l’actine guide les divisions cellulaires Chez les plantes, les cellules ne peuvent ni se déplacer ni se réorganiser librement en raison de leur paroi rigide.

#ResultatScientifique🔎| Comment les cellules végétales orientent-elles correctement leur division pour construire des tissus cohérents ?

✍️ @mc-caillaud.bsky.social @camilagoldy.bsky.social
▶️ buff.ly/JWEIPoD

buff.ly/Joa0GPo

Lovely feature on the spectacular theoretical research led by my brilliant friend and colleague Anna Erzberger 🤩

Press | Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 Welcome to the OSM26 Newsroom and Press Center. Here you will find information that will help you cover the meeting and register.

If you're an environmental journalist in the UK or Europe, the biggest gathering of ocean scientists in the world is happening in Glasgow next week, and you should consider coming to cover some of the most important findings about our life support system. #OSM26

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

1/14

A pilot in a submersible vehicle collecting sediments samples in 30 meters of water looking for Asgards (microbial relatives of eukaryotes)

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22