EvoBioLMU

Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...

Matrilines attack,

for the hosts there is no hope.

Egg kaleidoscope.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This month is my turn to bust science myths in our institute's mini-videos series. This month's topic: fruit flies and evolution! 🪰🧬

@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

No Consistent Effect of Migration on Speciation Rates in Two Avian Superfamilies: A Check on the Robustness of Trait-Dependent Diversification Methods Abstract. Seasonal migration is performed by taxonomically diverse groups across the planet’s oceans and continents. Migration has been hypothesized to pro

Fantastic comparative study by Gina Calabrese in coop with Safran & Rabosky lab explores whether seasonal migration can promote speciation in birds. A large-scale comparative analysis packed with methodological insights!

academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change.

Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

Robust and accurate Bayesian inference of genome-wide genealogies for hundreds of genomes - Nature Genetics SINGER is a method for creating ancestral recombination graphs to understand the genealogical history of genomes. The method has increased speed, and thus scalability, without sacrificing accuracy.

SINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...

Many thanks to all GEvol members for a truly wonderful annual meeting. It was really great to catch up with you all again.

Determinants of mutation load in birds Mutations contribute substantially to mortality and disease. The mutation load in a population depends on the efficacy of purifying selection in removing deleterious genetic variation. Here, we estima...

Mutation load sits on the large chromosomes in birds. Fidel's comparative work on 19 bird species shows an interesting interaction between recombination, selection and gene conversion affecting the genomic distribution of genetic load.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Context‐dependent relationships between genomic traits and plant performance in temperate grasslands Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Chongyi's paper from the biodiversity exploratories (@bexplo.bsky.social‬) is finally out ! How do genomic traits interact with community ecology?

Antropogenic

havoc. Communities shake.

Genomes grow and break.

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

DNA Methylation Reflects Cis‐Genetic Differentiation Across the European Crow Hybrid Zone Chromatin modifications provide a substrate for epigenetic variation with evolutionary potential. To quantify the contribution of this layer of variation during speciation in crows, we leveraged geno...

Two million bases

defy conformity. Meth

rebels follow lead.

Merondun (2025) Mol Ecol

doi.org/10.1111/mec....

Toward the integration of speciation research Abstract. Speciation research—the scientific field focused on understanding the origin and diversity of species—has a long and complex history. While relev

Sauna, vodka, tea.

Inhale the North, speciate.

Even ants must pee.

Stankowski (2024) Evol J Linnean Soc

doi.org/10.1093/evol...

A region of suppressed recombination misleads neoavian phylogenomics | PNAS Genomes are typically mosaics of regions with different evolutionary histories. When speciation events are closely spaced in time, recombination ma...

Years of fury on

ancient chromosomal dust.

Peace regained. Helas!

Mirarab et al. (2024) PNAS
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Sexual selection promotes reproductive isolation in barn swallows Despite the well-known effects of sexual selection on phenotypes, links between this evolutionary process and reproductive isolation, genomic divergence, and speciation have been difficult to establis...

Swallows, match your love!

tails and feathers, red or buff.

And genes will couple.

Shield et al. (2024) Science
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Two #LMU projects receive ERC #ProofOfConcept Grants!
🌿 Silke Robatzek is pursuing a novel approach in plant protection strategies.
🧠 @tobiasstaudigl.bsky.social optimizes deep brain stimulation with functional markers.
#LMU #ERC #ResearchInThePractice Read more here: www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

This Jungle Plant Is a Good Landlord to Its Tenant Ants

We are quite delighted by the media coverage of our paper:

This Jungle Plant Is a Good Landlord to Its Tenant Ants www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/s...

Also here:

This tropical plant builds isolated ‘apartments’ to prevent battles among the aggressive ant tenants it relies on for survival theconversation.com/this-tropica...

Is there an independent role of epigenetic variation in speciation? We looked for answers in the crow hybrid zone.
In brief: DNA seems to be in the driving seat.

Congrats Justin! This was a long journey.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Compartmentalization reduces conflict in multipartner plant-insect symbioses Many symbioses involve one host species having several mutualist partners, yet theory predicts that unrelated symbionts lead to destabilizing conflict through competition for host resources. We combin...

Compartmentalization reduces conflict in multipartner plant-insect symbioses | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Crows on ancient trees

their twigs so discordantes!

May they rest in piece.

Gwee et al. (2025) Mol Ecol

New paper from the Wolf Lab.

Full-length transcriptomes of 25 grassland plant species - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Full-length transcriptomes of 25 grassland plant species

A flower once wild,

cast into digital chains.

A meadow once free.

Jiang et al. (2025) Sci Data

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

This was a very interesting collaboration on how tricky is it to implement ATAC-seq on different insect species 🪲 🐝 🐜

Female neoteny does have an impact on colonization patterns in the big European firefly, Lampyris noctiluca ✨

Sex-biased Migration and Demographic History of the Big European Firefly Lampyris noctiluca Abstract. Differential dispersion between the sexes can impact the colonization process and demographic history of a species. Here, we explored the demogra

This work shows the first overview on the population genetics and demographic history of the big European firefly, **Lampyris noctiluca**. Feeling very happy this work is out :) academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Despite their strikingly different plumage, carrion and hooded crows show strong asymmetrical gene flow hidden beneath the feathers #hybridzone #evolution #demography #bird

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Conservation genetics project: beautiful sunrise after a good night sleep high up in the mountains.

Further, we found – at least for a range of model parameter values – that the defence trait is indeed altruistic. That is, it reduces the direct fitness of the defender, such that, from the perspective of inclusive fitness theory, kin selection really matters.

Selection for altruistic defense in structured populations We model natural selection for or against an anti-parasite (or anti-predator) defense allele in a host (or prey) population that is structured into ma…

Can genetic drift generate enough variation between subpopulations to allow for the evolution of defence against predators or parasites via multi-level selection? In www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we have explored this for a structured population model.