Reto Burri

David Marques was an amazing speciation genomics researcher, a passionate birder, and a wonderful friend, husband, and father. May he rest in peace. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In this recent paper in Journal of Ornithology, I used citizen-science data (Macaulay library) to resolves disputed subspecies limits in the lesser spotted woodpecker across the Balkans and Minor Asia.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@lesserspotnet.bsky.social

Scientific stories: Why academia should move from publication metrics to narratives Publishing less papers might not be the best solution.

✍ Scientific stories: Why academia should move from publication metrics to narratives
jenteottenburghs.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/s...

Inspired by a recent Nature column by Adrian Barnett, I argue that publishing less isn’t the real solution. We need more focus on scientific narratives.

Multispecies pangenomes reveal a pervasive influence of population size on structural variation Structural variants (SVs) are widespread in vertebrate genomes, yet their evolutionary dynamics remain poorly understood. Using 45 long-read de novo genome assemblies and pangenome tools, we analyze S...

Multispecies pangenomes reveal a pervasive influence of population size on structural variation | Science www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

New study on factors influencing collisions of Red Kite Milvus milvus with wind turbines: findings suggest that turbines with rotor diameters <90m and clearances > 60m may pose a lower relative threat to Red Kites. Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Big data and small brown birds: how whole-genome sequencing can inform conservation of the threatened aquatic warbler? The ERGA-BGE case study led by Dr Justyna Kubacka of Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, is drawing to an end. You can read about the project here. In a nutshell, the study re...

🪶 Last year, @justynakubacka.bsky.social launched a project to support the #conservation of the threatened aquatic warbler.
Now the results are in, offering key insights into its past & present to help safeguard its future.
🔗 www.erga-biodiversity.eu/post/big-dat... #Conservation @mizpas.bsky.social

Text of the beginning of a scientific paper.

This paper blew me out of the water!

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...

Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry.

But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out!

doi.org/10.1126/scie...

🧵1/6

Cr. to Shen Tian

My main PhD work @monteirolab.bsky.social is now in @natecoevo.nature.com! We found a Hox gene promoter that helps butterflies🦋adjust their wing eyespots in response to seasonal temperatures🍃🍂, shedding light on the evolutionary origin of phenotypic plasticity. 1/9 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 2nd master’s project!
Interested in bird migration & genomics? 🧬🐦
Use whole-genome data to trace the recent colonization of Ouessant Island by Blue Tits and explore how irruptive migratory events can shape colonization dynamics. Please share! #ornithology

www.vogelwarte.ch/de/wir/mitar...

9/9 Thanks to all co-authors for making this endeavour possible!
Main funders: @dfg.de, @fnr.lu, @snsf.ch
@vogelwarte.bsky.social #ScienceResearch

8/9 Finally, wheatear coloration showcases that evolution makes use of all variation it has at hand, highlighting humanity’s responsibility to conserve a maximum of genetic, phenotypic, and species diversity possible.

7/9 Wheatear coloration thus illustrates that by a modular architecture phenotypes can be decoupled within the constraints of a monogenic architecture, provided enough time for recombination. In this context, hybrid zones represent important melting pots for evolutionary tinkering.

6/9 Finally, analyses of stable isotope signatures in blood associate white-throated individuals with food intake from a narrower and lower tropic niche than black-throated individual. This suggests that white throat coloration is associated with a specialized foraging niche.

5/9 White throat, mantle, and neck side coloration evolved in O. melanoleuca and from there introgressed into O. hispanica. White-throated O. pleschanka feature the introgressed white coding variant but not the LTR, suggesting ASIP is upregulated by undetected variation.

4/9 Iso-Seq-based analyses of ASIP expression in regrowing feathers confirm ASIP’s role in regulating coloration. ASIP expression is high in white feathers and low in black feathers. Transcript start sites coincide with many SNPs associated with mantle coloration.

3/9 The black-or-white throat polymorphism is explained by the interaction of a transposable element (an LTR retrotransposon) upstream ASIP with ASIP coding variation. Mantle and neck side coloration is encoded by additive effects of regulatory variants upstream ASIP.

2/9 In focal species of the hispanica complex throat coloration is polymorphic black or white, whereas mantle and neck sides are divergent black or white between species. GWAS leveraging the polymorphism and hybridization show that color variation is explained by a single gene, ASIP.

A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...

1/9 New in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005
How does genetic architecture constrain evolutionary trajectories? To address this question, we inferred the genetic architecture of convergent plumage coloration and its evolutionary history in wheatears.

🚨 PhD Opportunity!
Join Mozes Blom’s group at @mfnberlin.bsky.social to study the demographic history of New Guinea bird populations 🐦🌴
#PhD #Ornithology #Evolution #Genomics
🗓️Apply by 11.06.2025
More info 👇

Iguanas rafted more than 8,000 km from North America to Fiji | PNAS Founder-event speciation can occur when one or more organisms colonize a distant, unoccupied area via long-distance dispersal, leading to the evolu...

Iguanas rafting 8000 km represents the longest documented transoceanic dispersal event (i.e. vagrancy event) in a terrestrial vertebrate
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🌎

Warum Wissenschaftler*innen nicht mit Verschwörungsideolog*innen „debattieren“ sollten – ein Thread 🧵 #ScienceCommunication #FalseBalance #Journalismus

Rapid evolution of recombination landscapes during the divergence of cichlid ecotypes in Lake Masoko Abstract. Variation of recombination rate along the genome is of crucial importance to rapid adaptation and organismal diversification. Many unknowns remai

I’m very proud and happy to share the first paper of my PhD with @millanek.bsky.social that is now published in the latest issue of the journal Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social.

academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

ringed seal photo 1

ringed seal photo 2

I am looking for a Postdoc (3 years, start Mid-2025) to work on conservation genomics of ringed seal in the Baltic.
The project will use genomic data for 100s of individuals, SDM and genomic simulations.
#conservationgenetics
#consgen

Apply here:
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

Do you want to make genetic maps from sperm/pollen/gametes? Now there is an easy way, based on Hi-C sequencing.

Thanks to Richard Durbin and Ed Green for the idea and a group of co-authors including @mariontalbi.bsky.social and @danielbolnick.bsky.social for contributions.