Our paper on genetic load in an invasive guppy population is now published in @genomeresearch.bsky.social
It was a fantastic journey — from field sampling to analysis and finally publication. I hope readers will enjoy the story as much as we enjoyed working on it.

genome.cshlp.org/content/36/7...

@sebchm.bsky.social et al. study bulb mites to show that sex ratio manipulation drives evolution of male harm to females and widespread haplotype frequency changes without clear evidence for enhanced purging or maintenance of genetic diversity.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag151

#societyjournal

Our traditional Evokayak retreat is sadly over. Some of us absorbed inspiring talks horizontally and survived kayak teamwork vertically. Great to see friends from Kraków and Łódź. Thanks for coming and see you in two years!

Jon's new study in @natecoevo.nature.com shows that genetic rescue can increase long-term fitness despite elevating putative genetic load.

Interested? Check out our paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A short thread below 🧵

Coauthored by @jacek-radwan.bsky.social and @mkonczal.bsky.social

Our paper is out! We show that a 'missing-self' regulator (CFH) isn't as constrained as we thought, instead shows strong diversifying selection, likely driven by pathogen exploitation (e.g. Borrelia). Highlights how competing selective pressures shape innate immunity
academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

New work by Neha Pandey and the group on sexual selection’s role in population resilience, dynamics & recovery is now out.

The second chapter of my PhD is now available as a preprint 🦚. A lot of it came together during long days in front of my blue screen, and weekends spent watching puffins in the UK. With an amazing team @robknell.bsky.social @jacek-radwan.bsky.social Jonathan Parrett and @ecologycoder.bsky.social

Our latest paper with @evobiolab.bsky.social shows
sex-specific recombination landscape in a species with holocentric chromosomes. Genetic map of the bulb mite, results consistent with meiotic drive hypothesis and much more. Congrats to Sebastian for tremendous work academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

Is male aggression good or bad for populations under heatwaves? Find out in our recently published article onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Our latest preprint shows that in translocated invasive guppy population, genetic load is reshaped by purging and admixture. A bottleneck purged strongly deleterious mutations, but admixture reversed this effect while reducing the load of weakly deleterious mutations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our latest work! We experimentally showed that #genetic #rescue works: in the bulb mites, boosting genome-wide variation improved survival for 20 generations in high temp. Elevated genetic load or sexually selected traits? Barely mattered. #Conservation

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

@neelamporwal.bsky.social ‘s talk about estimating extinction risks under sexual selection using simulations, at PEC2025 won the first prize for the best student talk. So, should animals swipe right for survival?🐧

It's that time of year when we spend our days in the woods. The forests are silent, yet inhabited by rodents and ticks.

Not only fantastic #ESEB2025 talks, but also great posters. Józefina presented her work on Borelia, Neha on sexual selection and populations dynamics, Sebastian on bulb mite genomics, Mateusz on genetic load in guppies and Jacek on CFH gene in bank voles. Our diversity unleashed!

We are having fantastic time presenting and discussing our work at #ESEB2025

- Neelam Porwal answered a question "How sexual selection shapes small populations demography under recurrent heatwaves"

Gratulacje!
@k-burda.bsky.social for defending her PhD titled “Determinants of genetic load in natural populations of guppies”
She estimated per-generation mutation rate in guppies and explored how demographic events affect the buildup or removal of harmful variation in their natural populations.

We explore evolution’s thrilling battles, between and within sexes and, hosts vs. parasites. Our focus? Conservation genomics, experimental evolution, adaptation, and mutation dynamics, with special attention to sexual selection 🦌 in mites and host-pathogen coevolution in Borrelia and bank voles 🐀.