This Week in Evolution: Recent Episodes
Vincent Racaniello
This Week in Evolution is a podcast on the biology of what makes us tick. Hosts Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello take you through the new evolution that has been revolutionized by the field of genomics and molecular biology.
Nels and Vincent discuss a chemically defined synthetic cell capable of growth and replication.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Chemically defined synthetic cell (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Jimothy the short spined racoon in Seattle Vincent – Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga
Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv
Nels and Vincent discuss molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor (Science) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Plug-in solar Vincent – This Engine Will Reinvent Space Travel
Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv
TWiEVO 126: Beyond Inheritance with Roxanne Khamsi June 1, 2026 Science journalist Roxanne Khamsi joins Nels and Vincent discuss her first book, Beyond Inheritance, which explores how DNA continuously mutates throughout our lives, challenging the idea that our genetic destiny is fixed at birth.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Roxanne Khamsi
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Beyond Inheritance (Amazon) * Timestamps by Jolene
Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv
Nels and Vincent discuss the development of a comprehensive transcriptomic atlas of early embryogenesis from 61 animal species to understand the control of gene expression transitions from maternally deposited products to newly transcribed zygotic RNA.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Evolutionary landscapes of zygotic genome activation across animals (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Biologists Confirm Not Much Evolution Happened Today Vincent – How Trains Take Electricity from Wires Without Breaking Contact
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Nels and Vincent discuss the discovery of a short RNA with the ability to catalyze its own synthesis.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * A small polymerase ribozyme (Science) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – The University of Illinois Just Released a Popcorn So Good It Doesn't Need Butter Vincent – Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp
Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv
Nels and Vincent explain how stinkbug females smear fungus on their eggs to protect them from wasp parasitism.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs (Science) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Meet the Olympic superstar who trains under the radar in Utah Vincent – The Discovery That Changed the Universe
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Nels and Vincent explain how selfishness evolved multiple times from an essential tRNA synthetase gene in a nematode.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Evolution of selfishness from a tRNA synthetase gene (Nat Ecol Evol) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels - From Where Does it STEM? Vincent - An Act of Cosmic Sabotage
Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv
Nels and Vincent examines the use of AI and genome language models to design novel derivatives of bacteriophage phiX174.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * AI design of bacteriophage phiX174 derivatives (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – NIH official resigns after flap over risks of seasonal flu virus study and The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from all interested parties on Federal policy updates that aim to accelerate the American scientific enterprise, enable groundbreaking discoveries, and ensure that scientific progress and technological innovation benefit all Americans. Vincent – One Plus One Equals One: Symbiosis and the evolution of complex life by John Archibald
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Nels and Vincent explain research which shows that insertion of a retrovirus into the genome regulates a novel color trait in swordtail fish.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Retrovirus and swordfish scale color (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Some like it hot! A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes and Kara Marshall's talk on history of science/science funding in the US, family connections to medical care, and her own lab's work at Baylor College of Medicine Vincent – NIH shake-up to grant decision-making draws concerns of political meddling
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Nels and Vincent explain research attempting to explain why among humans, females around the world live on average 5 years longer than males, but the trend is reversed in many birds, amphibians, and insects.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy (Sci Adv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks 1:37:00 Nels – NIH Leadership Is Failing Early Career Researchers Vincent – Kennedy's Comments on Circumcision Are Only Going to Confuse and Shame Parents
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Nels and Vincent discuss research which shows a shift from the rule that living organisms produce same-species offspring: an ant that produces individuals from two distinct species.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * David Baltimore interview (TWiV 100) * One mother for two species (Nature) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Dr. Bill Rom, NYU canoes every lake connected by a portage trail in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota Vincent – Google just made photography obsolete
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Nels and Vincent discuss research on hidden evolutionary constraints that dictate the retention of coronavirus accessory gene, which was flagged by NIH as potentially dangerous gain-of-function research.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Hidden evolutionary constraints and retention of coronavirus accessory genes (Curr Biol) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns and Mentorship and acts of kindness Vincent – Kennedy’s case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence
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Nels and Vincent review research on how neuropeptides influence the behavior of leafcutter ants, and regulate the different caste behaviors such as defenders, leaf foragers, brood care, and fungus farming.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Neuropeptides and behavior of leaf cutter ants (Cell) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – My academic job offer was rescinded. I’ll keep going—but U.S. researchers are running out of road Vincent –There’s a new acid in our rain — should we be worried?
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Nels and Vincent discuss an ultra reduced archaeal genome, the closest cellular entity to date that approaches a viral strategy of existence.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Ultra-reduced archaeal genome (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – The Bethesda Declaration Vincent –US to Drop Guidance to Limit Alcohol to One or Two Drinks Per Day, Sources Say
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Nels and Vincent review the properties of Mendel’s pea genes through the lens of modern genetic analysis.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Insights into Mendel’s pea genes (Nature) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Evolution related game Vincent –Should Unvaccinated Patients Get Organ Transplants? Ethicist Weighs In
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Nels and Vincent explain the ancestry and evolution of the extinct dire wolf.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Evolution and ancestry of dire wolf (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Navigating to the forefront of innovation: A celebration of immigrant scientists Vincent –Exclusive: a Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain
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Nels and Vincent explain the ancient evolutionary origin of sex in cephalopods.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Evolution of sex in cephalopods (Current Biol) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –Speaking into a microphone? Your audio quality can impact the way people view you Vincent – Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill
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Nels and Vincent explain how template switching during DNA replication is a widespread source of adaptive gene amplification.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Template switching and gene amplification (eLife) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –Jeremy Berg on Bluesky – jeremymberg.bsky.social Vincent –Dickson Despommier, 84
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Nels and Vincent reveal that worker ants amputate their colleagues injured leg to prevent infections.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Wound-dependent leg amputation in ants (Curr Biol) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –The Science Bridge Vincent –US withdraws from WHO
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Nels and Vincent discuss the molecular and genetic origins of sex-linked orange coat color in cats.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Orange coat color in cats (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – AI takes up science podcasting Vincent – Humans evolved for distance running – but ancestor ‘Lucy’ didn’t go far or fast
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Nels and Vincent review the identification of a novel virus associated with the pathogen Plasmodium knowlsei and which is part part of a diverse and unclassified viral taxon.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Virus associated with P. knowlsei (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – The peace of wild things, poem by Wendell Berry Vincent – All Life on Earth Today Descended From a Single Cell. Meet LUCA
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Nels and Vincent discuss the origins of eukaryotes, with contributions from at least 3 bacteria (alphaproteobacteria) and a large contribution from DNA viruses with large genomes.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Complex symbiotic interactions during eukaryogenesis (bioRxiv) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Pathoplexus.org Vincent – Can science cure its addiction to plastic?
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Nels and Vincent explain how homology searches of anti-phage systems in eukaryotic genomes can be used to discover proteins of the human immune system.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Human antiviral effectors from antiphage systems (Cell Host Micro) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Pathoplexus.org Vincent – Can science cure its addiction to plastic?
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Nels and Vincent look at how plant prickles, sharp epidermal projections that provide defense from predators and other advantages, arose by convergent evolution, the emergence of analogous traits in distantly related species.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Convergent evolution of plant prickles (Science) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Trees as a metaphor to understand relationships in biology Vincent – Project 2025 vs. The Public’s Health
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Nels and Vincent discuss the genome sequence of an ancient wooly mammoth, which shows that the three-dimensional architecture of the DNA can persist after 50,000 years.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Three dimensional architecture of 50,000 year old wooly mammoth genome (Cell) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Mysterious SARS-CoV-2 variants showing up in sewer samples Vincent – ‘Cocaine sharks’ found in waters off Brazil
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Nels and Vincent explore a direct experimental test of Ohno’s Hypothesis, which states that gene duplication can help genes tolerate new mutations and thus facilitates the evolution of new phenotypes.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Direct test of Ohno’s Hypothesis (eLive) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –Experimental Evolution and the Nature of Biodiversity Vincent – Is science’s dominant funding model broken?
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Nels and Vincent explain how deep genomics of macroalgae illuminate multiple paths to aquatic, photosynthetic multicellularity.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Paths to aquatic, photosynthetic multicellularity (Mol Plant) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –12-sided Roman relic baffles archaeologists, spawns countless theories Vincent – TWiEVO 11: Microbial accomplices in multicellularity and the follow up Synergistic Cues from Diverse Bacteria Enhance Multicellular Development in a Choanoflagellate
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Nels and Vincent review the genetic basis for tail-loss evolution in humans and apes.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Genetic basis of tail loss evolution in apes (Nature) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels –Will Brie and Camembert Cheeses Go Extinct? Vincent – A True Human Tail in a Neonate: Case report and literature review
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Nels and Vincent reveal how electric organ discharge from the electric eel facilitates the introduction of DNA into teleost larvae.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Electric eel discharge moves DNA into cells (Peer J) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – “The Jump” quilt by Cristina Arcenegui Bono Vincent – T4 bacteriophage art object and Gwenbeads Etsy shop
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Nels and Vincent discuss how behavioural individuality determines infection risk in clonal ant colonies.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Infection risk in clonal ant colonies (Nat Comm) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Fungi (lichens) in Space Vincent – Polar bear energetic and behavioral strategies on land with implications for surviving the ice-free period
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Nels and Vincent review a study of the key processes required for the different stages of fungal carnivory by a nematode-trapping fungus.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Fungal carnivory by a nematode-trapping fungus (Plos Biol) * Timestamps by Jolene
Science Picks Nels – Openly available illustrations as tools to describe eukaryotic microbial diversity Vincent – Dana-Farber retractions: meet the blogger who spotted problems in dozens of cancer papers
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Nels and Vincent discuss the origins of two modern day agriculturally important plants: a role for two different wild teosintes in making modern maize, and the origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Two teosintes made modern maize (Science) * Teosinte (Native Seeds) * Evolution of triploid banana genome (Nature)
Science Picks Nels – Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art – Nature Careers Podcast Vincent – Science’s 2023 Breakthrough and Breakdown
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Nels and Vincent discuss how the rewetting of seasonally dried soils, a critical event in Mediterranean grasslands that reactivates dormant soil microorganisms, leading to pulses of carbon and nitrogen mineralization, and is accompanied by a bloom of viral diversity, followed by extensive viral community turnover.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Join the MicrobeTV Discord server * Viral but not bacterial community successional patterns reflect extreme turnover shortly after rewetting dry soils
Science Picks Nels - Bluesky Vincent - Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology
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Nels and Vincent take apart an amazing symbiosis consisting of two bacteria, one bacteriophage, and seven different genomes all within a single-celled alga.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •A single crowded cryptomonad cell (Curr Biol) •Letters read on TWiEVO 94
Science Picks Nels – What happened at NIH during the last government shutdown Vincent – Geneticist J. Craig Venter: ‘I consider retirement tantamount to death’
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Nels and Vincent review a collision of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, using a minimal synthetic bacterial cell with only 473 genes, the smallest genome of any known organism that can be grown in lab culture.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
• Evolution of a minimal cell (Nature)
Science Picks Nels – Life magnified stamp collection
Vincent – Matters Microbial
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Nels and Vincent explain a study of how interspecies competition between two algae influences evolution of metabolism and size.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
• Metabolic evolution during competition (Curr Biol)
Science Picks Nels – How amino acids got their names (Source)
Vincent – EVs Fix One Pollution Problem—And Worsen Another
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Nels and Vincent discuss new findings using phylogenetic approaches about how complex eukaryotic cells emerged from prokaryotic ancestors, which firmly place eukaryotes as a clade nested within the Asgard archaea.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent RacanielloS
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
•Heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes (Nature)
Science Picks Nels – Juneteenth issue of Cell – collection of essays from black and brown scientists
Vincent – Tara Oceans
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Nels and Vincent provide insights into the mystery of mouse mummies on the summits of >6000 m Andean volcanoes, including whether they were living there and if so why?
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Mystery of mouse mummies (bioRxiv)
Science Picks Nels – Zoonomia Vincent – SeaPhages
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Nels and Vincent discuss the observation that cells on a boundary of a solid tumor have higher growth rates compared to those in the center and how to model this difference using genome sequencing data.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Evolutionary models of solid tumor growth (Nat Ecol Evol)
Science Picks Nels – TWiV 1000 Vincent – The dream of wiping out polio might need a rethink
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Nels and Vincent review a study of the dogs of Chernobyl which reveals that genetically distinct populations with different amounts of western breed contributions to their genomes, the first step in assessing the effects of exposure to long-term ionizing radiation.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •The dogs of Chernobyl (Science Adv) •What the dogs of Chernobyl can teach us (Stat) •Letters read on TWiEVO 88
Science Picks Nels – Hellbent documentary and Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death Vincent – BioRender
Listener Pick Walter – Oded Rechavi and interview
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Nathan joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his approach to understanding how species adopt novel traits to overcome challenges, and its application to identifying coding and noncoding sequence changes that underlie mammalian hairlessness.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Nathan Clark
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Gene loss in marine mammals (TWiEVO 34) •Gene change underlying mammalian hair loss (eLife) •Letters read on TWiEVO 87
Science Picks Nels – Local news coverage of Amanda, Maria, and Nathan’s paper Vincent – Discovering Retroviruses by Anna Marie Skalka Nathan – Genomics of Secondarily Temperate Adaptation in the Only Non-Antarctic Icefish
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Nels and Vincent discuss how evolution of changes in stop codon assignment might occur, and a novel mechanism for altering the meaning of translation stop codons discovered in a trypanosomatid with the apropos name, Blastocrithidia nonstop.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Novel stop codon reassignment mechanisms (Nature)
Science Picks Nels – Protein Synthesis: An epic on the cellular level
Vincent – Widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages may regulate translation of lytic genes discussed on TWiM 277
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Nels and Vincent discuss the use of genome sequence data for over 4,000 domestic, semi-feral, and wild canids to understand the genetic drivers of canine behavior.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Genetic drivers of canine diversification (Cell) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us by C. Brandon Ogbunu Vincent – The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll
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Nels and Vincent review the use of ancient DNA to identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death by studying populations before, during, and after the pandemic.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Evolution of immune genes associated with Black Death (Nature) * ERAP2 and respiratory disease (medRxiv) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Interview with Paul Turner in Current Biology and Map of the World if you are a fish
Vincent – Smallpox and its eradication
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Florian Maderspacher from Current Biology joins Nels and Vincent to discuss a special issue of the journal on birds.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Florian Maderspacher
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Links for this episode * Current Biology Birds Special Issue * Scott Edwards bikes across the US (Audubon) * Support Diversity Issues in Evolution (Go Fund Me) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Florian – Favorite birds of authors/contributors in Birds issue
Nels –Loss of avian intromittent organs as a sperm competition strategy: a race to be last
Vincent – Malaria at the Bronx Zoo (TWiP 110)
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Nels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Human TKTL1 implies greater neurogenesis (Science) * Everyone’s a little bit Neanderthal (TWiEVO 8) * Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals (TWiV 676) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Unusual display of elements
Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary
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Nels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Human TKTL1 implies greater neurogenesis (Science) * Everyone’s a little bit Neanderthal (TWiEVO 8) * Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals (TWiV 676) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Unusual display of elements
Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary
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Nels and Vincent discuss how duplication of a gene encoding a transcription factor led to evolution of a novel cell type in the slime mold Dictyostelium.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Gene duplication leads to novel cell type (Current Biol) * Evolution of multicellularity (TWiEVO 11) * Letters read on TWiEVO 81 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art
Vincent – John Bonner’s slime mold movies
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Louise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Louise Moncla
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Links for this episode * Within-host diversity of influenza virus H5N1 (PLoS Path) * Mumps virus outbreak in Washington (eLive) * SARS-CoV-2 tight transmission bottlenecks (PLoS Path) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – JWST Images
Vincent – 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program
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Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * SARS-CoV-2 evolution during chronic infection (Nat Med) * Letters read on TWiEVO 79 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears
Vincent – FDA: Don’t rush a move to change the Covid-19 vaccine composition
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Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * ECDC monkeypox risk assessment (pdf) * Monkeypox virus genomes (Nextstrain) * Discussion of monkeypox virus genome sequencing (virological.org) * Balancing positive and negative selection in spike protein (Biochem) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Science on the Side podcast by Morgan Nelson and Ty Chiaro
Vincent – Richard Ernst Lecture 2022
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Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Alex Cagan
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Links for this episode * Somatic mutation and age (Nature) * Zombie gene in elephants (TWiEVO 26) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Alex – Paper.app
Nels – Fifty years since Lewontin’s apportionment of human diversity
Vincent – An Exceptional Village
Listener Pick Martha – Plagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper
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Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Making E. coli an insect mutualist (bioRxiv) * Letters read on TWiEVo 76 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda
Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy
Listener Pick Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist
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Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature) * Vampire vax (TWiV 809) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement
Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa
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Joe Graves joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his career in evolutionary biology and his recent book that answers questions about race and racism. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Joe Graves
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Links for this episode * On Racism, Not Race (Amazon) * African Americans in evolutionary science (Behav Ecol Sociobiol) * Biological variation and the normal (Am J Hum Biol) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Where is Webb?
Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association
Joe – Biology versus bias
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Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep) * Host origins of SARS-CoV-2 genome insertions (Virological) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect
Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates
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Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Ancient coronavirus epidemic in East Asia (Curr Biol) * Gene-culture coevolution and human evolutionary transition (Proc Roy Soc B) * Membrane permeability at the lipid divide (bioRxiv) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science
Vincent – Virology Live
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Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * SARS-CoV-2 mutation rate (Genome Biology Evolution) * Delta spike change enhances fitness (bioRxiv) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Leading Edge Symposium
Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2
Listener Pick Thomas – The gene’s-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren
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Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life’s Edge.
Host: Nels Elde
Guest: Carl Zimmer
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Links for this episode * On Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin
Carl – From telomere to telomere: the transcriptional and epigenetic state of human repeat elements
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Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Identification of novel bat coronaviruses (Cell) * Dating first cases of COVID-19 (PLoS Path) * Recovery of deleted SARS-CoV-2 sequences (bioRxiv) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out
Vincent – Human Behavior During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Any Covid Variant
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Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Evolutionary portrait of SARS-CoV-2 (Mol Biol Evolution) * Letters read on TWiEVO 68 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Ed Yong pandemic trauma and We’re Not Ready for the Next Pandemic
Vincent – Furin cleavage site is not a smoking gun
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Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Recombination in B.1.1.7 lineage (Virological) * CoVariants * Letters read on TWiEVO 67 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Mars rover helicopter flight!
Vincent – TWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach
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Nels and Vincent review a preprint demonstrating that changes in the genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B1.351 and P.1 allow the viruses to reproduce in mouse cells in culture and in laboratory mice.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Tony Schountz on TWiV 668 * SARS-CoV-2 variants infect mice (bioRxiv) * CoVariants * Letters read on TWiEVO 66 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Billion years of plate tectonics
Vincent – Sapiens a Graphic History by Yuval Noah Harari
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Nels and Vincent review evidence that a single amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has driven adaptation to humans, followed by an update on the status of variants of concern.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Selective sweep drove SARS-CoV-2 adaptation (bioRxiv) * Novel coronavirus haplotypes * Letters read on TWiEVO 65 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Radio Garden
Vincent – Our World in Data – Coronavirus
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Nels and Vincent consider evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2, and update the situation on novel virus variants of concern with potentially altered fitness and reactivity with antibodies.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Nature) * mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to variants (bioRxiv) * Scott Hensley thread (Twitter) * Analysis of B.1.17 lineage (virological) * Trevor Bedford thread (Twitter) * Andrew Rambaut on variant naming (Twitter) * Letters read on TWiEVO 64 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Biden Administration PCAST and The Hill We Climb
Vincent – Four inaugural quotations – Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Biden
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Nels and Vincent wrap up 2020 with a discussion of novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa, how to interpret the rapidly emerging genome sequence data and what to look for in the coming weeks as these variants spread across the globe.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode * Preliminary genomic characterization of UK variant (virological) * Clinical outcomes of infection with Orf8 variants (Lancet) * Global Report Investigating Novel Coronavirus Haplotypes (GRINCH) * South African SARS-CoV-2 lineage (medRxiv) * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Katalin Karikos’ career and mRNA vaccines
Vincent – Reverse Engineering of mRNA vaccine
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Daniel joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his new book on army ants, the wickedest insects ever to roam the planet, and his research on them and clonal raider ants.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Daniel Kronauer
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Links for this episode * This Week in Ants (TWiEVO 13) * Raiders of the Lost Orco (TWiEVO 18) * Army Ants by Daniel Kronauer * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Daniel – Desert Navigator by Rüdiger Wehner and Insects of Suriname by Maria Sibylla Merian
Nels – NPR Scicommers
Vincent – The Vintage Beauty Of Soviet Control Rooms
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Nels and Vincent discuss an opinion piece on 12 evolutionary insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping human nature, and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in an immunosuppressed patient.
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Links for this episode * Microbe.TV on instagram * Pandemic exposes human nature (PNAS) * Carl Bergstrom calls BS (Twitter) * Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in patient (J Inf Dis) * Letters read on TWiEVO 61 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels – Scott Edwards bikes across US; support diversity in evolution
Vincent – 30 computers sculpture project
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On the fifth anniversary of TWiEVO, Nels and Vincent invite 12 evolutionary biologists to describe exciting future directions for the field and their laboratory in the next five years.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Lillian Fritz Laylin, Talia Karasov, Andrew Kern, Sarah Tishkoff, Dmitri Petrov, Nancy Chen, Amanda Larracuente, John McCutcheon, Ambika Kamath, Chip Aquadro, Rebekah Rogers, Yaniv Braindvain, and Harmit Malik
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Science Picks
Nels - Science Mill Virtual Tour and Benefit
Vincent - Das Coronavirus summaries
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Nels and Vincent answer listener questions and discuss a newly discovered virus of amoeba with a nearly complete ORFan genome: none of the proteins encoded in the viral genome look like any other proteins.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Links for this episode
- Yaravirus (PNAS)
- Letters read on TWiEVO 59
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks
Nels - Blog by Ambika Kamath
Vincent - TWiVerse
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Simon and Heather join TWiEVO to discuss their analysis of the evolutionary history of ACE2 usage by coronaviruses in the Sarbecovirus genus.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Simon Anthony and Heather Wells
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Links for this episode
- Evolutionary history of sarbecovirus ACE2 binding (bioRxiv)
- Bombali virus in bats (Nat Micro)
- Herpesviruses in Puerto Rican bats (bioRxiv)
- Adenovirus and herpesvirus in great apes (PLoS One)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
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Jessie, Allie and Tyler join Nels and Vincent to describe their work on deep mutational scanning of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Jesse Bloom, Allie Greaney, and Tyler Starr
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Links for this episode
- Bloom Laboratory
- Deep mutational scanning of SARS-CoV-2 RBD (bioRxiv)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, including understanding recurrent mutations in the viral genome, and the potential for re-emergence of the virus from an animal reservoir.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity (Inf, Genet, Evol)
- Re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (bioRxiv)
- Tackling SARS-CoV-2 rumors (virological.org)
- Letters read on TWiEVO 56
- Image credit
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - The Cell in Evolution
Vincent - Visual Science
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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, with a report that the coronavirus proofreading enzyme stimulates RNA recombination, and debunking the conclusion that a change in the viral spike glycoprotein is associated with increased human to human transmission.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- CoV proofreading enzyme stimulates recombination (bioRxiv)
- CoV spike mutation pipeline (bioRxiv)
- Issues with CoV sequencing data (virological.org)
- Bill Hanage on selection vs bottleneck (threader.app)
- Image credit
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - In Memoriam: Gordon Lark
Vincent - John Oliver Discussion of Antibody Tests
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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, including function of the furin cleavage site, whether Vervet cells are an informative system, another bat isolate, and a nomenclature to assist genomic epidemiology.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells (bioRxiv)
- More related SARSr virus from bat (bioRxiv)
- Patient isolates in Vero cells (medRxiv)
- Nomenclature for genomic epidemiology (bioRxiv)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - EvoEco seminars
Vincent - Coronavirus book for children
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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, focusing on what the genome sequences tell us about the virus.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Clement Chow with COVID-19 (Salt Lake Trib)
- Scientists exposed to coronavirus (Nature)
- CoV by Britt Glaunsinger (YouTube)
- Genetic epidemiology of novel coronavirus (nextstrain.org)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Science Mill Explorer Zone
Vincent - COVID-19 treatment and therapy tracker
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Nels and Vincent examine SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, examining what the spike glycoprotein sequence informs us about the origin of the virus.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Distinct CoV name needed (Lancet)
- Proximal origin of SARS-COV-2 (virological)
- CoV spillovers not rare (Goats and Soda)
- SARS-CoV-2 phylodynamics analysis (virological)
- Bat CoV surveillance in China (PLoS Path)
- Image credit
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Alejandro Sanchez TED Talk
Vincent - WHO SARS-CoV-2 Sitrep
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Nels and Vincent dive deep into evolution and consider how new proteins emerged billions of years ago, when there were no other proteins to serve as starting material.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Primordial emergence of a nucleic acid binding protein (bioRxiv)
- Tawfik laboratory
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 51
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Universal principled review
Vincent - Hostile Planet by National Geographic
Listener Pick Courtney - Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Shudder Before The Beautiful
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Nels and Vincent discuss signatures of sex chromosome evolution revealed by assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome from 3-spined stickleback fish.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome (bioRxiv)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 50
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Genome from a 5,700-Year-Old Wad of Chewed Gum
Vincent - NJ Sea-Level Rise Reports
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Rich joins Nels and Vincent for a debriefing on the 4th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Tegernsee, Germany.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Rich Condit
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- Endless giant virus forms most beautiful (TWiV 575)
- 4th Ringberg Giant Virus Meeting Program (pdf)
- Photographs by Matthias Fischer
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Rich - Flightradar24
Nels - Deutsches Museum Munich
Vincent - Diversify Microbiology
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Nels and Vincent reveal a new choanoflagellate that forms multicellular cup shaped colonies that respond to light to alternate between feeding and swimming behavior.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Microbial accomplices in multicellularity (TWiEVO 11)
- Light regulated collective contractility (Science)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 48
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - How to write a great science paper by Cormac McCarthy
Vincent - Natural Selection Store
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Nels and Vincent trace the origins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains used to make beer, and find that ales and lagers are made with yeasts that were derived from those used to make European grape wine and Asian rice wine.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Origins of beer yeasts (PLoS Biol)
- Chateau Jiahu beer
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Population fluctuations in 10 biggest cities
Vincent - 1.7 million year old rhino tooth (original Nature paper)
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Nels and Vincent analyze the genomes of canine transmissible tumors to provide insight into the worldwide spread of the disease from its origin in a single dog 4000-8500 years ago, and its diversity, mutation, and evolution.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Evolution and mutation of canine transmissible cancer (Science)
- Clam cancers (TWiEVO 17)
- Sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels - Vasa Museum in Stockholm
Vincent - Nobel Museum in Stockholm
Listener Pick Irene - @EndlessFormsand #PlantScienceFascinatesMe #plantsday
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At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Talia Karasov who reveals that in contrast to agriculture, wild plants are colonized by multiple lineages of pathogenic bacteria.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Talia Karasov
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- Talia Karasov in the Bergelson lab
- Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas (Cell Host Micr)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
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At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Paul Turner to talk about evolutionary considerations in using bacteriophages to treat infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Paul Taylor
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- Turner Lab at Yale
- Phage therapy: A renewed approach (Cell Host Microbe)
- Phage treatment of aortic graft (Evol Med Pub Health)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels- Science Glass
Vincent- Phage therapy for disseminated Mycobacterial infection
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Dustin Rubinstein joins Nels and Vincent to discuss coevolution of genome architecture and social behavior, and studying social transitions in sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Dustin Rubinstein
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- Co-evolution of genome architecture and social behavior (Trend Ecol Evol)
- Social transitions in snapping shrimp (Curr Op Insect Sci)
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Dustin- Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies 1 by E.O. Wilson, and The Human Swarm by Mark O. Moffett
Nels- For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner
Vincent- Quacks blamed for Pakistan HIV-1 outbreak
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Nels and Vincent review the contribution of multiple Denisovan lineages to the modern Papuan genome.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Denisovan ancestries in Papuans (Cell)
- Prof Murray Cox
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 42
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels- Sydney Brenner - What Genomes Can Tell Us About the Past
Vincent- Scientific Communication in a Post-Truth Society
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Nels and Vincent explore the evolution of new protein-coding genes de novo from nocoding DNA sequences, using the antifreeze protein of northern codfish as a model.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Evolution of antifreeze protein gene in codfish (PNAS)
- Codfish diversity (Cheng lab)
- Frankentomatoes (Huff Post)
- Image credit
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels- Science at Sundance reviews
Vincent- The Rise and Fall of Scientific Authority
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Nels and Vincent move back to reproductive isolation - this time, pre-zygotic, in the charismatic orchid bee where the males make chemically distinct perfumes to attract mates of the same species.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Olfactory receptor gene underlies reproductive isolation (biorXiv)
- Image credit
- Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Science Picks Nels- Nature Zen: Orchid Bees Are Shiny
Vincent- What You Believe About Science Denial May Be All Wrong
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Nels and Vincent look at the intracellular bacteria Legionella from an evolutionary perspective: the role of gene acquisition and reshuffling from plants, animals, fungi, and archaea in the emergence of human pathogens.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Over 18,000 effectors in Legionella genome (PNAS)
- Carmen Buchrieser lab
- Howard Shuman
Science Picks **Nels** - Science in Film (twitter)Vincent - Lunar Eclipse 101
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Nels and Vincent reveal a highly conserved protein that acts as an evolvability factor, increasing mutation and the ability of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Inhibiting evolution of antibiotic resistance (Mol Cell)
- Pushing viruses over the error threshold (virology blog)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 38
Science Picks Nels- Science/nature illustrator/artist Rachel Ignotofsky (website, Etsy shop)
Vincent- Life Ascending by Nick Lane
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David Quammen joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his new book, A Tangled Tree, including evolutionary trees, Carl Woese, Lynn Margulis, horizontal gene transfer, and much more.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: David Quammen
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- David's website
- David on TWiV 408, Boston Quammens
- Axel Erlandson's trees reimagined - Gilroy Gardens
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Mia joins Nels and Vincent to unravel their finding that the transposons that maintain the ends of chromosomes in Drosophilahave evolved in conflict with the genome.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Mia Levine
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- Levine Lab at U Penn
- Telomere elongation without telomerase (bioRxiv)
- Letters read on TWiEVO 36
Science Picks Nels - Cinema Science podcast
Vincent - Mastodon bones unearthed (Instagram, Grand Rapids News)
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Nels and Vincent reveal that female-specific DNA associated with sex in strawberries has repeatedly changed its genomic location, possibly linking new genes with sex.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Jumping sex genes in strawberries (PLoS Biol)
- Red Queen by Matt Ridley
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 35
Science Picks Nels - New snailfish and Cloned crayfish
Vincent -A PhD Lab Coat Ceremony
Listener Picks Steve - Diversity in simple blobs
Justin - On Growth and Forms by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
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Nels and Vincent discuss how the loss of an enzyme in marine mammals millions of years ago now makes them at risk for neurotoxicity caused by human-made organophosphorous pesticides.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Ancient lossesof paraoxonase I (Science)
- Big Yellow Taxi (YouTube)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 34
Hey farmer farmer put away the chlor-pyri-fus
I don’t care about spots on my apples
Leave me the manatee and walruses
Science Picks Nels - New dinosaur discovered in Utah
Vincent -The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
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Nels and Vincent are astounded by the finding of an insect-derived virus in a fungus that manipulates the behavior of flies.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Virus in fungus in fly (bioRxiv)
- On a leaf, no one can hear you scream (TWiV 443)
- Nels gives Benzer Lecture (YouTube)
- Domestication of fungal fly pathogen (bioRxiv)
- Sequencing E. muscae genome (10X genomics)
- Eisen's twitter stream on new iflavirus (Twitter)
Science Picks Nels - Mindsuckers; getting photos; Anand Varma photos
Vincent - Happy Birthday Gregor Mendel
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Matt joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the neutral theory of evolution and its rejection in light of genome-scale data.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Matt Hahn
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- Hahn Lab
- Molecular Population Genetics by Matt Hahn
- Neutral theoryin light of natural selection (Mol Biol Evol)
- Neutral Sequence Fallacy(Assembly of Fragments)
- Splendor and miseryof adaptation (BMC Biol)
- Image credit
- Letters readon TWiEVO 32
Science Picks Nels - Inaugural Transposon Day
Vincent - How many human genes?
Listener Pick Anne- Plants repeatedly lose ability to obtain nitrogen
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Nels and Vincent present ancient hepatitis B virus genome sequences from Bronze Age to Medieval period human remains.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Ancient hepatitis B virus genomes(Nature)
- Even more ancient HBV genomes(bioRxiv)
- Image credit
- Letters readon TWiEVO 31
Science Picks Nels - Sampling whale breathwith drones (Preprint)
Vincent - Verge Science
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Nels and Vincent reveal how a motor protein in corn causes preferential transmission of chromosomes to egg cells, leading to non-Mendelian inheritance.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Molecular Evolution and the Cellmeeting
- Selfishcorn chromosomes (Cell)
- Dawe Lab- neocentromeres and meiotic drive
- Image credit
- Letters readon TWiEVO 30
Science Picks Nels - Craypot stinkhorn mushroom (Colus pusilus)
Vincent -Doubts raised over plan to release herpesvirus to wipe out carp
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Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of blood feeding to nonbiting in a mosquito, and evolution of bacterial virulence in the house finch caused by incomplete host immunity.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting
- Mosquito evolution from blood feeding to nonbiting (PNAS)
- Mosquito blood feeding is not a free lunch (virology blog)
- Incomplete immunity and evolution of virulence (Science)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 29
Science Picks Nels - IDEA and Impossible Foods
Vincent - it is NOT junk
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Sarah Tishkoff joins Nels and Vincent to explain work from her laboratory on the genetic basis of skin pigmentation in Africans.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Sarah Tishkoff
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- Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting
- Sarah AMA on Reddit
- Genetics of African skin pigmentation (Science)
- Image credit
Science Picks Nels - In Defense of Plants (Shrew Loo)
Vincent - Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals
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Taking a cue from the recent frigid weather, Nels and Vincent explore how modifications of a neuronal cold-sensing channel regulate diminished cold sensitivity in hibernating mammals.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Why ground squirrels and hamsters don't mind the cold (Cell Rep)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 27
Science Picks Nels - Undergrad podcasters from Stonehill College
Vincent - Viruses at Target
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Vinny Lynch joins Nels and Vincent to discuss how a zombie gene in elephants protects these large, long lived animals from cancer.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Vinny Lynch
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- Lynch Lab
- Elephant zombie LIF gene induces apoptosis (bioRxiv)
- Image credit
Science Picks Nels - Animalism
Vincent - Voyager I fires up thrusters after 37 years
Vinny - Rollin' Wild
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Nels and Vincent discuss a genomic analysis of the passenger pigeon, which shows that species with large and stable populations may be at risk of extinction after a sudden environmental change.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Passenger pigeon genomic diversity (Science)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 25
Science Picks Nels - Video of nematophagous fungi
Vincent - How should novelty be valued in science?
John - Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody)
Melanie - What's in John's Freezer
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Marco Vignuzzi joins Nels and Vincent to discuss recent work from his laboratory on redirecting RNA virus evolution in sequence space.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Marco Vignuzzi
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- Vignuzzi Laboratory
- Redirecting evolution of RNA viruses in sequence space (Nat Micro)
- Is quasispecies concept relevant to RNA viruses? (J Virol)
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Science Picks Nels - Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators
Vincent - Why has the EPA shifted on toxic chemicals?
Marco - Labs of Siobain Duffy, Seema Lackdawala, Chris Brook
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Nels and Vincent reveal how the protein DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects caused by invasion of the Alu retroelement into the human genome.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- DHX9 suppresses Alu defects (Nature)
- Asifa Akhtar on The Latest Thinking
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Science Picks Nels - Saving Hellbender Salamanders
Vincent - The Living River
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Maitreya Dunham joins Nels and Vincent to explain how her laboratory uses experimental evolution to study yeast flocculation, the community-building cell aggregation trait.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Maitreya Dunham
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- Dunham Laboratory
- Adaptive Routes to Cell Aggregation in Yeast (Genetics)
- Making the best of a sticky situation (SGD)
- Yeast Genetics and Genomic Course (Cold Spring Harbor)
- Genetic basis of biofilm formation (Beacon)
- 2017 CSH Plate Race (YouTube)
- Image credit
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Science Picks Nels - Floating Fire Ant Colonies in Houston and Help for Houston Researchers
Vincent - Help People Affected by Harvey and How To Help Harvey Victims
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Rich Condit joins Nels and Vincent to explain how a vaccinia virus protein customizes ribosomes to favor the translation of viral mRNAs with a stretch of A residues in the 5'-untranslated region.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- Rich Condit with Harry Noller (scroll down)
- Trans-Kingdom mimicry? (Nature)
- More on RACK1 (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 21
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Science Picks Rich - Sniffing out significant “Pee values” Nels - Cuttlefish mimicking a hermit crab(evolutionary context)
Vincent - Our first bioRxiv submission!
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Nels and Vincent explore the role of TSR proteins during colonization of cnidarians by dinoflagellates.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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- TSR domain proteins in cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis
- A. elegantissima image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 20
Science Picks Nels - CRISPR 5 ways
Vincent - The Vital Question by Nick Lane
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Jonathan Weiner, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beak of the Finch, joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his career and his writing.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Jonathan Weiner
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- Jonathan's Columbia University page
- Jonathan's author page
Science Picks Nels - The Gap by Ira Glass
Vincent - EPA removes climate science site
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Ni-Chen 'Sylvia' Chang, Waring 'Buck' Trible, and Sean K. McKenzie
Buck and Sean join Vincent in New York, while Sylvia is with Nels in Salt Lake City to discuss the first mutant ant ever made: disruption of orco, a gene required for function of odorant receptors, show defects in social behavior and fitness.
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- First ant mutants link odorant receptors and social behavior (bioRxiv)
- Kronauer Lab
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Science Picks Nels - Urban Nature and What Makes a City Ant?
Vincent - Animations from WEHI
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Stephen Goff
Nels joins Vincent in New York City to speak with Stephen Goff about transmissible clam cancers and the silencing of integrated retroviral genomes.
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- A sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path)
- Horizontal transmission of clam cancer (Cell)
- Transmissible bivalve cancers (Nature)
- Retrovirus transcriptional silencing (J Virol)
- Histones on retroviral DNA (Cell Host Micr)
- Image credit
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Science Picks Nels - Mindsuckers
Vincent - What is a species?
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent reveal how introns - the parts of pre-mRNAs that are removed by splicing - were generated by DNA transposons in two different picoeukaryotes.
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- Introns from DNA transposons (Nature)
- Reverse transcription and integration lecture
- Image: Elde Lab Mobile Studios on location in Santa Fe, NM
- Letters read on TWiEVO 16
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Science Picks Nels - Did eukaryotes invent anything? (TWiM 144)
Vincent - Virology course online
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Hopi Hoekstra
Nels and Vincent speak with Hopi Hoekstra about her career and the work of her laboratory on developmental mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents.
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- Hoekstra Laboratory
- Hopi on Twitter
- Mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents (Nature)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiEVO 15
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Science Picks Hopi -Diversify EEB, Anne's List Nels - Celebration for Harry Noller
Vincent - Biological Warfare, Virus Style (journal article)
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Jessica Brown, Michael Kay, Wayne Potts, June Round, and Janis Weis
From the Microbial Pathogenesis Retreat of the University of Utah School of Medicine, held at the Utah Museum of Natural History, Nels and Vincent speak with faculty members about their work on bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mirror-image biochemistry.
Watch video of this episode at YouTube
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This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Science Picks Nels - An Open Letter to My Class
Vincent - The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Corrie Moreau
Corrie joins Nels and Vincent to talk about her comparative analysis of the genomes of mutualist ants that nest in plants, and non-symbiotic species.
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Links for this episode * Moreau Laboratory * Different rates of evolution in ant-plant mutualisms (Nat Commun) * Image credit
This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Science Picks Nels - Mind-melting animated gifs
Vincent - Parasites Without Borders
Corrie - Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie
Listener Pick Chris - Shark weapons
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Josh Drew
Josh joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his research on the evolution and conservation of aquatic tropical biodiversity, and the historical ecology of 19th century American Whalers.
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Links for this episode * Drew Laboratory at Columbia University * American Whalers by Ed Yong * Karen Bao * Sea cucumber genome * Sea cucumber population connectivity (Nature)
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This episode is also sponsored by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more.
Science Picks Nels - Dr. Mary-Claire King at World Science Festival
Vincent - Contagious Thinking
Josh - Diversify EEB
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Nicole King
Nicole joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the finding of her laboratory that multicellular development of choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals, is regulated by bacterial lipids.
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Links for this episode * Nicole King on Twitter * Choanoflagellate workshop * Bacterial lipids regulate Salpingoeca development (PNAS) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiEVO 11
This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
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Science Picks Nels - I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (Fresh Air interview)
Vincent - Viral Infections of Leisure by David Schlossberg
Listener Pick Justin - Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean B. Carroll
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent review experiments showing that the replacement of a pale moth with a black one during the industrial revolution was caused by a transposable element.
Links for this episode * Last experiment of Michael Majerus (Biol Lett) * Moth melanism mutation is transposon (Nature) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiEVO 10
Science Picks Nels - Is Pokémon Go good for science? (one, two, three)
Vincent - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Jim Bull
Nels and Vincent speak with Jim Bull about the results of genetic models which suggest that the evolution of inbreeding in response to lethal gene drive might make population control difficult to achieve.
Links for this episode * Lethal gene drive selects inbreeding (bioRxiv) * Panel endorses gene drive technology (NY Times) * Genes in Conflict by Austin Burt * Letters read on TWiEVO 9
Science Picks Nels - Fertilization with parasitic sperm
Vincent - Undark
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels visits Vincent in the MicrobeTV studio in New York and talks about how key genes of the Homo sapiens innate immune response were acquired from Neanderthals.
Links for this episode * Introgressed Neanderthal haplotype at OAS locus (biorXiv) * Genetic time travel (Genetics) * Genetic history of Ice Age Europe (Nature) * Letters read on TWiEVO 8
Science Picks Nels - DNA Clues to our Inner Neanderthal
Vincent - Blockhead
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Mike Shapiro
Mike joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his work on what controls whether pigeons have scaly or feathered feet, and reveals that the hindlimbs of domestic birds with feathery feet are more like wings at the molecular level.
Links for this episode * Shapiro Laboratory * Shifts in limb identity underlie development of feathered feet (eLife) * Photo of Muffed Fairy Swallow by Sydney Stringham
Science Picks
Mike - Pigeon exhibit, Natural History Museum of Utah; Pigeonetics (App store); Darwin's Pigeons Nels - National Parasite Collection
Vincent - The Story Collider
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent continue with an emerging sub-theme of TWiEVO - organisms with wings - as they reveal how enhancer shuffling produces diverse butterfly wing patterns.
Links for this episode * Enhancer shuffling for butterfly wing patterns (PLoS Biol) * Batesian mimicry (Wikipedia) * Müllerian mimicry (Wikipedia) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiEVO 6
Science Picks
Nels - Hill Country Science Mill
Vincent - The Butterfly Conservatory
Listener Pick Stephen - Darwin Legacy
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Kartik Chandran and Sara Sawyer
Sara and Kartik join Nels and Vincent to talk about the filovirus receptor NPC1 regulates Ebolavirus susceptibility in bats.
Links for this episode * Sara on TWiV #193 * Kartik on TWiV #314 * NPC1 and bat susceptibility to Ebolaviruses (eLife)
Science Picks
Nels - Sundance Film Festival and Meru
Vincent - Quanta podcast (iTunes)
Sara - Isolation of Marburg viruses from fruit bats
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Nitin Phadnis
Nitin joins Nels and Vincent to explain how he identified a gene that is responsible for male inviability in hybrids from a cross between two species of fruit flies.
Links for this episode * Cell cycle regulation gene causes hybrid inviability in fruit fly (Science) * Phadnis laboratory * Phadnis laboratory on Facebook * Gene for new species discovered (UNews) * Tardigrade HGT disputed (bioRxiv) * Photo credit: Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah
Science Picks Nels - Watercolor of Darwin and crew
Vincent - SpaceX rocket landing (Verge and ArsTechnica)
Nitin - 120th anniversary of Roentgen's first X-ray
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of recombination in the genomes of birds and yeast.
Links for this episode * Stable recombination hotspots in birds (Science) * Putting the breaks on meiosis (Science) * Evolutionary stability of recombination in yeast (Science) * Image credit
Science Picks Nels - Tardigrade horizontal gene transfer (The Atlantic article)
Vincent - Einstein's theory of relativity changed everything
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent talk about how a cellular enzyme contributes to the very high mutation rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
Links for this episode * Cell defense enzyme drives high HIV mutation rate (PLoS Biol) * High mutation rate of HIV in vivo (PLoS Biol) * High viral mutation rates are beneficial (virology blog) * Image credit
Science Picks Nels - Antelope Island State Park (Bison herders wanted)
Vincent - Processed meats cause cancer
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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
Nels and Vincent launch a new podcast on evolution, and start by discussing how the field has changed through recent mergers of evolutionary and experimental biology in the post-genome era.
Links for this episode * Elde Laboratory * Nels on TWiV 234 * Mechanistic approaches to the study of evolution (Nat Rev Gen) * Australian sheep blowfly (Wikipedia) * Hopi Hoekstra
Science Picks Nels - Your inner fish (video stream, Shubin website)
Vincent - Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
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