Amanda Bretman
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amandabretman.bsky.social
Amanda Bretman
@amandabretman.bsky.social
870 followers 850 following 52 posts
Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of Leeds, UK. The biology of sex and social environments, and Thermal Fertility Limits, mainly of fruit flies.
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amandabretman.bsky.social
🪰🧪 now out in @evolletters.bsky.social, social environmental effects on Drosophila lifespan and reproductive senescence mean females not males "live fast, die young"! Work led by Lauren Harrison and Tracey Chapman, with @alexeimaklakov.bsky.social, funded by BBSRC @ukri.org doi.org/10.1093/evle...
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doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
juliasaltz.bsky.social
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
jutfelt.bsky.social
Interested in thermal biology? Please join our new and growing grass roots initiative, the Thermal Ecology Alliance, initiated by @patricepottier.bsky.social. 🧪🐟🦑🌡️

Sign up here: www.thermalecologyalliance.org#participation

Check who already signed up:
www.thermalecologyalliance.org#community
Fish embryos under the microscope
November 3, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
hetanshah.bsky.social
Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...
The value of public R&D
www.gov.uk
October 30, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
nstroeymeyt.bsky.social
We had two papers out in Science and Scientific Reports in the past week - I couldn't be happier!

Science paper on architectural immunity:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Scientific Reports paper on the synergistic interaction between new-generation pesticide and disease:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Architectural immunity: Ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics
In animal groups, spatial structure shapes social interaction patterns, thereby influencing the transmission of infectious diseases. Active modifications to the spatial environment could therefore be ...
www.science.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
ukri.org
Have your say on BBSRC’s applicant-led mode funding.

The consultation will assess its effectiveness, reach and impact - your views will help shape how we support world-class bioscience.

Find out more and get involved: www.ukri.org/news/bbsrc-s...

#BBSRC
BBSRC seeks views on its flagship funding programme
BBSRC is inviting the UK bioscience community to take part in a consultation on its applicant-led mode (formerly responsive mode) funding.
www.ukri.org
October 21, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
antihebbiann.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

This seems rad: overexpressing FruM in a set of proboscis-motorneuron-projecting neurons makes melanogaster males add food-sharing to their courtship repertoire.

It is fascinating to see evolutionary shifts in behavior be tied so concretely to shifts in brain development!
Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene
In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melan...
doi.org
October 20, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
delphinedemoor.bsky.social
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?

In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.

tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
The Adaptive Relationships Framework illustrating how broad socioecological pressures shape the social solutions animals use to meet these challenges, and how these lead to social strategies and emergent structures that help them gain access to those solutions.
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
biologists.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone for their support over the past 100 years, and for helping us celebrate this year. You can catch up with all our 100-year content on our special anniversary page bit.ly/4naj8Jr
The Company of Biologists 100-year anniversary logo
October 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM
amandabretman.bsky.social
Out now - female fruit flies cluster their eggs together depending on their social environment 🪰🧪 Just wish they'd let us know why... led by @emilyrosech.bsky.social Emily Fowler, Lucy Friend and Tracey Chapman. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Female fruit flies use social cues to make egg-clustering decisions - BMC Biology
Background The ability to respond plastically to environmental variation is a key determinant of fitness. Females may use cues to strategically place their eggs, for example adjusting the number or lo...
link.springer.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
ccioannou.bsky.social
📣 @asab.org grants BOOSTED! 📣

We've increased most of our research-related grants by 50%, effective from the next deadline of 1st Feb 2026.

Check out what we offer here:
www.asab.org/grant-overview
October 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
makespaceforgirls.bsky.social
Girls' use of parks drops after the age of 11. At a time when they should be gaining independence, many girls start to avoid parks.

Why? They feel that parks aren’t for them - there is nothing to do. Also, many state they don’t feel safe.
October 7, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
krishsanghvi11.bsky.social
How should ejaculate ejection behaviour by females be measured? And does it correlate with female pre-mating preference?
Find out in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Ejaculate Ejection by Female Fruit Flies Does Not Correlate With Mating Latency or Male Presence, Irrespective of How Ejection Is Measured
How to measure female ejaculate ejection, is it related to pre-mating sexual selection, or influenced by post-mating sexual environment? We explore these questions in fruit flies.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 7, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
alicegodden.bsky.social
🧬 Our latest paper out in Scientific Reports!
We explored how Gum Arabic (a dietary fibre) affects the microbiota–gut–brain axis and whole-organism fitness in zebrafish.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@immler.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social

What we found ⬇️
Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish
www.nature.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
nicholaswu.bsky.social
🚨 Postdoc in evolutionary genomics of heat stress adaptation position at @ucddublin.bsky.social.
📍 Dublin, Ireland
Closes: 15th Oct 2025
🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV094/u...
October 1, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
isbe2026.bsky.social
#ISBE2026 Call for Abstracts is now open! Submit your abstract by 15 December 2025 on www.isbe2026.com

@behavecol.bsky.social
September 30, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
dbergerbiol.bsky.social
How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Life-History Evolution of Insects in Response to Climate Variation: Seasonal Timing Versus Thermal Physiology | Annual Reviews
Climate adaptation in insects can proceed via responses in life-history traits and their thermal plasticity and through phenological shifts mediated by responses to photoperiodic cues (photoperiodism)...
www.annualreviews.org
September 30, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
susannevogel.bsky.social
🧵 New study alert!
How does 🌡️ room temperature relate to how our body reacts to 😰 psychosocial stress?
We looked at everyday indoor temperature variation (17–28 °C) and measured stress markers in the body.
September 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
stuartwigby.bsky.social
New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 22, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
unileedsnews.bsky.social
The training is based on the 5Ds of bystander intervention, designed to promote safety and not escalate the situation:

🗣️ Distract
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Delegate
📱 Document
💙 Delay
✋ Direct

More here 👇
bit.ly/4ntiTtg
#saferparks #StandUpAgainstStreetHarassment
Leeds research is catalyst for major Safer Parks campaign
This September, researchers at Leeds are partnering with Keep Britain Tidy, and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to launch Safer Parks: Stand Up Against Street Harassment.
bit.ly
September 17, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
simonakraljfiser.bsky.social
Spiders have personalities—and in Pisaura mirabilis, opposites might attract: adventurous males and cautious females mate longer, revealing hidden personality-driven patterns in romance. Lead by @cristinatuni.bsky.social Read more here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
September 16, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
nicholaswu.bsky.social
New paper in @funecology.bsky.social led by @felixpleiva.bsky.social. We present ShareTrait, a community-driven platform for standardising & sharing individual-level trait data in ectotherms to improve data reuse across studies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

#OpenScience #FAIRdata
September 15, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
colinelves.bsky.social
With alt:
Smajo Beso • Follow 3d • © I started school in Newcastle in Year 5 without knowing a word of English. I was nine years old and had arrived as a refugee from Bosnia just a couple of months earlier. I was one of those strangers our politicians often speak about. I missed my grandparents and friends. I was having awful nightmares, and I would wake up screaming every single night. I hated going to school. I would sit in my chair, look out of the window, and spend my day daydreaming about ways to run back to Bosnia. I didn't want to be here. After a couple of weeks at school, my teacher, Miss Webster, and my classmates did something special to help me settle, something that made me feel less of a stranger. That was the first day I went home with a smile on my face. I have shared this story before, but as tomorrow is start of the new school year, I thought I would share it again. ** Miss Webster was amazing, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. She had this ritual where, at the end of each day, we would all sit on the floor around her, she would play the guitar, and we would all sing a song together. I couldn't understand what they were singing, but I could see she would sing one part of the song, then she would say someone's name or point to them. The next part of the song would be sung with that person's name in it, and they would get to go home first. My classmates loved this, but I hated it. It annoyed me because I couldn't understand what they were singing, but if I am honest, l hated it mainly because of how happy they all were. I definitely wasn't happy. I cried myself to sleep nearly every night. I eventually started having separate English lessons, which I enjoyed more because it took me out of the classroom. It was always daunting coming to school because I felt everyone was looking at me or speaking about me. For months, my dad would stand with me outside the school gates in the morning until it was time to go in. One day I came back into the classroom from my English lesson. We sat down, and everyone was extra-excited, looking at me more than usual for some reason. Of course, I thought it was because I was a refugee, because I couldn't speak English, or because they couldn't pronounce my name. I was bracing myself for another afternoon of my classmates encouraging me to sing. This was probably the closest I came to running out. So we were all sitting on the floor around Miss Webster. She was holding her guitar, ready to sing. I remember the sun shining through the tall, narrow windows as I slowly drifted into a daydream of being back in Bosnia. She began playing the guitar, my classmates joined in, but this time, everything was different. I froze. I understood what they were signing. Not because I had miraculously learned English in one afternoon, but because they were singing in Bosnian for me. I looked around in shock, and they were all smiling at me, and for a moment I thought I was daydreaming. While I was having separate English lessons, Miss Webster had taught our entire class to sing this song for me in Bosnian. They sang it terribly, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I skipped home that day with a huge smile on my face. For the first time, I looked forward to going back to school the next day. I have often imagined Miss Webster and my classmates rehearsing, struggling with the strange Bosnian words and laughing at themselves. For me, that effort was the ultimate recognition, an act of peace that felt like the opposite of everything I had known during the war. It was special. I do not know if they realised it then, but that moment helped to give me back my dignity, my belonging, and, for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I was just a refugee or an outsider. I was home.
September 3, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
paucarazo.bsky.social
We’re offering a fully funded 4 yr PhD position to work on Sexual selection in complex environments at the @uv.es. Co-supervised by @dbergerbiol.bsky.social. Find details below 👇
September 1, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Amanda Bretman
royalsociety.org
The Royal Society's Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2026 is awarded to Professor Kayla King for contributions to the fields of evolutionary biology and genetics of infectious disease. #RSMedals https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/francis-crick-lecture/
August 29, 2025 at 7:56 AM