Andrew Roger
@andrewjroger.bsky.social
deep-time evolution, phylogenetics, anaerobic protists, the tree of Life. Science depends on vigorous respectful debate and evidence-based reasoning. This is my personal page and what I post here has nothing to do with my employer.
Reposted by Andrew Roger
This is part of the Systematic Biology 75th anniversary collection: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
This collection was put together by our excellent Legacy Committee to celebrate the Society’s accomplishments and future!
This collection was put together by our excellent Legacy Committee to celebrate the Society’s accomplishments and future!
January 2, 2026 at 7:40 PM
This is part of the Systematic Biology 75th anniversary collection: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
This collection was put together by our excellent Legacy Committee to celebrate the Society’s accomplishments and future!
This collection was put together by our excellent Legacy Committee to celebrate the Society’s accomplishments and future!
I'm really enjoying this memoir on the history of numerical methods in phylogenetics by F. James Rohlf: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
Too Many Numbers?
Abstract. A somewhat personal account of the development and acceptance of numerical taxonomic methods during the early years of the journal Systematic Zoo
academic.oup.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:02 PM
I'm really enjoying this memoir on the history of numerical methods in phylogenetics by F. James Rohlf: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
A comprehensive review and guide to fossil tip dating: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
Practical Guide and Review of Fossil Tip-Dating in Phylogenetics
Abstract. Phylogenetic tip-dating has been and still is revolutionizing evolutionary biology in several ways. Fossil tip-dating, where fossils are placed i
academic.oup.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM
A comprehensive review and guide to fossil tip dating: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
Looks like a great issue to dig into!!!
Interested in the @evojlinnsoc.bsky.social
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
One more summary added, just in time for some holiday travel chaos! ☃️
We'll return as more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
One more summary added, just in time for some holiday travel chaos! ☃️
We'll return as more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
December 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Looks like a great issue to dig into!!!
The number of papers I've been asked to review in the past week is getting ridiculous....I guess everyone is submitting things before Christmas...Pretty sure I can't review 7 papers, plus teach my course, plus write a grant by Feb. plus edit a thesis plus committee work plus run a lab.
December 19, 2025 at 12:57 PM
The number of papers I've been asked to review in the past week is getting ridiculous....I guess everyone is submitting things before Christmas...Pretty sure I can't review 7 papers, plus teach my course, plus write a grant by Feb. plus edit a thesis plus committee work plus run a lab.
This blog post nails it: donmoynihan.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats need a theory of power, but democracies need a theory of accountability
No, the Trump administration is not a model for how to get things done
donmoynihan.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:29 PM
This blog post nails it: donmoynihan.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Identification of a deep-branching lineage of algae using environmental plastid genomes - Nature Communications
Here, the authors leverage data from the Tara Oceans expeditions to perform a phylogeny-guided plastid genome-resolved metagenomic survey and provide 660 non-redundant plastid genomes from marine alga...
www.nature.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This is a good point.
"LLMs are structurally indifferent to truth."
while i am not an academic i did see this coming and post about it on bluesky, which is why i am quoted in this article
December 18, 2025 at 1:00 AM
This is a good point.
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes
Muller's ratchet predicts that non-recombining genomes can accumulate deleterious mutations, though molecular evidence for it is rare. Previous studies have tried to detect ratchet-like behavior in mi...
www.biorxiv.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Well, wonder no more!
(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)
"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I agree. Without accompanying billion dollar plans to increase the Tri-Council funding of open competitions, this just means that, after a few years, these new recruits will be applying to the same small pool of money as the rest of us meaning less money on average for everyone.
December 10, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I agree. Without accompanying billion dollar plans to increase the Tri-Council funding of open competitions, this just means that, after a few years, these new recruits will be applying to the same small pool of money as the rest of us meaning less money on average for everyone.
This looks like something to dig into...Not simple to understand but it looks very powerful!!!!
📢 New publication 'Convergence-Divergence Models: Generalizations of Phylogenetic Trees Modeling Gene Flow Over Time' by Jonathan Mitchell and Barbara Holland in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 🧪
doi.org/10.1007/s115...
#PhylogeneticTree #evolution
doi.org/10.1007/s115...
#PhylogeneticTree #evolution
Convergence-Divergence Models: Generalizations of Phylogenetic Trees Modeling Gene Flow Over Time - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
Phylogenetic trees are simple models of evolutionary processes. They describe conditionally independent divergent evolution from common ancestors. However, they often lack the flexibility to represent...
doi.org
December 9, 2025 at 11:03 PM
This looks like something to dig into...Not simple to understand but it looks very powerful!!!!
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
December 9, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
December 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Report: How to Prevent University Trustee Overreach https://bit.ly/4pc1mqF
#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
December 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Report: How to Prevent University Trustee Overreach https://bit.ly/4pc1mqF
#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
Here we go! Another new paper on the sponges vs. ctenophores dispute!!!! Buy your storm chips or popcorn now! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Integrative phylogenomics positions sponges at the root of the animal tree
Determining whether sponges or ctenophores root the animal tree has important implications for understanding early animal evolution. Here, we examined support for these competing hypotheses by constru...
www.science.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Here we go! Another new paper on the sponges vs. ctenophores dispute!!!! Buy your storm chips or popcorn now! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposting the finding of a Heimdallarchaeon with internal membrane vesicles. Those of us who thought this was a likely possibility -- and there were many of us -- can now safely ignore the dogmatic claims that "Asgards don't have endomembrane systems" that were made based on very limited data.
Was a wild journey also with @magdalechowska.bsky.social @joeparham19.bsky.social @iainrichard.bsky.social @emaguilarpine.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social Heimdallarchaeia are beautiful!
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposting the finding of a Heimdallarchaeon with internal membrane vesicles. Those of us who thought this was a likely possibility -- and there were many of us -- can now safely ignore the dogmatic claims that "Asgards don't have endomembrane systems" that were made based on very limited data.
Whaaatttt?
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
November 25, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Whaaatttt?
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky
November 19, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Come join the Workshop on Phylogenomics in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia, from January 25 through February 7, 2026!
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Apply: Workshop on Phylogenomics 2026 - Evolution and Genomics
Application for the 2026 Workshop on Phylogenomics Use this form to apply for the 2026 Workshop on Phylogenomics being held in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia from 25th January through 7th February, ...
evomics.org
October 29, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Come join the Workshop on Phylogenomics in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia, from January 25 through February 7, 2026!
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Reposted by Andrew Roger
Interested in the @evojlinnsoc.bsky.social
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
Three more summaries added below!
We'll return when more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
Three more summaries added below!
We'll return when more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
November 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Interested in the @evojlinnsoc.bsky.social
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
Three more summaries added below!
We'll return when more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
special issue on phylogenomic discordance? tinyurl.com/v2eces3s 🧪
Three more summaries added below!
We'll return when more articles come live.
Again, all and any oversimplications are entirely my fault!
Reposted by Andrew Roger
We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.
November 7, 2025 at 11:02 AM
We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.
Reposted by Andrew Roger
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Andrew Roger
#APSPM2026 is open to anyone curious about combining protein structure and evolution. Learn where to start in our workshops and discover how structure meets phylogenetics.
Feb 15 - 18, 2026
Brisbane, Australia
Register here: biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/reg...
(in-person only)
Feb 15 - 18, 2026
Brisbane, Australia
Register here: biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/reg...
(in-person only)
October 30, 2025 at 12:55 AM
#APSPM2026 is open to anyone curious about combining protein structure and evolution. Learn where to start in our workshops and discover how structure meets phylogenetics.
Feb 15 - 18, 2026
Brisbane, Australia
Register here: biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/reg...
(in-person only)
Feb 15 - 18, 2026
Brisbane, Australia
Register here: biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/reg...
(in-person only)
We just received an email from the Provost about a potential CUPE strike that mentioned: "our academic community is still navigating the impacts of the recent DFA labour disruption." I'm confused, wasn't it the Dalhousie Board that locked us out?
@dalfaculty.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social
@dalfaculty.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 11:57 AM
We just received an email from the Provost about a potential CUPE strike that mentioned: "our academic community is still navigating the impacts of the recent DFA labour disruption." I'm confused, wasn't it the Dalhousie Board that locked us out?
@dalfaculty.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social
@dalfaculty.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social
Reposted by Andrew Roger
New week, new tool: Find our Protein Domain Designer tool to generate publication-ready protein domain diagrams here: domaindesigner.farnunglab.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
New week, new tool: Find our Protein Domain Designer tool to generate publication-ready protein domain diagrams here: domaindesigner.farnunglab.com