Mark Bitter
@markcbitter.bsky.social
Postdoc at Stanford University.
Interested in pop. gen., adaptation, and a wholesome scientific community.
he/him
Interested in pop. gen., adaptation, and a wholesome scientific community.
he/him
Pinned
Mark Bitter
@markcbitter.bsky.social
· Jan 21
www.pnas.org
Thrilled to see this work, led by @lisacouper.bsky.social now out!
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Massively parallel interrogation of the fitness of natural variants in ancient signaling pathways reveals pervasive local adaptation
The nature of standing genetic variation remains a central debate in population genetics, with differing perspectives on whether common variants are almost always neutral as suggested by neutral and n...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
One week to apply for our fully funded PhD position in Norway! This is a really exciting project in collab. with University of Helsinki and Benchmark Genetics.
Samples are ready - you do (read: learn) everything - functional genomics, bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype associations 🤩
Please RT!
Samples are ready - you do (read: learn) everything - functional genomics, bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype associations 🤩
Please RT!
How do regulatory genes control alternative life histories? We have an open PhD position to answer this question using functional genomics in Atlantic salmon.
Apply by October 15th through www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Please share widely! 🧬🦑🖥️
Apply by October 15th through www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Please share widely! 🧬🦑🖥️
October 7, 2025 at 1:30 PM
One week to apply for our fully funded PhD position in Norway! This is a really exciting project in collab. with University of Helsinki and Benchmark Genetics.
Samples are ready - you do (read: learn) everything - functional genomics, bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype associations 🤩
Please RT!
Samples are ready - you do (read: learn) everything - functional genomics, bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype associations 🤩
Please RT!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Human-mediated land-use and climate change occur simultaneously, but how do they interact to shape adaptive dynamics? Super excited to share the first paper from the Kreiner lab, led by postdoc extraordinaire @rpineau.bsky.social
October 6, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Human-mediated land-use and climate change occur simultaneously, but how do they interact to shape adaptive dynamics? Super excited to share the first paper from the Kreiner lab, led by postdoc extraordinaire @rpineau.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Bitter
New preprint led by undergrad Owen Moosman! We uncover extensive haplotype diversity in antifreeze protein gene copy number in polar Zoarcoidei fishes, and report new tools to evaluate assembly uncertainty and switch error in phased genomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 16, 2025 at 5:33 PM
New preprint led by undergrad Owen Moosman! We uncover extensive haplotype diversity in antifreeze protein gene copy number in polar Zoarcoidei fishes, and report new tools to evaluate assembly uncertainty and switch error in phased genomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
September 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Very excited to see this work in press! I think there is a reason to believe that this is a common means of stabilizing large-effect polymorphisms in general and might be an important reason for why diploidy is so common. news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
How do populations maintain an evolutionary memory? I am happy to share that our work with Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social, Paul Schmidt, and colleagues on dominance reversal and stabilization of insecticide resistance in changing environments over time is now published at Nature EE.
Beneficial reversal of dominance maintains a large-effect resistance polymorphism under fluctuating insecticide selection - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Measuring selection and dominance in fitness of the insecticide-resistant Ace alleles in Drosophila melanogaster, the authors show evidence for beneficial reversal of dominance, a mechanism that can s...
www.nature.com
September 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
How do populations maintain an evolutionary memory? I am happy to share that our work with Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social, Paul Schmidt, and colleagues on dominance reversal and stabilization of insecticide resistance in changing environments over time is now published at Nature EE.
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Check out our paper in Evolution Letters!
We used D. melanogaster pigmentation as a focal trait to explore parallelism in phenotypic and genomic responses to environmental change - read more at the link below 👇
We used D. melanogaster pigmentation as a focal trait to explore parallelism in phenotypic and genomic responses to environmental change - read more at the link below 👇
How predictably does complex trait adaptation proceed over space and time in wild populations?
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @skylerberardi.bsky.social, @paulrschmidt.bsky.social et al.
📷: Dr. Rush Dhillon
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @skylerberardi.bsky.social, @paulrschmidt.bsky.social et al.
📷: Dr. Rush Dhillon
July 31, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Check out our paper in Evolution Letters!
We used D. melanogaster pigmentation as a focal trait to explore parallelism in phenotypic and genomic responses to environmental change - read more at the link below 👇
We used D. melanogaster pigmentation as a focal trait to explore parallelism in phenotypic and genomic responses to environmental change - read more at the link below 👇
Reposted by Mark Bitter
I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!
Garud Lab
garud.eeb.ucla.edu
July 22, 2025 at 5:51 PM
I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Come join us at UCLA!!! We have a growing population genetics community here and Nandita and her lab are outstanding!
I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!
Garud Lab
garud.eeb.ucla.edu
July 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Come join us at UCLA!!! We have a growing population genetics community here and Nandita and her lab are outstanding!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
The Xue lab at UC Irvine is looking for a staff scientist to support our work investigating how microbes interact and evolve in the gut microbiome! Open to a wide range of previous experience levels, see ad for more.
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09601
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09601
Junior, Assistant, or Associate Specialist – Xue Lab
University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ap.uci.edu
July 17, 2025 at 8:32 PM
The Xue lab at UC Irvine is looking for a staff scientist to support our work investigating how microbes interact and evolve in the gut microbiome! Open to a wide range of previous experience levels, see ad for more.
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09601
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09601
Reposted by Mark Bitter
We are recruiting students who are thinking of applying to Biology PhD programs this fall to apply for the Stanford Biology Preview Program. Please spread the word!
Applying to Biology PhD programs this year? Let us help!
At BPP, we aim to support students from all backgrounds through the grad school application process. Learn more about grad student life and receive 1-on-1 feedback on your application materials!
Apply here: forms.gle/EvTyUWXFMRSL...
At BPP, we aim to support students from all backgrounds through the grad school application process. Learn more about grad student life and receive 1-on-1 feedback on your application materials!
Apply here: forms.gle/EvTyUWXFMRSL...
June 27, 2025 at 4:52 PM
We are recruiting students who are thinking of applying to Biology PhD programs this fall to apply for the Stanford Biology Preview Program. Please spread the word!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
1/n 🧵 Excited to share our new paper! We developed a framework to reveal hidden simplicity in how organisms adapt to different environments, particularly focusing on antibiotic resistance evolution. #EvolutionaryBiology #MachineLearning
Learning the Shape of Evolutionary Landscapes: Geometric Deep Learning Reveals Hidden Structure in Phenotype-to-Fitness Maps https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.07.652616v1
May 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
1/n 🧵 Excited to share our new paper! We developed a framework to reveal hidden simplicity in how organisms adapt to different environments, particularly focusing on antibiotic resistance evolution. #EvolutionaryBiology #MachineLearning
Reposted by Mark Bitter
1/9 Excited to share the preprint for the second half of my PhD with @mollyschumer.bsky.social: Connecting human environmental impacts to hybridization in swordtail fish through genomics, GIS, water chemistry, and histology. Thread below!
#SciSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#SciSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Increased rates of hybridization in swordtail fish are associated with water pollution
Biodiversity loss can occur when disturbance compromises the reproductive barriers between species, causing them to collapse into a single population through hybridization. Recent research has documen...
www.biorxiv.org
May 1, 2025 at 1:15 PM
1/9 Excited to share the preprint for the second half of my PhD with @mollyschumer.bsky.social: Connecting human environmental impacts to hybridization in swordtail fish through genomics, GIS, water chemistry, and histology. Thread below!
#SciSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#SciSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Excited to share the first manuscript from my PhD in which we leveraged ultra-long Nanopore sequencing, D. melanogaster inbred lines, and a ton of manual validation to investigate the effects of long-read length on population-level structural variant (SV) calling accuracy! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Manual validation finds only ultra-long long-read sequencing enables faithful, population-level structural variant calling in Drosophila melanogaster euchromatin
The increasing accessibility of long-read sequencing and the rapid development of automated variant callers are promoting the generation of population-level structural variation data. However, the eff...
doi.org
April 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Excited to share the first manuscript from my PhD in which we leveraged ultra-long Nanopore sequencing, D. melanogaster inbred lines, and a ton of manual validation to investigate the effects of long-read length on population-level structural variant (SV) calling accuracy! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Our commentary on the elegant in vitro microbiome coalescence experiments from @goldmandoran.bsky.social @ksxue.bsky.social et al is out.
It was a pleasure to write about one of my favorite microbiome papers of the last few years.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
It was a pleasure to write about one of my favorite microbiome papers of the last few years.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Mixing microbiomes in vitro reveals rules of community assembly | PNAS
Mixing microbiomes in vitro reveals rules of community assembly
www.pnas.org
April 7, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Our commentary on the elegant in vitro microbiome coalescence experiments from @goldmandoran.bsky.social @ksxue.bsky.social et al is out.
It was a pleasure to write about one of my favorite microbiome papers of the last few years.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
It was a pleasure to write about one of my favorite microbiome papers of the last few years.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
1/ Hey y'all, I'm excited to share my latest paper, which is out now in PNAS! We introduce FAVA, a statistical framework to measure compositional variability across microbiome samples. If you want to measure variability across a stacked bar plot, FAVA is for you! Paper: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
March 14, 2025 at 8:46 PM
1/ Hey y'all, I'm excited to share my latest paper, which is out now in PNAS! We introduce FAVA, a statistical framework to measure compositional variability across microbiome samples. If you want to measure variability across a stacked bar plot, FAVA is for you! Paper: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Thank you for the coverage! Excited that this work, in collaboration with @markcbitter.bsky.social and many others, is now out!
February 20, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Thank you for the coverage! Excited that this work, in collaboration with @markcbitter.bsky.social and many others, is now out!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
A new study led by #EnvironmentalHealth postdoc Lisa Couper finds #mosquitoes may genetically adapt to #ClimateChange more than expected. Her team's findings show increasing risk of #WestNileVirus, #Malaria & other diseases due to the insects' heat tolerance. #GlobalWarming ow.ly/Uzro50V3BRl
New research shows mosquitoes may be able to adapt to warming temperatures
The heat tolerance the research team saw “exceeds that of projected climate warming,” according to the published paper.
ow.ly
February 20, 2025 at 5:10 PM
A new study led by #EnvironmentalHealth postdoc Lisa Couper finds #mosquitoes may genetically adapt to #ClimateChange more than expected. Her team's findings show increasing risk of #WestNileVirus, #Malaria & other diseases due to the insects' heat tolerance. #GlobalWarming ow.ly/Uzro50V3BRl
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Late-stage PhD students:
We want to bring you to NYU Biology to meet peers and make connections with potential postdoctoral mentors. Apply to be part of our Emerging Scholars Symposium!
We want to bring you to NYU Biology to meet peers and make connections with potential postdoctoral mentors. Apply to be part of our Emerging Scholars Symposium!
Emerging Scholars Symposium 2025
as.nyu.edu
February 10, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Late-stage PhD students:
We want to bring you to NYU Biology to meet peers and make connections with potential postdoctoral mentors. Apply to be part of our Emerging Scholars Symposium!
We want to bring you to NYU Biology to meet peers and make connections with potential postdoctoral mentors. Apply to be part of our Emerging Scholars Symposium!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me.
Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
January 28, 2025 at 9:45 PM
If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me.
Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Join us at the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics in Tuscany, co-chaired by @jcbnunez.bsky.social and me.
If you’d like to present your research and be considered for a talk, make sure to submit your application before April 6th!
If you’d like to present your research and be considered for a talk, make sure to submit your application before April 6th!
2025 Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics (GRS) Seminar GRC
The 2025 Gordon Research Seminar on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics (GRS) will be held in Lucca (Barga), Lucca Italy. Apply today to reserve your spot.
www.grc.org
January 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Join us at the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics in Tuscany, co-chaired by @jcbnunez.bsky.social and me.
If you’d like to present your research and be considered for a talk, make sure to submit your application before April 6th!
If you’d like to present your research and be considered for a talk, make sure to submit your application before April 6th!
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Hello Bluesky friends! I am a #newPI starting at UC Irvine in April, interested in gene regulation and functional genomics in stem cell models of development (esp neural crest). We are hiring at all levels – please reach out/spread the word! sskimlab.org
Kim Lab at UC Irvine
Visit the post for more.
sskimlab.org
January 20, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Hello Bluesky friends! I am a #newPI starting at UC Irvine in April, interested in gene regulation and functional genomics in stem cell models of development (esp neural crest). We are hiring at all levels – please reach out/spread the word! sskimlab.org
Reposted by Mark Bitter
How is functional variation at large-effect loci maintained in natural populations?
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dominance reversal maintains large-effect resistance polymorphism in temporally varying environments
A central challenge in evolutionary biology is to uncover mechanisms maintaining functional genetic variation1. Theory suggests that dominance reversal, whereby alleles subject to fluctuating selectio...
www.biorxiv.org
January 22, 2025 at 7:44 PM
How is functional variation at large-effect loci maintained in natural populations?
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mark Bitter
Thrilled to see this work, led by @lisacouper.bsky.social now out!
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org
January 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Thrilled to see this work, led by @lisacouper.bsky.social now out!
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We quantified variation in thermal tolerance in the mosquito, Aedes sierrensis, to quantify how adaptation may alter disease vector distributions under warming. 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...