Melissa Toups
@meltoups.bsky.social
Asst Prof @ UL Lafayette in evolutionary biology. Sex chromosomes, polyploidy, genomics. New Orleans native. Volleyball player. Travel and cooking enthusiast. Toddler wrangler.
Views my own and do not represent UL.
Views my own and do not represent UL.
Looks cool, @adriatica.bsky.social
The origins and molecular evolution of sperm https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.685759v1
November 4, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Looks cool, @adriatica.bsky.social
New preprint!
Causes and consequences of sex-chromosome turnovers in Diptera https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684443v1
October 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM
New preprint!
Reposted by Melissa Toups
New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 3:45 PM
New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Why do males and females often differ in traits?
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same
August 23, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Why do males and females often differ in traits?
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
September 12, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
Reposted by Melissa Toups
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Join us!
👇
👇
Sign up for our webinar on Tuesday 26th August on how new long read technologies (including the first CycloneSeq vertebrate genomes) are helping elucidate the sex determination of sex-changing reptiles cassyni.com/events/SWHRe...
August 25, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Join us!
👇
👇
Reposted by Melissa Toups
new work from the lab. Degeneration of Y chromosome does not seem to be one-way street. As a refugium of transposons @Alex Suh @valentinapeona.bsky.social , Y chromosome can recruit some genes by accidental TE burst: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852725002243
Gene traffic mediated by transposable elements shaped the dynamic evolution of ancient sex chromosomes of varanid lizard
Lizards usually exhibit frequent turnovers and a much greater diversity of sex determination mechanisms compared to birds and mammals, with the conser…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 20, 2025 at 7:03 AM
new work from the lab. Degeneration of Y chromosome does not seem to be one-way street. As a refugium of transposons @Alex Suh @valentinapeona.bsky.social , Y chromosome can recruit some genes by accidental TE burst: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852725002243
Reposted by Melissa Toups
So excited to have this #dragonfly paper out! #Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in #Anisoptera (dragonflies) url: academic.oup.com/isd/article/... @ethantolman.bsky.social
Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in Anisoptera (dragonflies)
Abstract. Odonata is an insect order that comprises ~6420 described species distributed among three suborders. Here we review the dragonflies, or Anisopter
academic.oup.com
August 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM
So excited to have this #dragonfly paper out! #Odonata systematics: past, present, and future: a review of the phylogenetic works in #Anisoptera (dragonflies) url: academic.oup.com/isd/article/... @ethantolman.bsky.social
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Cannot stop laughing at this
August 14, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Cannot stop laughing at this
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Helsinki-Vantaa. Hushed, calm, piped birdsong, a garden, a museum, blond-wood daybeds -- daybeds! -- at the gates; last-minute reindeer pastrami; Eero Aarnio "Ball" armchairs in the lounge. Amazed anyone gets on a plane.
Actually, you know what? Let’s stop complaining for a second. QT this with a GOOD airport. Defend that title as much or as little as you like. But let’s hear about airports that don’t suck.
August 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Helsinki-Vantaa. Hushed, calm, piped birdsong, a garden, a museum, blond-wood daybeds -- daybeds! -- at the gates; last-minute reindeer pastrami; Eero Aarnio "Ball" armchairs in the lounge. Amazed anyone gets on a plane.
Reposted by Melissa Toups
📣 The Mendes Lab is recruiting PhD students in statistical phylogenetics! Interested, or know someone who might be? Details here 👉 tinyurl.com/542wyfb9 — please share!
July 12, 2025 at 6:47 PM
📣 The Mendes Lab is recruiting PhD students in statistical phylogenetics! Interested, or know someone who might be? Details here 👉 tinyurl.com/542wyfb9 — please share!
Reposted by Melissa Toups
Priceless! 😆
For all you #paleobiology parents.
For all you #paleobiology parents.
July 15, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Priceless! 😆
For all you #paleobiology parents.
For all you #paleobiology parents.
Happy to see this out online!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Insect sex chromosome evolution: conservation, turnover, and mechanisms of dosage compensation
Sex chromosomes have evolved many times throughout the tree of life, and understanding what has shaped their unusual morphological, sequence, and regu…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Happy to see this out online!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Great science. Great person. Great opportunity.
Come join us at beautiful UBC! The King Lab is recruiting a Post-doc Fellow to develop mathematical theory on infectious disease evolution and emergence, together with Ben Ashby (SFU) #zoonoses #biodiversity www.zoology.ubc.ca/kinglab/join...
Join Us! | King Lab
Are you interested in joining the King Lab? More information here!
www.zoology.ubc.ca
April 2, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Great science. Great person. Great opportunity.
Reposted by Melissa Toups
As work ramps up, we've created a Starter pack to follow members of the consortium.
go.bsky.app/QjiXdsc
Please comment below to be added!
go.bsky.app/QjiXdsc
Please comment below to be added!
March 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
As work ramps up, we've created a Starter pack to follow members of the consortium.
go.bsky.app/QjiXdsc
Please comment below to be added!
go.bsky.app/QjiXdsc
Please comment below to be added!
