CC @tonigabaldon.bsky.social, @rokaslab.bsky.social, @rosafernandez.bsky.social, @trayc7.bsky.social, Claudia Solis-Lemus, Bastien Boussau, @nclark.bsky.social, Kay Lucek, Tap Pupko, Ana Rojas, Frederik Ronquist & Ania Karnkowska

So many AMAZING instructors/organizers will be participating, including @tonigabaldon.bsky.social, @rokaslab.bsky.social, @rosafernandez.bsky.social, @trayc7.bsky.social, Claudia Solis-Lemus, Bastien Boussau, @nclark.bsky.social, Kay Lucek, Tap Pupko, Ana Rojas, Frederik Ronquist & Ania Karnkowska

@sesbe-org.bsky.social @csic.es @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @official-smbe.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social

Big shout out to all the collaborators, particularly @cefafalopodo.bsky.social @aubombarely.bsky.social @vargaschavezc.bsky.social Judit Salces-Ortiz & Nuria Escudero, for endless adventures together while working on this project! 🙏

This study is a core outcome of our @erc.europa.eu
project SEA2LAND, revealing how life’s move from sea to land was driven not by gene invention, but by genomic flexibility uncovered through a multi-omics, systems biology lens. 🌊➡️🌍 @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es

To truly understand life’s major evolutionary transitions, counting genes isn’t enough. We need multi-omics, systems-level approaches that reveal how genomes are rewired to meet new ecological challenges. Only then can we see how evolution turns old parts into new solutions.

The transition to land was powered by flexibility, not innovation, with animals reshaping old genomic parts to solve new problems.

Machine learning identified a small set of ancient gene families whose copy-number shifts correlate with habitat, not via shared expansions, but through independent, lineage-specific trajectories across Metazoa. No common gene families between terrestrial lineages identified!

Adaptation to land thus emerged through functional convergence and genomic network reorganization, not through repeated invention of new genes.

Stress-response multiomics experiments in 17 species from 7 animal phyla revealed that different lineages recruit distinct genes to face similar challenges, yet converge in function, not gene identity.

Across 15 independent terrestrialization events, most adaptive genes (at least related to response to the environment) were ancient, predating land life.

Using comparative genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics & machine learning, we found that gene loss, not gain, dominates at the evolutionary nodes where animals transitioned to land.