Gavin Woodruff
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weirdworms.bsky.social
Gavin Woodruff
@weirdworms.bsky.social
660 followers 1K following 280 posts
Development, evolution, worms, gene name etymology. I log interesting papers, questions, and ideas.
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Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
juliusbrennecke.bsky.social
this looks very interesting with numerous implications for nuclear biology and gene expression.

Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Mapping chromatin structure at base-pair resolution unveils a unified model of cis-regulatory element interactions
Li et al. apply base-pair resolution Micro Capture-C ultra to map chromatin contacts between individual motifs within cis-regulatory elements and reveal a unified model of biophysically mediated enhan...
www.cell.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Transposon Regulation in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline and Soma

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Transposon Regulation in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline and Soma
Transposons are parasitic nucleic acids present in most genomes. The ability of transposons to mobilize makes them a source of genetic diversity and a threat to genome integrity. Interestingly, mutati...
www.biorxiv.org
November 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Meiotic double strand DNA breaks and spontaneous mutation in Drosophila melanogaster

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Meiotic double strand DNA breaks and spontaneous mutation in Drosophila melanogaster
The exchange of genetic material during meiosis requires the formation and repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which may not be repaired with perfect fidelity. If meiotic exchange is mutagenic,...
www.biorxiv.org
November 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
jjemerson.bsky.social
1/12 Excited to share our new paper. Many essential functions, like DNA packaging and chromosome integrity, are encoded in highly repetitive, "recalcitrant" parts of the genome. But these regions have been incredibly hard to study. Until now. genome.cshlp.org/content/35/9...
Genetic variation in recalcitrant repetitive regions of the Drosophila melanogaster genome
An international, peer-reviewed genome sciences journal featuring outstanding original research that offers novel insights into the biology of all organisms
genome.cshlp.org
October 31, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
tiboleroyinen.bsky.social
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
A Genomic Perspective on Species Delimitation
Genomic species delimitation is transforming how we understand and define species by enabling a process-oriented and efficient approach to identifying species boundaries. This review outlines the two ...
www.annualreviews.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
craigsj.bsky.social
see also questlove weighing in today see also the thing i wrote a couple weeks ago www.vulture.com/article/dang...

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
The Burial of Black Genius (a.k.a. D'Angelo Lives!)
Questlove honors his friend and collaborator D'Angelo: "He was one of the last pure artists in Black music.”
www.rollingstone.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
devoevomed.bsky.social
50 years ago, King & Wilson published a foundational paper that underlies the cis-regulatory paradigm (CRP) of #DevoEvo #EvoDevo, i.e., that *almost* all morphological evolution is driven by mutations in regulatory elements, rather than proteins, and it all arose from simple misunderstanding 🧪 🧵
October 29, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
devoevomed.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Actors with Multiple Roles: Pleiotropic Enhancers and the Paradigm of Enhancer Modularity
The current paradigm in the field of gene regulation postulates that regulatory information for generating gene expression is organized into modules (…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
campaslab.bsky.social
Really excited to present the results of a fantastic collaboration with Jesse Veenvliet @jesseveenvliet.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de @poldresden.bsky.social 🤩

We find a unique mechanism for body axis elongation in mammals, different from other vertebrate species

➡️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 28, 2025 at 8:25 AM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes
In most organisms, all cells inherit the same genome, and many mechanisms exist to preserve genome integrity across cell divisions. However, some species undergo programmed DNA elimination (PDE), wher...
www.biorxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Parallel evolution of X chromosome-specific SMC complexes in two nematode lineages

academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Parallel evolution of X chromosome-specific SMC complexes in two nematode lineages
Abstract. Mechanisms of X chromosome dosage compensation have been studied in model organisms with distinct sex chromosome ancestry. However, the diversity
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
pawelburkhardt.bsky.social
First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience

Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com
Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E

@jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social
The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution
Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...
rdcu.be
October 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Niche-associated Type IV collagen promotes GLP-1/Notch receptor activation in the C. elegans germline

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Niche-associated Type IV collagen promotes GLP-1/Notch receptor activation in the C. elegans germline - Nature Communications
In the C. elegans germline, distal niche cells provide a Notch signal to promote stem cell proliferation. Martel et al. show here that distal basement membrane type IV collagen contents positively inf...
www.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:49 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
!!

Aberrant X chromosome dosage compensation causes hybrid male inviability in Caenorhabditis

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Aberrant X chromosome dosage compensation causes hybrid male inviability in Caenorhabditis | PNAS
Zygotic reproductive isolation frequently initiates with hybrid incompatibility in the heterogametic sex, such as males in XX/XY systems. The genet...
www.pnas.org
October 26, 2025 at 2:16 AM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Nematode telomerase RNA hitchhikes on introns of germline–up-regulated genes

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Nematode telomerase RNA hitchhikes on introns of germline–up-regulated genes
Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeric DNA, ensuring germline immortality. In this study, we identified the Caenorhabditis elegans telomerase RNA component 1 (terc-1), as t...
www.science.org
October 26, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
emjo.bsky.social
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
Applied Biostatistics
ybrandvain.github.io
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
clementgoubert.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Transposable elements drive much of naturally occurring genetic lethality in Drosophila melanogaster
Recessive lethal mutations are widespread across studied species, with estimates suggesting that each individual carries at least one. Numerous lethal alleles persist in wild populations at higher fre...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
jaguilarrod.bsky.social
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...
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
weirdworms.bsky.social
We are hiring! The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma is seeking an Assistant Professor studying the Neurobiology of Pain. Applications are due Nov. 21. Please share with colleagues!

apply.interfolio.com/175314
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October 22, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
jbyoder.org
Very cool population genomic look into local adaptation against gene flow at a relatively small spatial scale, urban/rural gradients across metro Toronto, in this month's @journal-evo.bsky.social

Signatures of selective sweeps in urban and rural white clover populations

buff.ly/IfNhLx7
A multi-line graph with each line tracing the minor allele frequency for a locus in the white clover genome (y-axis) varying with distance from the Toronto city center (x-axis), with many light gray lines that don't indicate significant urban-rural allele frequency change, and highlighted green lines or blue lines that have steep slopes indicating local adaptation against gene flow
October 22, 2025 at 1:15 PM
weirdworms.bsky.social
Genomic parallelism defines repeated evolution of an inducible offense

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Genomic parallelism defines repeated evolution of an inducible offense
Experimental evolution of predatory nematodes shows constraints on plasticity and reveals a modifier of environmental sensitivity.
www.science.org
October 21, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
labgrosshans.bsky.social
And the next one: dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44318-025-00585-z . Super-fun collaboration with @partchlab.bsky.social & @gotworms.bsky.social to find similarities between developmental and circadian clocks – supported by @fmiscience.bsky.social Facilities and, financially, @snsf.ch and @erc.europa.eu . 1/n
October 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
maitreya.bsky.social
Incredible new paper from @schacherer.bsky.social et al rdcu.be/eLcTH
From genotype to phenotype with 1,086 near telomere-to-telomere yeast genomes
Nature - A newly compiled atlas of species-wide structural variants and gene-based and graph pangenomes derived from highly complete assemblies of genomes from 1,086 natural isolates enable...
rdcu.be
October 15, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
jefferis.bsky.social
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint:
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
October 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Gavin Woodruff
ebardot.bsky.social
Lots of great discussion about developmental variability here at #GastrulationReloaded! Super important to consider, and current tools have the power for this.

Related to this recent paper showing that mild phenotypes are more variable than severe ones. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A quadratic paradigm describes the relationship between phenotype severity and variation - Nature Communications
Phenotype variation is higher in mutants than wild types. Examining a range of mutant severities, this study unexpectedly found that variation decreases in severe conditions. A quadratic trend best fi...
www.nature.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:24 AM