This Week in Evolution

Nels and Vincent discuss the observation that cells on a boundary of a solid tumor have higher growth rates compared to those in the center and how to model this difference using genome sequencing data.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Evolutionary models of solid tumor growth (Nat Ecol Evol)

Nels – TWiV 1000 Vincent – The dream of wiping out polio might need a rethink

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Nels and Vincent review a study of the dogs of Chernobyl which reveals that genetically distinct populations with different amounts of western breed contributions to their genomes, the first step in assessing the effects of exposure to long-term ionizing radiation.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •The dogs of Chernobyl (Science Adv) •What the dogs of Chernobyl can teach us (Stat) •Letters read on TWiEVO 88

Nels – Hellbent documentary and Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death Vincent – BioRender

Walter – Oded Rechavi and interview

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Nathan joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his approach to understanding how species adopt novel traits to overcome challenges, and its application to identifying coding and noncoding sequence changes that underlie mammalian hairlessness.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Nathan Clark

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Gene loss in marine mammals (TWiEVO 34) •Gene change underlying mammalian hair loss (eLife) •Letters read on TWiEVO 87

Nels – Local news coverage of Amanda, Maria, and Nathan’s paper Vincent – Discovering Retroviruses by Anna Marie Skalka Nathan – Genomics of Secondarily Temperate Adaptation in the Only Non-Antarctic Icefish

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Nels and Vincent discuss how evolution of changes in stop codon assignment might occur, and a novel mechanism for altering the meaning of translation stop codons discovered in a trypanosomatid with the apropos name, Blastocrithidia nonstop.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Novel stop codon reassignment mechanisms (Nature)

Nels – Protein Synthesis: An epic on the cellular level 

Vincent – Widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages may regulate translation of lytic genes discussed on TWiM 277

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Nels and Vincent discuss the use of genome sequence data for over 4,000 domestic, semi-feral, and wild canids to understand the genetic drivers of canine behavior.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Genetic drivers of canine diversification (Cell)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us by C. Brandon Ogbunu Vincent – The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll

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Nels and Vincent review the use of ancient DNA to identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death by studying populations before, during, and after the pandemic.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolution of immune genes associated with Black Death (Nature)
• ERAP2 and respiratory disease (medRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Interview with Paul Turner in Current Biology and Map of the World if you are a fish Vincent – Smallpox and its eradication

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Florian Maderspacher from Current Biology joins Nels and Vincent to discuss a special issue of the journal on birds.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Florian Maderspacher

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• Current Biology Birds Special Issue
• Scott Edwards bikes across the US (Audubon)
• Support Diversity Issues in Evolution (Go Fund Me)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Florian – Favorite birds of authors/contributors in Birds issue Nels –Loss of avian intromittent organs as a sperm competition strategy: a race to be last Vincent – Malaria at the Bronx Zoo (TWiP 110)

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Nels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Human TKTL1 implies greater neurogenesis (Science)
• Everyone’s a little bit Neanderthal (TWiEVO 8)
• Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals (TWiV 676)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Unusual display of elements Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary

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Nels and Vincent discuss how duplication of a gene encoding a transcription factor led to evolution of a novel cell type in the slime mold Dictyostelium.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Gene duplication leads to novel cell type (Current Biol)
• Evolution of multicellularity (TWiEVO 11)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 81
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art Vincent – John Bonner’s slime mold movies

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Louise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Louise Moncla

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• Within-host diversity of influenza virus H5N1 (PLoS Path)
• Mumps virus outbreak in Washington (eLive)
• SARS-CoV-2 tight transmission bottlenecks (PLoS Path)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – JWST Images Vincent – 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program

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Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 79  (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

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• SARS-CoV-2 evolution during chronic infection (Nat Med)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 79
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears Vincent – FDA: Don’t rush a move to change the Covid-19 vaccine composition

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Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• ECDC monkeypox risk assessment (pdf)
• Monkeypox virus genomes (Nextstrain)
• Discussion of monkeypox virus genome sequencing (virological.org)
• Balancing positive and negative selection in spike protein (Biochem)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Science on the Side podcast by Morgan Nelson and Ty Chiaro  Vincent – Richard Ernst Lecture 2022

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Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Alex Cagan

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• Somatic mutation and age (Nature)
• Zombie gene in elephants (TWiEVO 26)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Alex – Paper.app Nels – Fifty years since Lewontin’s apportionment of human diversity Vincent – An Exceptional Village

Martha – Plagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

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Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 75  (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

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• Making E. coli an insect mutualist (bioRxiv)
• Letters read on TWiEVo 76
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

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Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature)
• Vampire vax (TWiV 809)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Joe Graves

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• On Racism, Not Race (Amazon)
• African Americans in evolutionary science (Behav Ecol Sociobiol)
• Biological variation and the normal (Am J Hum Biol)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Where is Webb? Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association Joe – Biology versus bias

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Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep)
• Host origins of SARS-CoV-2 genome insertions (Virological)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates

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Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Ancient coronavirus epidemic in East Asia (Curr Biol)
• Gene-culture coevolution and human evolutionary transition (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Membrane permeability at the lipid divide (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science Vincent – Virology Live

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Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 mutation rate (Genome Biology Evolution)
• Delta spike change enhances fitness (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Leading Edge Symposium Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Thomas – The gene’s-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren

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Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life’s Edge.

Host: Nels Elde

Guest: Carl Zimmer

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• On Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin Carl – From telomere to telomere: the transcriptional and epigenetic state of human repeat elements

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Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Identification of novel bat coronaviruses (Cell)
• Dating first cases of COVID-19 (PLoS Path)
• Recovery of deleted SARS-CoV-2 sequences (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out Vincent – Human Behavior During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Any Covid Variant

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Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolutionary portrait of SARS-CoV-2 (Mol Biol Evolution)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 68
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Ed Yong pandemic trauma and We’re Not Ready for the Next Pandemic Vincent – Furin cleavage site is not a smoking gun

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Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Recombination in B.1.1.7 lineage (Virological)
• CoVariants
• Letters read on TWiEVO 67
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Mars rover helicopter flight! Vincent – TWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach

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Nels and Vincent review a preprint demonstrating that changes in the genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B1.351 and P.1 allow the viruses to reproduce in mouse cells in culture and in laboratory mice.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Tony Schountz on TWiV 668
• SARS-CoV-2 variants infect mice (bioRxiv)
• CoVariants
• Letters read on TWiEVO 66
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Billion years of plate tectonics Vincent – Sapiens a Graphic History by Yuval Noah Harari

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Nels and Vincent review evidence that a single amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has driven adaptation to humans, followed by an update on the status of variants of concern.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Selective sweep drove SARS-CoV-2 adaptation (bioRxiv)
• Novel coronavirus haplotypes
• Letters read on TWiEVO 65
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Radio Garden Vincent – Our World in Data – Coronavirus

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Nels and Vincent consider evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2, and update the situation on novel virus variants of concern with potentially altered fitness and reactivity with antibodies.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Nature)
• mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to variants (bioRxiv)
• Scott Hensley thread (Twitter)
• Analysis of B.1.17 lineage (virological)
• Trevor Bedford thread (Twitter)
• Andrew Rambaut on variant naming (Twitter)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 64
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Biden Administration PCAST and The Hill We Climb Vincent – Four inaugural quotations – Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Biden

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Nels and Vincent wrap up 2020 with a discussion of novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa, how to interpret the rapidly emerging genome sequence data and what to look for in the coming weeks as these variants spread across the globe.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Preliminary genomic characterization of UK variant (virological)
• Clinical outcomes of infection with Orf8 variants (Lancet)
• Global Report Investigating Novel Coronavirus Haplotypes (GRINCH)
• South African SARS-CoV-2 lineage (medRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Katalin Karikos’ career and mRNA vaccines Vincent – Reverse Engineering of mRNA vaccine

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Daniel joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his new book on army ants, the wickedest insects ever to roam the planet, and his research on them and clonal raider ants.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Daniel Kronauer

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• This Week in Ants (TWiEVO 13)
• Raiders of the Lost Orco (TWiEVO 18)
• Army Ants by Daniel Kronauer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Daniel – Desert Navigator by Rüdiger Wehner and Insects of Suriname by Maria Sibylla Merian Nels – NPR Scicommers Vincent – The Vintage Beauty Of Soviet Control Rooms

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Nels and Vincent discuss an opinion piece on 12 evolutionary insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping human nature, and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in an immunosuppressed patient.

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• Microbe.TV on instagram
• Pandemic exposes human nature (PNAS)
• Carl Bergstrom calls BS (Twitter)
• Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in patient (J Inf Dis)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 61
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Scott Edwards bikes across US; support diversity in evolution Vincent – 30 computers sculpture project

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On the fifth anniversary of TWiEVO, Nels and Vincent invite 12 evolutionary biologists to describe exciting future directions for the field and their laboratory in the next five years.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Lillian Fritz Laylin, Talia Karasov, Andrew Kern, Sarah Tishkoff, Dmitri Petrov, Nancy Chen, Amanda Larracuente, John McCutcheon, Ambika Kamath, Chip Aquadro, Rebekah Rogers, Yaniv Braindvain, and Harmit Malik

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Science Picks

Nels - Science Mill Virtual Tour and Benefit Vincent - Das Coronavirus summaries

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Nels and Vincent answer listener questions and discuss a newly discovered virus of amoeba with a nearly complete ORFan genome: none of the proteins encoded in the viral genome look like any other proteins.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Links for this episode

• Yaravirus (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 59
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels - Blog by Ambika Kamath Vincent - TWiVerse

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Simon and Heather join TWiEVO to discuss their analysis of the evolutionary history of ACE2 usage by coronaviruses in the Sarbecovirus genus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Simon Anthony and Heather Wells

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Links for this episode

• Evolutionary history of sarbecovirus ACE2 binding (bioRxiv)
• Bombali virus in bats (Nat Micro)
• Herpesviruses in Puerto Rican bats (bioRxiv)
• Adenovirus and herpesvirus in great apes (PLoS One)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

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Jessie, Allie and Tyler join Nels and Vincent to describe their work on deep mutational scanning of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Jesse Bloom, Allie Greaney, and Tyler Starr

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Links for this episode

• Bloom Laboratory
• Deep mutational scanning of SARS-CoV-2 RBD (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, including understanding recurrent mutations in the viral genome, and the potential for re-emergence of the virus from an animal reservoir.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity (Inf, Genet, Evol)
• Re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (bioRxiv)
• Tackling SARS-CoV-2 rumors (virological.org)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 56
• Image credit
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - The Cell in Evolution Vincent - Visual Science

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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, with a report that the coronavirus proofreading enzyme stimulates RNA recombination, and debunking the conclusion that a change in the viral spike glycoprotein is associated with increased human to human transmission.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• CoV proofreading enzyme stimulates recombination (bioRxiv)
• CoV spike mutation pipeline (bioRxiv)
• Issues with CoV sequencing data (virological.org)
• Bill Hanage on selection vs bottleneck (threader.app)
• Image credit
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - In Memoriam: Gordon Lark Vincent - John Oliver Discussion of Antibody Tests

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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, including function of the furin cleavage site, whether Vervet cells are an informative system, another bat isolate, and a nomenclature to assist genomic epidemiology.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells (bioRxiv)
• More related SARSr virus from bat (bioRxiv)
• Patient isolates in Vero cells (medRxiv)
• Nomenclature for genomic epidemiology (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - EvoEco seminars Vincent - Coronavirus book for children

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Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, focusing on what the genome sequences tell us about the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Clement Chow with COVID-19 (Salt Lake Trib)
• Scientists exposed to coronavirus (Nature)
• CoV by Britt Glaunsinger (YouTube)
• Genetic epidemiology of novel coronavirus (nextstrain.org)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Science Mill Explorer Zone Vincent - COVID-19 treatment and therapy tracker

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Nels and Vincent examine SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, examining what the spike glycoprotein sequence informs us about the origin of the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Distinct CoV name needed (Lancet)
• Proximal origin of SARS-COV-2 (virological)
• CoV spillovers not rare (Goats and Soda)
• SARS-CoV-2 phylodynamics analysis (virological)
• Bat CoV surveillance in China (PLoS Path)
• Image credit
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Alejandro Sanchez TED Talk Vincent - WHO SARS-CoV-2 Sitrep

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Nels and Vincent dive deep into evolution and consider how new proteins emerged billions of years ago, when there were no other proteins to serve as starting material.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Primordial emergence of a nucleic acid binding protein (bioRxiv)
• Tawfik laboratory
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 51
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Universal principled review Vincent - Hostile Planet by National Geographic

Courtney - Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Shudder Before The Beautiful

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Nels and Vincent discuss signatures of sex chromosome evolution revealed by assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome from 3-spined stickleback fish.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome (bioRxiv)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 50
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Genome from a 5,700-Year-Old Wad of Chewed Gum Vincent - NJ Sea-Level Rise Reports

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Rich joins Nels and Vincent for a debriefing on the 4th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Tegernsee, Germany.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Rich Condit

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• Endless giant virus forms most beautiful (TWiV 575)
• 4th Ringberg Giant Virus Meeting Program (pdf)
• Photographs by Matthias Fischer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Rich - Flightradar24 Nels - Deutsches Museum Munich Vincent - Diversify Microbiology

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Nels and Vincent reveal a new choanoflagellate that forms multicellular cup shaped colonies that respond to light to alternate between feeding and swimming behavior.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Microbial accomplices in multicellularity (TWiEVO 11)
• Light regulated collective contractility (Science)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 48
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - How to write a great science paper by Cormac McCarthy Vincent - Natural Selection Store

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Nels and Vincent trace the origins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains used to make beer, and find that ales and lagers are made with yeasts that were derived from those used to make European grape wine and Asian rice wine.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Origins of beer yeasts (PLoS Biol)
• Chateau Jiahu beer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Population fluctuations in 10 biggest cities Vincent - 1.7 million year old rhino tooth (original Nature paper)

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Nels and Vincent analyze the genomes of canine transmissible tumors to provide insight into the worldwide spread of the disease from its origin in a single dog 4000-8500 years ago, and its diversity, mutation, and evolution.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolution and mutation of canine transmissible cancer (Science)
• Clam cancers (TWiEVO 17)
• Sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels - Vasa Museum in Stockholm Vincent - Nobel Museum in Stockholm

Irene - @EndlessFormsand #PlantScienceFascinatesMe #plantsday

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At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Talia Karasov who reveals that in contrast to agriculture, wild plants are colonized by multiple lineages of pathogenic bacteria.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Talia Karasov

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• Talia Karasov in the Bergelson lab
• Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas (Cell Host Micr)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

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At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Paul Turner to talk about evolutionary considerations in using bacteriophages to treat infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Paul Taylor

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• Turner Lab at Yale
• Phage therapy: A renewed approach (Cell Host Microbe)
• Phage treatment of aortic graft (Evol Med Pub Health)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels- Science Glass

Vincent- Phage therapy for disseminated Mycobacterial infection

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Dustin Rubinstein joins Nels and Vincent to discuss coevolution of genome architecture and social behavior, and studying social transitions in sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Dustin Rubinstein

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• Co-evolution of genome architecture and social behavior (Trend Ecol Evol)
• Social transitions in snapping shrimp (Curr Op Insect Sci)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Dustin- Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies 1 by E.O. Wilson, and The Human Swarm by Mark O. Moffett

Nels- For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner

Vincent- Quacks blamed for Pakistan HIV-1 outbreak

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Nels and Vincent review the contribution of multiple Denisovan lineages to the modern Papuan genome.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Denisovan ancestries in Papuans (Cell)
• Prof Murray Cox
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 42
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels- Sydney Brenner - What Genomes Can Tell Us About the PastVincent- Scientific Communication in a Post-Truth Society

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Nels and Vincent explore the evolution of new protein-coding genes de novo from nocoding DNA sequences, using the antifreeze protein of northern codfish as a model.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolution of antifreeze protein gene in codfish (PNAS)
• Codfish diversity (Cheng lab)
• Frankentomatoes (Huff Post)
• Image credit
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels- Science at Sundance reviews

Vincent- The Rise and Fall of Scientific Authority

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Nels and Vincent move back to reproductive isolation - this time, pre-zygotic, in the charismatic orchid bee where the males make chemically distinct perfumes to attract mates of the same species.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Olfactory receptor gene underlies reproductive isolation (biorXiv)
• Image credit
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels- Nature Zen: Orchid Bees Are Shiny Vincent- What You Believe About Science Denial May Be All Wrong

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Nels and Vincent look at the intracellular bacteria Legionella from an evolutionary perspective: the role of gene acquisition and reshuffling from plants, animals, fungi, and archaea in the emergence of human pathogens.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Over 18,000 effectors in Legionella genome (PNAS)
• Carmen Buchrieser lab
• Howard Shuman

Nels - Science in Film (twitter) Vincent - Lunar Eclipse 101

Nels and Vincent reveal a highly conserved protein that acts as an evolvability factor, increasing mutation and the ability of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Inhibiting evolution of antibiotic resistance (Mol Cell)
• Pushing viruses over the error threshold (virology blog)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 38

Nels- Science/nature illustrator/artist Rachel Ignotofsky (website, Etsy shop) Vincent- Life Ascending by Nick Lane

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David Quammen joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his new book, A Tangled Tree, including evolutionary trees, Carl Woese, Lynn Margulis, horizontal gene transfer, and much more.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: David Quammen

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• David's website
• David on TWiV 408, Boston Quammens
• Axel Erlandson's trees reimagined - Gilroy Gardens

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Mia joins Nels and Vincent to unravel their finding that the transposons that maintain the ends of chromosomes in Drosophilahave evolved in conflict with the genome.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Mia Levine

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• Levine Lab at U Penn
• Telomere elongation without telomerase (bioRxiv)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 36

Nels - Cinema Science podcast Vincent - Mastodon bones unearthed (Instagram, Grand Rapids News)

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Nels and Vincent reveal that female-specific DNA associated with sex in strawberries has repeatedly changed its genomic location, possibly linking new genes with sex. 

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Jumping sex genes in strawberries (PLoS Biol)
• Red Queen by Matt Ridley
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 35

Nels - New snailfish and Cloned crayfish Vincent - A PhD Lab Coat Ceremony

Steve - Diversity in simple blobs Justin - On Growth and Forms by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

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Nels and Vincent discuss how the loss of an enzyme in marine mammals millions of years ago now makes them at risk for neurotoxicity caused by human-made organophosphorous pesticides.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Ancient lossesof paraoxonase I (Science)
• Big Yellow Taxi (YouTube)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 34

Hey farmer farmer put away the chlor-pyri-fus I don’t care about spots on my apples Leave me the manatee and walruses

Nels - New dinosaur discovered in Utah Vincent -The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen

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Nels and Vincent are astounded by the finding of an insect-derived virus in a fungus that manipulates the behavior of flies.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Virus in fungus in fly (bioRxiv)
• On a leaf, no one can hear you scream (TWiV 443)
• Nels gives Benzer Lecture (YouTube)
• Domestication of fungal fly pathogen (bioRxiv)
• Sequencing E. muscae genome (10X genomics)
• Eisen's twitter stream on new iflavirus (Twitter)

Nels - Mindsuckers; getting photos; Anand Varma photos  Vincent - Happy Birthday Gregor Mendel

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Matt joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the neutral theory of evolution and its rejection in light of genome-scale data.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Matt Hahn

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• Hahn Lab
• Molecular Population Genetics by Matt Hahn
• Neutral theoryin light of natural selection (Mol Biol Evol)
• Neutral Sequence Fallacy(Assembly of Fragments)
• Splendor and miseryof adaptation (BMC Biol)
• Image credit
• Letters readon TWiEVO 32

Nels - Inaugural Transposon Day Vincent - How many human genes?

Anne- Plants repeatedly lose ability to obtain nitrogen

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Nels and Vincent present ancient hepatitis B virus genome sequences from Bronze Age to Medieval period human remains.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Ancient hepatitis B virus genomes(Nature)
• Even more ancient HBV genomes(bioRxiv)
• Image credit
• Letters readon TWiEVO 31

Nels - Sampling whale breathwith drones (Preprint) Vincent - Verge Science

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Nels and Vincent reveal how a motor protein in corn causes preferential transmission of chromosomes to egg cells, leading to non-Mendelian inheritance.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Molecular Evolution and the Cellmeeting
• Selfishcorn chromosomes (Cell)
• Dawe Lab- neocentromeres and meiotic drive
• Image credit
• Letters readon TWiEVO 30

Nels - Craypot stinkhorn mushroom (Colus pusilus) Vincent -Doubts raised over plan to release herpesvirus to wipe out carp

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Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of blood feeding to nonbiting in a mosquito, and evolution of bacterial virulence in the house finch caused by incomplete host immunity.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting
• Mosquito evolution from blood feeding to nonbiting (PNAS)
• Mosquito blood feeding is not a free lunch (virology blog)
• Incomplete immunity and evolution of virulence (Science)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 29

Nels - IDEA and Impossible Foods Vincent - it is NOT junk

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Sarah Tishkoff joins Nels and Vincent to explain work from her laboratory on the genetic basis of skin pigmentation in Africans.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sarah Tishkoff

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• Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting
• Sarah AMA on Reddit
• Genetics of African skin pigmentation (Science)
• Image credit

Nels - In Defense of Plants (Shrew Loo) Vincent - Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals

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Taking a cue from the recent frigid weather, Nels and Vincent explore how modifications of a neuronal cold-sensing channel regulate diminished cold sensitivity in hibernating mammals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Why ground squirrels and hamsters don't mind the cold (Cell Rep)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 27

Nels - Undergrad podcasters from Stonehill College Vincent - Viruses at Target

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Vinny Lynch joins Nels and Vincent to discuss how a zombie gene in elephants protects these large, long lived animals from cancer.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Vinny Lynch

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• Lynch Lab
• Elephant zombie LIF gene induces apoptosis (bioRxiv)
• Image credit

Nels - Animalism Vincent - Voyager I fires up thrusters after 37 years Vinny - Rollin' Wild

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Nels and Vincent discuss a genomic analysis of the passenger pigeon, which shows that species with large and stable populations may be at risk of extinction after a sudden environmental change.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Passenger pigeon genomic diversity (Science)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 25

Nels - Video of nematophagous fungi Vincent - How should novelty be valued in science? John - Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) Melanie - What's in John's Freezer

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Marco Vignuzzi joins Nels and Vincent to discuss recent work from his laboratory on redirecting RNA virus evolution in sequence space.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Marco Vignuzzi

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• Vignuzzi Laboratory
• Redirecting evolution of RNA viruses in sequence space (Nat Micro)
• Is quasispecies concept relevant to RNA viruses? (J Virol)

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Nels - Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators Vincent - Why has the EPA shifted on toxic chemicals? Marco - Labs of Siobain Duffy, Seema Lackdawala, Chris Brook

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Nels and Vincent reveal how the protein DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects caused by invasion of the Alu retroelement into the human genome.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• DHX9 suppresses Alu defects (Nature)
• Asifa Akhtar on The Latest Thinking

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Nels - Saving Hellbender Salamanders Vincent - The Living River

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Maitreya Dunham joins Nels and Vincent to explain how her laboratory uses experimental evolution to study yeast flocculation, the community-building cell aggregation trait.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Maitreya Dunham

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• Dunham Laboratory
• Adaptive Routes to Cell Aggregation in Yeast (Genetics)
• Making the best of a sticky situation (SGD)
• Yeast Genetics and Genomic Course (Cold Spring Harbor)
• Genetic basis of biofilm formation (Beacon)
• 2017 CSH Plate Race (YouTube)
• Image credit

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Nels - Floating Fire Ant Colonies in Houston and Help for Houston Researchers Vincent - Help People Affected by Harvey and How To Help Harvey Victims

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Rich Condit joins Nels and Vincent to explain how a vaccinia virus protein customizes ribosomes to favor the translation of viral mRNAs with a stretch of A residues in the 5'-untranslated region.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Rich Condit with Harry Noller (scroll down)
• Trans-Kingdom mimicry? (Nature)
• More on RACK1 (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 21

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Rich - Sniffing out significant “Pee values” Nels - Cuttlefish mimicking a hermit crab (evolutionary context) Vincent - Our first bioRxiv submission!

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Nels and Vincent explore the role of TSR proteins during colonization of cnidarians by dinoflagellates.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• TSR domain proteins in cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis
• A. elegantissima image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 20

Nels - CRISPR 5 ways Vincent - The Vital Question by Nick Lane

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Jonathan Weiner, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beak of the Finch, joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his career and his writing. 

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Jonathan Weiner

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• Jonathan's Columbia University page
• Jonathan's author page

Nels - The Gap by Ira Glass Vincent - EPA removes climate science site

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Ni-Chen 'Sylvia' Chang, Waring 'Buck' Trible, and Sean K. McKenzie

Buck and Sean join Vincent in New York, while Sylvia is with Nels in Salt Lake City to discuss the first mutant ant ever made: disruption of orco, a gene required for function of odorant receptors, show defects in social behavior and fitness.

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• First ant mutants link odorant receptors and social behavior (bioRxiv)
• Kronauer Lab

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Nels - Urban Nature and What Makes a City Ant? Vincent - Animations from WEHI

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Stephen Goff

Nels joins Vincent in New York City to speak with Stephen Goff about transmissible clam cancers and the silencing of integrated retroviral genomes.

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• A sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path)
• Horizontal transmission of clam cancer (Cell)
• Transmissible bivalve cancers (Nature)
• Retrovirus transcriptional silencing (J Virol)
• Histones on retroviral DNA (Cell Host Micr)
• Image credit

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Nels - Mindsuckers Vincent - What is a species?

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Nels and Vincent reveal how introns - the parts of pre-mRNAs that are removed by splicing - were generated by DNA transposons in two different picoeukaryotes.

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• Introns from DNA transposons (Nature)
• Reverse transcription and integration lecture
• Image: Elde Lab Mobile Studios on location in Santa Fe, NM
• Letters read on TWiEVO 16

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Nels - Did eukaryotes invent anything? (TWiM 144) Vincent - Virology course online

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Hopi Hoekstra

Nels and Vincent speak with Hopi Hoekstra about her career and the work of her laboratory on developmental mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents. 

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• Hoekstra Laboratory
• Hopi on Twitter
• Mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents (Nature)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 15

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Hopi -Diversify EEB, Anne's List Nels - Celebration for Harry Noller Vincent - Biological Warfare, Virus Style (journal article)

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Jessica Brown, Michael Kay, Wayne Potts, June Round, and Janis Weis

From the Microbial Pathogenesis Retreat of the University of Utah School of Medicine, held at the Utah Museum of Natural History, Nels and Vincent speak with faculty members about their work on bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mirror-image biochemistry.

Watch video of this episode at YouTube

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Nels - An Open Letter to My Class Vincent - The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Corrie Moreau

Corrie joins Nels and Vincent to talk about her comparative analysis of the genomes of mutualist ants that nest in plants, and non-symbiotic species.

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• Moreau Laboratory
• Different rates of evolution in ant-plant mutualisms (Nat Commun)
• Image credit

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Nels - Mind-melting animated gifs Vincent - Parasites Without BordersCorrie - Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie

Chris - Shark weapons

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Josh Drew

Josh joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his research on the evolution and conservation of aquatic tropical  biodiversity, and the historical ecology of 19th century American Whalers.

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• Drew Laboratory at Columbia University
• American Whalers by Ed Yong
• Karen Bao
• Sea cucumber genome
• Sea cucumber population connectivity (Nature)

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

This episode is also sponsored by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more.

Nels - Dr. Mary-Claire King at World Science Festival Vincent - Contagious ThinkingJosh - Diversify EEB

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to [email protected]

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Nicole King

Nicole joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the finding of her laboratory that multicellular development of choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals, is regulated by bacterial lipids.

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• Nicole King on Twitter
• Choanoflagellate workshop
• Bacterial lipids regulate Salpingoeca development (PNAS)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 11

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

This episode is also sponsored by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more.

Nels - I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (Fresh Air interview) Vincent - Viral Infections of Leisure by David Schlossberg

Justin - Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean B. Carroll

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to [email protected]

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Nels and Vincent review experiments showing that the replacement of a pale moth with a black one during the industrial revolution was caused by a transposable element.

• Last experiment of Michael Majerus (Biol Lett)
• Moth melanism mutation is transposon (Nature)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiEVO 10

Nels - Is Pokémon Go good for science? (one, two, three) Vincent - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to [email protected]

Become a patron of TWiEVO