This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 83: Evolution spreads its wings (and then loses them)

October 24, 2022
Tagged as: bird, evolution, evolution of flight, flightless bird, natural selection, passerine bird, powered flight

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

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Current Biology Birds Special Issue 4:40, 42:40
Scott Edwards bikes across the US (Audubon) 9:01
Support Diversity Issues in Evolution (Go Fund Me) 9:14
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:22:39

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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TWiEVO 82: A genetic hack for the human brain

September 22, 2022
Tagged as: evolution, frontal cortex, H. sapiens, neocortex, neurogenesis, TKTL1

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) 15:15, 21:13
Everyone’s a little bit Neanderthal (TWiEVO 8) 18:40
Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals (TWiV 676)
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:23:33

Nels – Unusual display of elements
Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary

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This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 81: Evolution’s new and improved slime molds

August 24, 2022
Tagged as: Dictyostelium, evolution, gene duplication, mutation, natural selection, neofunctionality, slime mold

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) 8:32
Evolution of multicellularity (TWiEVO 11) 11:08
Letters read on TWiEVO 81 1:04:07
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:15:16

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

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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TWiEVO 80: Viruses of a feather bottleneck together

August 1, 2022
Tagged as: evolution, influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, mutation, natural selection, phylogenomics, SARS-CoV-2, transmission bottleneck, virus

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) 18:37
Mumps virus outbreak in Washington (eLive) 37:27, 41:49
SARS-CoV-2 tight transmission bottlenecks (PLoS Path) 44:01
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:10:40

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

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TWiEVO 79: When the immune system is away, SARS-CoV-2 will play

July 2, 2022
Tagged as: antibody evasion, chronic infection, coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, fitness, immunocompromised, natural selection, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern

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

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SARS-CoV-2 evolution during chronic infection (Nat Med) 7:56
Letters read on TWiEVO 79 1:15:30
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:32:04

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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This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 78: The virus daily double

May 26, 2022
Tagged as: coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, monkeypox, natural selection, negative selection, pandemic, positive selection, SARS-CoV-2, smallpox, spike protein, variants of concern

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.