#2 Led by Basabi Bagchi and Dylan Shropshire
assesses temperature modulation of cytoplasmic incompatibility strength across 8 systems. With the help of Lore, Tim (Phd), and Elena/Kyle (undergrads), we show cifB expression partly explains temp-sensitive CI, while bacterial density in testes does not.
Dylan's paper focuses on Wolbachia molecular evolution and calibrating the timescale of horizontal transfers between divergent host species. We compare our calibration to alternatives and use it to understand how quickly genes that cause and rescue cytoplasmic incompatibility are gained and lost.
The lab has several new papers out led by fantastic postdocs, with important contributions from other lab members and collaborators. Each paper focuses on different aspects of Wolbachia spread and effects on hosts. The first paper was led by Dylan Shropshire and is now in Genetics.
Postdoc search update! I am continuing to solicit applications for a postdoc opening in the lab, and probably around the beginning of July I will start selecting applicants to interview. See evoldir ad here: evoldir.net/brian/evoldi...
Please RT or whatever!
Excited to share this preprint!! with
@brandonscooper.bsky.social
and Bill Sullivan
We tested whether endosymbiotic Wolbachia can alter host gene expression through chromatin modifications that persist from spermatogenesis to adulthood.
I’m super fortunate to work with these great scientists and many others that made critical contributions! They include W. Conner, A. Hoffmann, M. Turelli, B. Sullivan, and D. Vanderpool. More to come soon, including from recent PhD grad John Statz, who is moving on to a great postdoc. 🤘
Finally, Hunter Hill used In(1)w^m4 (one of the original X-chroms from Muller's 1930 paper) to show Wolbachia acts as a variegation suppressor. Wolbachia-mediated modification of paternal chromatin during spermatogenesis leaves a persistent signature on heterochromatin-mediated silencing. Very cool
#3 Nitin Ravikanthachari shows climate predicts wMel frequency in D. mel across 248 locations/5 continents. With E. Behrman, J. Beltz, & P. Schmidt, we show week-to-week/seasonal freq variation related to temp. We also show that env-allele associations reflect lineage history, not local adaptation.
Climate predicts wMel Wolbachia frequency variation in Drosophila melanogaster, but genomic variation reflects a recent incomplete cytoplasmic sweep https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.22.727337v1