This Week in Evolution

Nels and Vincent discuss how behavioural individuality determines infection risk in clonal ant colonies. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord serverclonal ant coloniesJolene Science Picks Nels – Fungi (lichens) in Space Vincent – Polar bear energetic and behavioral strategies on land with implications for surviving the ice-free period Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent review a study of the key processes required for the different stages of fungal carnivory by a nematode-trapping fungus. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord servernematode-trapping fungusJolene Science Picks Nels – Openly available illustrations as tools to describe eukaryotic microbial diversity Vincent – Dana-Farber retractions: meet the blogger who spotted problems in dozens of cancer papers Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent discuss the origins of two modern day agriculturally important plants: a role for two different wild teosintes in making modern maize, and the origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord serverTeosintebanana genome Science Picks Nels – Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art – Nature Careers Podcast Vincent – Science’s 2023 Breakthrough and Breakdown Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent discuss how the rewetting of seasonally dried soils, a critical event in Mediterranean grasslands that reactivates dormant soil microorganisms, leading to pulses of carbon and nitrogen mineralization, and is accompanied by a bloom of viral diversity, followed by extensive viral community turnover. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord server Viral but not bacterial community successional patterns reflect extreme turnover shortly after rewetting dry soils Science Picks Nels - Bluesky Vincent - Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent take apart an amazing symbiosis consisting of two bacteria, one bacteriophage, and seven different genomes all within a single-celled alga. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •A single crowded cryptomonad cell (Curr Biol) •Letters read on TWiEVO 94 Science Picks Nels – What happened at NIH during the last government shutdown Vincent – Geneticist J. Craig Venter: ‘I consider retirement tantamount to death’ Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent review a collision of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, using a minimal synthetic bacterial cell with only 473 genes, the smallest genome of any known organism that can be grown in lab culture. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server • Evolution of a minimal cell (Nature) Science Picks Nels – Life magnified stamp collection Vincent – Matters Microbial Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent explain a study of how interspecies competition between two algae influences evolution of metabolism and size. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server • Metabolic evolution during competition (Curr Biol) Science Picks Nels – How amino acids got their names (Source) Vincent – EVs Fix One Pollution Problem—And Worsen Another Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent discuss new findings using phylogenetic approaches about how complex eukaryotic cells emerged from prokaryotic ancestors, which firmly place eukaryotes as a clade nested within the Asgard archaea. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent RacanielloS Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes (Nature) Science Picks Nels – Juneteenth issue of Cell – collection of essays from black and brown scientists Vincent – Tara Oceans Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nels and Vincent provide insights into the mystery of mouse mummies on the summits of >6000 m Andean volcanoes, including whether they were living there and if so why? Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Mystery of mouse mummies (bioRxiv) Science Picks Nels – Zoonomia Vincent – SeaPhages Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Evolutionary models of solid tumor growth (Nat Ecol Evol) Science Picks Nels – TWiV 1000 Vincent – The dream of wiping out polio might need a rethink Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •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 Science Picks Nels – Hellbent documentary and Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death Vincent – BioRender Listener Pick Walter – Oded Rechavi and interview Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Gene loss in marine mammals (TWiEVO 34) •Gene change underlying mammalian hair loss (eLife) •Letters read on TWiEVO 87 Science Picks 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 Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join the MicrobeTV Discord server •Novel stop codon reassignment mechanisms (Nature) Science Picks 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 Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode canine diversificationJolene Science Picks Nels – Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us by C. Brandon Ogbunu Vincent – The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Black DeathERAP2respiratory diseaseJolene Science Picks Nels – Interview with Paul Turner in Current Biology and Map of the World if you are a fish Vincent – Smallpox and its eradication Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Birds Special Issue Scott EdwardsDiversity Issues in EvolutionJolene Science Picks 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) Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode greater neurogenesisTWiEVO 8TWiV 676Jolene Science Picks Nels – Unusual display of elements Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode novel cell typeTWiEVO 11Letters readJolene Science Picks Nels – Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art Vincent – John Bonner’s slime mold movies Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode diversity of influenza virus H5N1Mumps virus outbreak transmission bottlenecks Science Picks Nels – JWST Images Vincent – 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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 Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode chronic infectionLetters read Science Picks 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 Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv