iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Journal of Vertebrate Biology @jvertbiol.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

🏝️ How do island species persist despite small populations? A recent synthesis shows that purging, genetic drift and ecological buffering can act together, yet genomic erosion may still leave populations vulnerable to environmental change. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Scott P. Egan @scottpegan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Rice University invites applications for multiple tenured and tenure-track positions at the senior and junior levels in #EnvironmentalHealth. Join our team! apply.interfolio.com/193813

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Ellie Armstrong @elliecat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If you saw me talk at PEQG or PAG and want to try out a new method for assembling sex chromosomes, our paper and pipeline are live! Biggest shoutout to @scarey.bsky.social for pioneering this method and happy to have played a part in its application and deployment!

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

[5/5] This work was completed during my NSF Postdoc Fellowship at UC Riverside. Huge thanks to my postdoc advisors and co-authors @elliecat.bsky.social and @ksamuk.bsky.social for such a rich and supportive collaboration.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

[4/5] In large populations, recombination helps primarily by relieving Hill-Robertson interference, reducing repulsion between beneficial alleles and coupling between beneficial and deleterious ones.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

[3/5] A population contraction, by reducing genetic variation and amplifying genetic drift, diminished the benefit of recombination, affording only a 2% reduction in the rate of adaptation.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

[2/5] The answer is yes, by up to 15%, but only if population size stays stable.

Violin plots depicting the effect of recombination rate on adaptation speed. Generations to adapt (log scale) is on the y-axis and recombination rate multiplier (0.5×, 1×, 2×, 4×) is on the x-axis. Panels show three genetic architectures: many small-effect, intermediate, and few large-effect. Blue violins show constant-size populations and orange show contracted populations. Contracted populations took far longer to adapt than constant-size populations, and higher recombination modestly reduced adaptation time in constant-size populations but had little effect in contracted ones.

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

John Lovell @jotlovell.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

We are often asked whether pangenomes are worth the hassle. The files can be large and methods to explore them are much more challenging than linear references. Earlier this week, we preprinted a clear example of how and why pan-genome graphs are so important for trait discovery.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

📣 I'm recruiting PhD students to join the Akopyan Lab at Rice University! If you're passionate about evolutionary genomics, I'd love to hear from you. Details: akopyanlab.org/opportunities Please share widely! 🙏

akopyanlab.org

Opportunities

We are recruiting PhD students in Evolutionary Genomics for Fall 2027 at Rice University! Projects in the lab include investigating the causes and consequences of recombination rate variation, the...

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Sam Yeaman @samyeaman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm looking to hire a postdoc to work on the RepAdapt + MacroMar projects, analysing genomic data from >130 species of plants, animals, and fungi (VCFs are processed, ready to go). Lots of potential for creativity and collaboration! yeamanlab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/...

Picture shows fireweed in foreground and Mt. Lougheed in background

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Ellie Armstrong @elliecat.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

fellowships.si.edu/opportunity/... Please reach out if you are interested in developing an independent application for this postdoc opportunity with myself and Michael Campana. We have a lot of great bear genomics data that could be leveraged!

fellowships.si.edu

Smithsonian Biodiversity Genomics Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (BioG)

node:field_teaser]

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

David Lowry @davidlowry.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I am currently searching for a postdoc to work on the evolution of adaptations, cold acclimation, and freezing tolerance in switchgrass. The position entails lab, growth facility, bioinformatics, and fieldwork. careers.msu.edu/jobs/postdoc...

careers.msu.edu

Postdoctoral Scholar-Fixed Term - East Lansing, Michigan, United States

Position Summary The Lowry Lab at Michigan State University is searching for a postdoctoral research associate to conduct field and laboratory experiments to understand the causes of genetic variation...

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Azwad Iqbal @azwadiqbal.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

BLink-seq is out! Linked-read sequencing that brings phased whole-genome data to non-model species at population scale. We show it phases haplotypes and detects SVs, revealing previously undocumented structural complexity in an adaptive Atlantic silverside inversion. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

BLink-seq delivers population-scale haplotypes without long reads: a scalable framework for non-model genomics

Information about segregating haplotypes and structural variation (SV) can be extremely rich for a variety of applications in population genomics but remains largely inaccessible for many non-model sp...

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Kieran Samuk @ksamuk.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Just posted: a group paper describing major updates to my software pixy, for population genetic summary statistics. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New since 2021: arbitrary ploidy, multiallelic sites, missingness-aware Watterson's θ and Tajima's D, Hudson's FST, multicore execution!

Alt text: Schematic of the pixy workflow. Left, inputs: a bgzipped, tabix- or CSI-indexed VCF with callable sites supplied as an all-sites VCF or gVCF blocks, a populations file, and optional BED and sites files. Centre, core: windowing by fixed width, BED or region; statistic selection; options for Hudson's FST, multiallelic SNPs, automatic ploidy detection and multicore execution. Right, outputs: one TSV per statistic for pi, dxy, FST, Watterson's theta and Tajima's D, with raw count columns for exact aggregation. Bottom, development: GitHub fork and pull request, local checks with ruff, mypy and pytest, continuous integration across Python 3.10 to 3.14, and distribution through conda-forge. Features new since the 2021 release are badged "new".

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 28/07/2026

Finally posted an ad for the postdoc position on my new NSF-funded project—come help build a new method to study plants' responses to environmental variation in space and over time, and figure out interesting ways to use it! Apply by 23 August to ensure consideration. Details: buff.ly/qTvaqvD

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Dr. Arun Sethuraman @arunsethuraman.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Hey team - it’s looking very likely that I’ll be hiring not one but two four year postdocs! We’re a fun lab with tons of theoretical and applied pop gen projects - broadly in polyploid, conservation, and human evo. Competitive salary, sunny San Diego! Do share with your about to defend grads!

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Dr. Stepfanie Aguillón 😷 @s-m-aguillon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Interested in joining a growing lab in LA? We’re hiring a postdoc!! Please spread the word to folks in your network and feel free to get in touch with any questions recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11142

Colorful advertisement for the position that reads:

We’re seeking a new Postdoctoral Scholar to lead the analysis and publication of whole-genome sequencing datasets from the northern flicker hybrid zone.

This is a two-year appointment based in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. Start date is flexible and can begin as early as October 2026.

Basic Qualifications:
• PhD in evolutionary biology, ecology, genomics, or a related field by appointment start date
• Demonstrated ability to work with sequencing datasets
• Strong writing skills with a record of peer-reviewed publications
• Ability to lead independent projects and work collaboratively

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Azwad Iqbal @azwadiqbal.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Excited to present at #PEQG (poster) and #Evol2026 (presentation) this month on invasion genomics🐟🧬! Heading into the final year of my PhD and eager to connect with people in evolutionary genomics, non-model popgen, and conservation. Happy to chat research and potential postdoc opportunities!

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Susan Johnston @susanjohnston.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

📣🧬 Postdoc Alert🧬📣 We are hiring a 2+ year NERC-funded postdoc at Edinburgh Uni investigating causes and consequences of sex differences in recombination in house sparrows in Norway. Informal enquiries welcome at Susan.Johnston@ed.ac.uk 🙂 Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

A female and male sparrow stand on a wooden post. Photo by Peter S. Ranke.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

I am beyond excited to announce that I will be joining the Dept. of Biosciences at Rice as an Assistant Professor this summer! I’m incredibly grateful to my mentors and colleagues for their guidance and encouragement throughout this journey. More soon—I’ll be recruiting students and postdocs!

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Julia Van Etten @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I am not usually regarded as an optimistic person (lol) or particularly mushy, but I do have an encouraging story I want to share today while basic research is being terminated and the NSF is being reshaped in unrecognizable ways. 🧵

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Jazlyn Mooney @jazlynmooney.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I am hiring a popgen postdoc! Looking for a creative scientist to join us at USC to investigate recessive variation and complex traits in model or non-model species. The project is funded by a multi-year NIH grant, contract can be renewed. Job add & details 👇🏽 usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Dr. Arun Sethuraman @arunsethuraman.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

It's looking increasingly likely that I'll be hiring a 3-year computational pop-gen postdoc/PhD-level scientific programmer to start this Fall (2026). If you or someone you know is defending soon, and looking for a position, please DM/write to me! Thanks!

media.tenor.com

a painting of uncle sam pointing at the viewer with an american flag behind him

ALT: a painting of uncle sam pointing at the viewer with an american flag behind him

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Thank you so much for sharing Jeremy. I didn’t know and I am so heartbroken. I feel honored that I got to know Lea, she was an incredible scientist and a wonderful person. This is such a devastating loss, I will miss her dearly.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

This paper is the culmination of my PhD at Cornell, and I'm so grateful to the team that made it possible. Co-led with @fishyomics.bsky.social, and co-authored with @jessi-rick.bsky.social, @arynwilder.bsky.social, Zofia Baumann, David Conover, Hannes Baumann, and @ntherk.bsky.social.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Each inversion responds to distinct environmental pressures with contrasting patterns of selection, together sustaining continuous variation in multiple traits, and challenging the view of inversions as simple binary switches between ecotypes.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

These inversions harbor the strongest signals of divergent selection genome-wide and underlie multiple adaptive traits. Trait associations are validated in wild and experimental populations, and genes related to growth and thermal stress inside inversions show temperature-dependent expression.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

We combined QTL mapping, range-wide population genomics, transcriptomics, and lab selection experiments to link genotype, phenotype, and selection across the species' range. All lines of evidence converged on three large chromosomal inversions as key modulators of continuous local adaptation.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Our paper is out in @Science! The Atlantic silverside spans Earth's steepest latitudinal gradient in coastal sea-surface temperature. Despite high gene flow, populations show clinal genetic variation in multiple locally adapted traits. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Martha Lincoln @heavyredaction.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Cal State University’s deal with OpenAI — providing ChatGPT to all faculty, students, and staff — will expire in June 2026. Amid the prospect of layoffs in the CSU, we’re asking the chancellor not to renew this costly and demoralizing contract. Link below and anyone can sign:

Action Network petition: Cancel ChatGPT Edu. Invest in Humans.

In February 2025, the California State University system announced a $17 million contract with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu to all faculty, staff, and students on its 22 CSU campuses as part of a larger “AI-Empowered University” initiative. This is the largest contract ever established between a university system and an artificial intelligence company.

Despite the name, ChatGPT Edu is not educational technology. It is a general-purpose chatbot that is not designed, trained, or optimized for education. Beyond its privacy and security features, ChatGPT Edu is identical to the free online version of ChatGPT. ChatGPT Edu does not use reliable peer-reviewed sources to answer students' questions and is indifferent to whether its answers are correct. Experts argue that ChatGPT Edu is harmful to academic working conditions, diminishes the quality of teaching and learning, introduces new forms of discrimination, and is dangerous to students' mental health.

Recent polling shows that CSU students share these concerns, with the majority of students expressing that they are worried about the negative impacts of generative AI on human creativity and the environment.

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 14/01/2026

Last year observed the 3rd warmest global average sea surface temperature on record. 🌊 Data from psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded...

Green line graph time series of average sea surface temperature anomalies for each year period from 1900 through 2025. There is large interannual variability, but an overall long-term increasing trend. Anomalies are computed relative to a 1981-2010 baseline.

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Arne Jacobs @fishyomics.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Integrative PhD position available in my lab on the mechanisms (gene expression, metabolism, microbiome and hormones) of intestinal remodelling in lampreys. Come work in a great and fun research environment with @nealdawson.bsky.social & Adam Dobson (not here). Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...

gla.ac.uk

University of Glasgow - Colleges - College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences - MVLS Graduate School - PhD Research Opportunities - College Futures Themes PhD Programme

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Aaron Ragsdale @apragsdale.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Wisconsin Evolution is accepting applications for our Seminar Series' Early Career Scientist Award. Come share your evolution research and visit UW-Madison's evolution community. Open to grad students and postdocs (<5 yrs post PhD) from outside UW-Madison. Apply by Dec 15th here: shorturl.at/4a4O6

urldefense.com

Early Career Scientist Awards 2026

Application to the UW-Madison Evolution Seminar Series - Early Career Scientist Awards.

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

ntherk.bsky.social @ntherk.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Excited to recruit a new PhD student for Fall 2026 in my lab at Cornell! Looking for someone interested in evolutionary genomics + fisheries/conservation applications. Quick timeline this year—reach out soon. More details: www.therkildsenlab.org/join-us.html

therkildsenlab.org

Join Us

The lab of Nina Overgaard Therkildsen in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at Cornell University invites applications for a PhD position starting in Fall 2026. Our group works...

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Thanks! That’s something we’re aware of but didn’t deal with in this study - it’s actually the first thing we mention in our limitations section. It’s definitely an important consideration that warrants investigation in future work.

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Reference genome choice compromises population genetic analyses

Characterizing genetic variation in natural populations is vital to evolutionary biology; however, many non-model species lack genomic resources. Here…

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Meaghan Clark @handle.invalid · 20/08/2025

Thrilled to have a new paper out where we use 12+ years of monitoring data to document the impacts of inbreeding on fitness in eastern massasauga rattlesnakes! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.org

Inbreeding reduces fitness in spatially structured populations of a threatened rattlesnake | PNAS

Small and fragmented populations are at high risk of local extinction, in part because of elevated inbreeding and subsequent inbreeding depression....

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while… but ADHD 😅 I finally did! It’s about creating academic spaces that actually work for people with ADHD. If it resonates, I’d love to connect or hear your thoughts. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care... #ADHD #Neurodiversity #HigherEd

insidehighered.com

How to Create an ADHD Academic Community (opinion)

Maria Akopyan writes that a grad school ADHD group became a career-spanning lifeline.

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Reposted by Maria Akopyan, PhD

Julia Van Etten @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

On this week’s ep, Kevin Bird (@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social) explains the events of the last 3 months, how science is funded in the United States, why it is being attacked so aggressively, and the ideologies behind these attacks. Found everywhere you get podcasts. open.spotify.com/episode/0E9l...

open.spotify.com

Is science political? - with Kevin Bird

Tiny Living Beings · Episode

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Huge thanks to my incredible co-authors Anna Tigano (@annatigano.bsky.social), Arne Jacobs (@fishyomics.bsky.social), Aryn Wilder, and Nina Therkildsen for their brilliant contributions to this work. This truly represents years of collaborative effort across multiple institutions! 🧬🐟 7/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

This study offers valuable empirical insights distinguishing the roles of inversions (conditionally low-recombining) vs. centromeres (consistently low-recombining), illuminating the critical connection between genome structure and local adaptation with gene flow. 6/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Meanwhile, putative centromeric regions showed high differentiation but LOW sequence divergence—suggesting they're unlikely to contribute to adaptive divergence with gene flow, despite their recombination-suppressing properties. 5/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

The most fascinating discovery? Different genomic features play distinct roles: Chromosomal inversions showed both high differentiation AND high sequence divergence—evidence they maintain locally adapted alleles despite gene flow. 4/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

With increasing gene flow, we observed more clustering of differentiated regions in the genome! This supports theoretical predictions that high gene flow favors concentrated genomic architectures of adaptation. 3/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

We found a continuum of genome-wide differentiation increasing from south to north, reflecting higher connectivity among southern populations and reduced gene flow at northern latitudes. 2/7

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Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Excited to share our new paper on genetic differentiation in Atlantic silversides! We investigated how genome structure influences adaptation under varying levels of gene flow using a species-specific reference genome and multiple recombination maps. Read on for insights! doi.org/10.1093/molb... 1/7

doi.org

Genetic differentiation is constrained to chromosomal inversions and putative centromeres in locally adapted populations with higher gene flow

Abstract. The impact of genome structure on adaptation is a growing focus in evolutionary biology, revealing an important role for structural variation and

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