Apply to Curator of Insects & Arachnids at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON, Canada.

Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R

The Department of Biology was established in 2010 through the merger of the Departments of Ecology, Cell and Organism Biology, Biological Undergraduate Education, and the Biological Museums. The depar

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Abstract. Coordinated genetic and physical interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear gene products regulate ATP production in the mitochondria. Linkin

DSI Postdoctoral Fellowships support multi/interdisciplinary training and collaborative research in data sciences.

Abstract. Why has sperm gigantism evolved, and how do subcellular allocations scale with size? Schalkowski & Cutter (2025) addressed these questions wi

Apply to Curator of Birds at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON, Canada.

Apply to Curator of Plants & Sustainability at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON, Canada.

YouTube video by University of Toronto

A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

Apply to Curator of Birds at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON, Canada.

Chelsea O chatted with Toronto’s Bebe and Oona about what it’s like playing in a band with your sibling, the all ages music scene in Southern Ontario, collaboration across artistic mediums, and more.

Author summary As separate populations evolve into distinct species, they accumulate genetic changes that record the duration of their separation and that can contribute to reproductive incompatibilit...

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing can and has altered human genomes, bringing bioethical debates about this capability to the forefront of philosophical and policy considerations. Here, I consider the undere...

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Assistant Professor - Molecular Genetics

Sex chromosomes are involved in three major empirical patterns: (i) Y (or W) chromosomes are often nonrecombining and degenerate; (ii) heterogametic offspring (XY or ZW) from interspecific crosses are...

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Abstract. The selective forces that influence mating-system evolution are most often considered using a within-species context. Reproductive interactions,

Western University is looking to capitalize on massive shifts in the academic landscape of the United States with a new initiative designed to turn a difficult situation into a brain gain for both the...

Créée en 2008, la FRB recherche régulièrement de nouveaux collaborateurs. Elle constitue un point de convergence entre la science et la société, autour des défis que doit aujourd’hui relever la recher...

Abstract. It remains debated whether greater degrees of sexual dimorphism would evolve if not for intersexual genetic constraints. Here, we used experiment

by Han-Wen Chang, Hung-Che Lin, Ching-Ting Yang, Rebecca J. Tay, Dao-Ming Chang, Yi-Chung Tung, Yen-Ping Hsueh Adhesive interactions, mediated by specific molecular and structural mechanisms, are fundamental to host–pathogen and predator–prey relationships, driving evolutionary dynamics and ecological interactions. Here, we investigate the cellular and molecular basis of adhesion between the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and its natural predator the nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora, which employs specialized adhesive nets to capture its prey. Using forward genetic screens, we identified C. elegans mutants that escape fungal traps and revealed the nuclear hormone receptor NHR-66 as a key regulator of fungal-nematode adhesion. Loss-of-function mutations in nhr-66 conferred resistance to fungal trapping through the downregulation of a large subset of cuticular collagen genes. Restoring collagen gene expression in nhr-66 mutants abolished the escape phenotype, highlighting the essential role of these structural proteins in fungal-nematode adhesion. Furthermore, sequence analysis of natural C. elegans populations revealed no obvious loss-of-function variants in nhr-66, suggesting selective pressures exist that balance adhesion-mediated predation risk with physiological robustness. We observed that loss of nhr-66 function resulted in a trade-off of increased hypersensitivity to hypoosmotic stress and cuticular fragility. These findings underscore the pivotal role of structural proteins in shaping ecological interactions and the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey.