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Berta Verd

@bertaverd.bsky.social
937 followers 741 following 65 posts

Evolution of developmental processes. Associate Professor @OxfordBiology & Fellow @JesusOxford. @SteventonLab, @CRGenomica & #embryo17 alumna. Working mother.

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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We did a lot more work to characterize the process of somitogenesis in both species to show that it really does only differ at onset. For example, key genes controlling PSM morphogenesis show the same spatial patterns and dynamics between species.
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
R. chilingali start with more cells and an increased tissue volume, allowing them to undergo somitogenesis for longer, generating more somites without changing the actual process of somitogenesis.
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The delayed onset of somitogenesis in R. chilingali suggests changes occur even before the process begins. Comparing embryonic morphology across somitogenesis, the only notable difference appears at its onset: the presomitic mesoderm—the tissue that forms somites—is about 60% larger in R. chilingali
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We showed that the rate of somitogenesis doesn’t differ between species. Instead, the total duration of this process is increased by eight hours in R. chilingali, and they start segmentation later.
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We focused on somite number evolution, as a proxy for vertebral count evolution, and focused on two species: the generalist and putative common ancestor of the radiation A. calliptera and R. chilingali, which form 30 and 38 somites respectively.
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New Pre-Print Alert! Evolving initial conditions: an alternative developmental route to morphological diversity with Shannon Taylor and @jamesehammond.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Berta Verd @bertaverd.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Experimental embryology postdoc available in my lab at the @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk working on the evolution of vertebral counts. Reach out if you’re passionate about EvoDevo, enjoy lab work and microscopy and are into or could get into cichlid fishes. Deadline on the 16th June. Please share!
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