I have some exciting news (again!). I got money from the region (Occitanie) to hire a postdoc (and later an engineer / technician) to work on drug resistance evolution in malaria (P. faciparum) and…

Marine bivalves are known for their high genetic diversity and potentially high genetic load, as well as their structurally complex genomes. The European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis , is no exception. ...

Transmissible tumors have been reported in a handful of animal species, but never before among fish. Is it possible in humans?

Whole-genome sequencing analysis of tumour and matched non-tumour host tissues of the brown bullhead catfish reveals a type of naturally occurring transmissible cancer.

Meiotic recombination is the process by which DNA is exchanged between parental chromosomes during the production of gametes in eukaryotes. This phenomenon has important implications for fertility, ge...

Bivalve transmissible neoplasias (BTNs) are transmissible cancers that have arisen in multiple bivalve species, including Eastern soft-shell clam (...

People are born with variable numbers of de novo germline mutations (DNMs), depending primarily on the ages of their parents. To explore additional causes, we developed an approach to call DNMs from nucleotide differences between siblings in genomic regions inherited identical by descent from both parents. Applying it to whole genome sequences from 28,985 sibling pairs of diverse genetic ancestries present in the UK Biobank and All of Us datasets, as well as 2,330 trios, we identified >800K autosomal DNMs and characterized mutation phenotypes in 27,645 sets of parents. We found subtle shifts in the mutation spectrum but no differences in total DNM rates among genetic ancestry groups, or between smokers and non-smokers. Testing for associations between parental mutation phenotypes and their burden of loss-of-function and deleterious missense variants in a set of 180 DNA repair and maintenance genes, we discovered that disruptions in REV1 and LIG1 increase germline mutation rates, and thus that rare mutator alleles segregate in population cohorts. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. NIH, R35 GM083098

Author summary Many plants avoid self-fertilization through a system of self-incompatibility, which allows them to recognize and reject their own pollen. In plants like those in the Arabidopsis family...

Abstract. Hybridization between species can occur along repeated zones of contact, providing a natural laboratory for studying the interplay between migrat

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Academics often lament that hardly any master’s projects – even the best ones – get published. The student moves on. Other research takes priority. No one has time to do the final analyses. Here I tel...

Speciation genomics researcher, author of the combinatorial theory of speciation and passionate birder

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has greatly expanded researchers' ability to study structural variants (SVs), that is, the variation in the presence, number, orientation or position of a DNA sequence. ....

- work environment: This postdoctoral position will be supervised by Aline Muyle and hosted at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences of Montpellier (ISEM), within the CHANGE department and the Plant ...

Abstract. The allopatric model of speciation has dominated our understanding of speciation biology and biogeography since the Modern Synthesis. It is uncon

Human activity alters selection pressures and species' ranges, creating opportunities for hybridisation through secondary contact. Ancient hybridization has enabled adaptive radiation, but its role in...

Germline mutation rates per generation are strikingly similar across animals, despite vast differences in life histories. Analogously, in at least one somatic cell type, mutation rates at the end of l...

Dans cette émission nous recevons Nicolas Bierne, directeur de recherche au CNRS à l'Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier dans l'équipe biologie évolution marine, venu nous parler de la...

Abstract. First-line cancer treatment frequently fails due to initially rare therapeutic resistance. An important clinical question is then how to schedule

Ancestral Recombination Graphs (ARGs) are fundamental population genetic structures that encode the genealogical history of a sample of haplotypes along the genome. They have recently received substan...

Abstract. Transposable elements (TEs) are abundant selfish genetic elements that can mobilize in their host genome, causing DNA damage, mutations, and chro

Hybridization, or interbreeding between two previously diverged populations, is increasing due to human influences on the environment. Rates of hybridization might be increasing particularly quickly a...

Hybridization has long been a central topic in evolution and conservation. Recent developments in genomics have increased the ability to detect hybridization, defined here as breeding between species....

Scientific Reports - A simple analytical model for Neanderthal disappearance due to genetic dilution by recurrent small-scale immigrations of modern humans