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Dennis Lavrov

@dlavrov.bsky.social
249 followers 204 following 25 posts

Evolutionary Biologist | Professor @ Iowa State University | I study animal phylogeny, genome evolution, mitochondrial biology, and sponges | Lab website: lavrovlab.github.io | #Evolution | #Phylogenetics | #Porifera | #Mitochondria |

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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Cryptic sponge with bizarre, GC-rich mitogenome (missing cox2) found in a Haliclona–Plakortis symbiosis. Resembles H. plakophila, but genetic + morphological data reveal a new Haplosclerida lineage, highlighting hidden diversity 🧽🧬 @makhaki.bsky.social @dlavrov.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
doi.org
Hidden in plain sight: a novel symbiotic haplosclerid sponge species revealed by its mitochondrial genome
Abstract. Sponges (phylum Porifera) are known to form symbiotic relationships with a variety of organisms, including other sponges. Recently, such symbiosi
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
"In 2025, Eddy received a letter from the National Institutes of Health, informing him that his work "had been determined to be of absolutely no value to the US taxpayer, and therefore it was being specifically terminated..." This is HMMER, Infernal, PFAM!
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
New paper published on symbiosis between sponges: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... #Porifera #Mitochondria
doi.org
Hidden in plain sight: a novel symbiotic haplosclerid sponge species revealed by its mitochondrial genome
Abstract. Sponges (phylum Porifera) are known to form symbiotic relationships with a variety of organisms, including other sponges. Recently, such symbiosi
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
AAUP @aaup.org · 12/05/2026
“The message, very clearly, they’re sending is, do not speak out on behalf of Chinese postdocs. If you do, you’re going to pay a penalty...It seems pretty obvious that this is an attempt by the current administration to silence people that question their activities." — Roger Innes, IU AAUP member
chronicle.com
A Professor Defended a Postdoc Who Was Deported. Now His Lab Has Been Suddenly Locked Down.
Work at an Indiana University biology lab was halted amid federal scrutiny, affecting dozens of researchers. “The damage is significant and mounting,” the department chair told The Chronicle.
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Penn State Department of Biology @psubiodept.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
🌱 We’re hiring in Plant Biology at Penn State! The Department of Biology at Penn State University Park is searching for a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor in any area of plant biology.
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Workday next?
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it | George Monbiot
Scientists say a crucial Atlantic system is set to collapse. But the billionaire death cult that steers humanity’s destiny just doesn’t do existential crises, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Center for Biological Diversity @biologicaldiversity.org · 13/04/2026
The U.S House of Representatives voted to permanently undo protections for the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. Now it's up to the Senate who will likely vote within the next two weeks. Please speak up for this important wilderness area. ⬇️
act.biologicaldiversity.org
Urgent: The Last Stand for the Boundary Waters
Last month the House of Representatives voted to permanently undo protections for the watershed of the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Now the last stand to keep the country’s most popular wilderness ar...
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Where do you find an animal mitochondrial genome that is several Mbp in size and contains thousands of linear chromosomes? In a tiny #sponge Sycon ciliatum: doi.org/10.1098/rstb... #Porifera #Mitochondria
doi.org
Extreme mitochondrial genome complexity in the calcaronean sponge Sycon ciliatum (Fabricius, 1780): fragmentation, gene duplication and mRNA editing
Abstract. Mitochondrial genomes (mt-genomes) of calcaronean sponges are among the most unusual in Metazoa. They are fragmented into multiple linear chromos
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Mart Krupovic @mkrupovic.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
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SponBIODIV @sponbiodiv.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
SponBIODIV @biodiversa.eu participates in a new population genomics study of the beautiful Mediterranean🧽 Axinella polypoides. Findings emphasize the importance of protecting mesophotic habitats! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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The Coral Reef Research Hub @coralreefresearch.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
CORAL REEF NEWS: 2026 May Be The Year Coral Reefs Around The World Finally Collapse Read full story here: www.sciencealert.com/2026-may-be-... #coralreefs #tippingpoint #climatenews #coralnews #climatechange #coralbleaching #coralreefecology #marinescience #marinebiology
sciencealert.com
2026 May Be The Year Coral Reefs Around The World Finally Collapse
Tropical coral reefs cover less than 1% of the seafloor, yet support 25% of all marine species.
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Juliet Coates @julietccoates.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
More goings on in eukaryotic ancestors, this time from @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and friends. The data is coming thick and fast! #actin #nucleus #LECA #asgard #mitochondria #phylogeny
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Dr. Arun Sethuraman @arunsethuraman.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Was reading this earlier today - such an important advance!
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Khalimonchuk Lab @mitocrue.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Mitochondrial origins of the pressure to sleep
nature.com
Mitochondrial origins of the pressure to sleep - Nature
Research on Drosophila neurons shows links between the need to sleep and aerobic metabolism, indicating that the pressure to sleep may have a mitochondrial origin.
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Dan Sloan @sloanevolab.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Please share! Our lab is recruiting a PhD student to join us starting fall 2026. Our group is broadly interested in plant molecular evolution and comparative genomics. More info about our lab and grad programs at Colorado St. is available on our lab website. sites.google.com/site/danielb...
sites.google.com
Sloan Lab
Welcome! Our research focuses on the evolutionary process at the molecular level. In particular, we investigate how a mixture of natural selection and non-adaptive forces create and maintain the amazi...
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Tina Books @tbretc.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Yep- the bogus summer reading list from the Chicago Sun Times is real. Here I am with it from a few minutes ago. (Support your local library!!)
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Congress is considering opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling in their latest government funding bill. We can’t let this happen – demand that Congress rejects Arctic drilling in this bill. 👉 act.350.org/letter/may-2...
act.350.org
Tell Congress to reject Arctic drilling
The Trump EPA’s plan to roll back crucial climate and environmental regulations will dismantle decades of progress in reducing harmful climate pollution. It’s a giveaway to Big Oil, and it comes at ev...
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 18/04/2025
arstechnica.com
Resist, eggheads! Universities are not as weak as they have chosen to be.
Opinion: It’s time for public resistance.
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
AAUP @aaup.org · 16/04/2025
TOMORROW! Stand Up for Higher Education! Join an action in your area! @actioninhighered.bsky.social @higheredlabor.bsky.social
APRIL 17
DAY OF ACTION
FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION
JOIN US!
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 12/04/2025
Nature reports on how researchers are studying why mitochondria are moving between cells and whether the process can be harnessed to treat cancer and other diseases. 🧪
go.nature.com
Cells are swapping their mitochondria. What does this mean for our health?
Researchers are studying why the energy factories are moving between cells and whether the process can be harnessed to treat cancer and other diseases.
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
www.change.org/p/save-the-i...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Save the ISU Insect Zoo!!!
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
AAUP chapter @UT Austin @utaustinaaup.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
“I never expected to face such a distressing experience after escaping persecution from the CCP in China, only to encounter a somewhat similar situation” at New College in the United States. Read more at: www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
bradenton.com
New College fires Chinese professor under controversial Florida ‘countries of concern’ law
“I never expected to face such a distressing experience after escaping persecution from the CCP in China, only to encounter a somewhat similar situation,” the fired professor said.
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Ames protest next Saturday: www.mobilize.us/handsoff/eve...
mobilize.us
Hands Off! Ames Fights Back · Hands Off
**Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them.** Ames is fighting back! They're taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and d...
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
This is the text of the email just sent to hundreds of international students telling them that their visas have been revoked due to activism or social media posts.
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Reposted by Dennis Lavrov
Nature @nature.com · 29/03/2025
🧪 Scientists have created the first map of mitochondria throughout the entire brain go.nature.com/42j9YCV
go.nature.com
First map of human brain mitochondria is ‘groundbreaking’ achievement
Nature - Hundreds of cubes of human brain tissue help scientists to chart the energy-making capabilities of various brain regions.
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scholarsforsj.bsky.social @scholarsforsj.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Calling all faculty across campuses nationwide: sign our petition to condemn ICE and DHS activity on campuses as well as the arrest and detention of Palestinian activists Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Korda, Read and sign onto the rest of our statement: link here and in bio bit.ly/3XUwsHM
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Our article on unusual mtDNA evolution in a group of sponges has been published in GBE. Please let me know if you have any comments or notice any errors. #mitochondria #Porifera #tRNA
academic.oup.com
Pervasive mitochondrial tRNA gene loss in the clade B of haplosclerid sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae)
Abstract. Mitochondrial tRNA gene loss and cytosolic tRNA import are two common phenomena in mitochondrial biology, but their importance is often under-app
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Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Genome architecture and speciation in plants and animals. I learned a lot writing this with @dortizba.bsky.social, Silu Wang and Loren Rieseberg! doi.org/10.22541/au....
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🧬Jacob L Steenwyk @jlsteenwyk.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Elated to share the PhyKIT protocols manuscript appeared on the cover of Current Protocols🥳🥳🥳 bsky.app/profile/jlst...
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
#mitochondria ... and you still call us powerhouses!
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Also, they are hermaphroditic. If two tripodfish happen to meet, they mate. But if there is no partner, no problem: one fish can produce both sperms and eggs and reproduce by itself.
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
#Mitochondria
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Not sure how this sponge feels being out of the water! #Porifera
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Cool #mitochondria (the rest is not bad either!)
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
¡eso!
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
In case somebody else is freaking out :) #SMBE2025
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
www.impeachtrumpagain.org
Impeach Trump. Again.
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Paco Cardenas @paccardenas.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
😮 Amazing deep-sea glass #sponge spotted at 2000 m in the Caribbean! Possibly Tretopleura sp.?
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
At least they have a sponge among the otherwise dismal top stories :) #Porifera
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Looking forward to reading this review!
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Weaponizing #mitochondria.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
4-year timelapse of a sneezing sponge? Great way to start #porifera in #ZOO2700! Belinda the sea #sponge & fantastic work by #UVIC grad student Dominica Harrison. Listen to the #CBC As It Happens #AIH interview too! www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha... doi.org/10.3354/meps... youtu.be/78-PI6pSsvs?...
youtu.be
Sea Sponge Stakeout: 4-year timelapse of Belinda the sea sponge
YouTube video by Ocean Networks Canada
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Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance @invertebrates.bsky.social · 10/09/2024
Save the date: GIGA V Conference will be in the Philippines in July 2026. For more info visit: www.gigacos.org/index.php/20... #genome #invertebrate #academicsky 🧬
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
DataViz protocols - An introduction to data visualization protocols for wet lab scientists by @joachimgoedhart.bsky.social: joachimgoedhart.github.io/DataViz-prot...
joachimgoedhart.github.io
DataViz protocols
This is an introduction to data visualization protocols for wet lab scientists
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The Francis Crick Institute @crick.ac.uk · 18/12/2024
This image shows individual mitochondria in different colours. Each cluster of mitochondria represents a cell, in this case a type of white blood cell known as a macrophage 🧪🔬
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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
*** Notification: New class in Evolutionary Cell Biology open to the public during Spring 2025 semester The class is taught by Dr. Michael Lynch every Tuesday and Thursday, 9:00-10:15 am (MST), starting on 16 January 2025 Join the class on asu.zoom.us/j/86824596554 Details victor.chai@asu.edu
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Dennis Lavrov @dlavrov.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Not entirely sure what a species is, but here are four new ones :) doi.org/10.11646/zoo...
doi.org
Integrative taxonomy of introduced Haplosclerida and four new species from Hawaiʻi | Zootaxa
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The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
REVIEW: Expansion of the MutS gene family in plants (Daniel B Sloan, Amanda K Broz, Shady A Kuster, Viraj Muthye, Alejandro Peñafiel-Ayala, Jennifer R Marron, Dennis V Lavrov, Luis G Brieba) doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koae277
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