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Hugo Darras

@hugodarras.bsky.social
489 followers 278 following 50 posts

Social insects, non-mendelian inheritance and genomic conflicts 🐜 🐝 🧬🔬 Centre for Evolutionary & Organismal Biology, Zhejiang University, China 🇨🇳 lab-darras.github.io

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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Though we had bubble tea instead of beer 🧋🧋🧋 Happy hour chinese edition.
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Laura Ross @laurarossevo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My lab @ Edinburgh university is recruiting a postdoc to work on the weird and wonderful germline-specific chromosomes of flies. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... collaboration with @germline.bsky.social and yukiko yamashita funded by @novonordisk.bsky.social please repost!
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Celebrating my first Teacher’s Day in China today! Europe should take notes 😄
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
🐜 "Terminal Filament Bundling Underlies the Development of Ovariole Number Dimorphism Between Queen and Worker Ants" Also check Claire's review on co-option of worker organs in her thread.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Yves Roisin yesterday, a distinguished termitologist and long-standing member of our community. News shared by the French Section of the #IUSSI.
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Fantastic Nolan interview by a Chinese PhD student who asks all the best questions, and receives all the best answers about his interpretation of the Odyssey youtu.be/wa4I8Ch2TRo?...
youtu.be
Christopher Nolan talks narrative decisions, film critics and whether he Christianised The Odyssey
YouTube video by Nolan Archives
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
New work from the @zhouqi1982.bsky.social lab at our centre #ZJU #Evolution 🇨🇳 New genes play a prominent role in evolution of new sperm class in flies www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Evolution of non-coding sequences inferred from 80 T2T human Y chromosomes www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
New genes play a prominent role in evolution of new sperm classes of Drosophila
The widespread and regulated production of infertile parasperm assisting fertilization of eusperm provides a compelling model for elucidating the mechanisms of cellular innovation and altruism. Here w...
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
New work from the Liu lab at our centre #ZJU #Evolution Variation among individuals in the germline mutation rate is genetically regulated. A variant in NHEJ1 acts as a mutator allele.
science.org
A NHEJ1 mutator allele influencing germline mutation rates sex-specifically in humans
GWAS reveals a DNA repair variant in NHEJ1 that increases maternal germline mutation rate and drives an A-to-T mutational shift.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Our lab is recruiting 🐜🧬 : - PhD student, functional genomics, Chinese nationals only - Postdocs, population genomics, open internationally Lab info and contact: lab-darras.github.io Based at Zhejiang University 🇨🇳, one of the very best research universities in the world (tinyurl.com/4nb56pv6).
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Heng Li @lh3lh3.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Minibwa is a hybrid of bwa-mem and minimap2 and the successor of bwa-mem for short-read mapping. ~4X/2.5X as fast as bwa-mem/bwa-mem2 for WGS reads at comparable accuracy. Native support of directional bisulfite-seq. Applicable to long reads. Preprint at arxiv.org/abs/2606.15357
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
🎉 New cover 🐜🐜🐜🐜
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Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
@hugodarras.bsky.social @chuanxinyu.bsky.social @bfeldmeyer.bsky.social @temnothorax.bsky.social et al. identify two large genomic rearrangements that determine an extreme reproductive polymorphism in an ant. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag115 #evobio #molbio
doi.org
Sequential origin of an alternative colony founding strategy driven by two supergenes in Temnothorax ants
Abstract. Recent discoveries reveal that many complex intraspecific polymorphisms are shaped by a single supergene that maintains coadapted genetic variant
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Otago Biochemistry @otagobiochemist.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Genomics Aotearoa Webinar Monday 18th May 2026 at 2pm NZT Ehab Abouheif, Zhejiang University Evo-Devo and Climate Change: the double edge sword of novelty and extinction Register here: otago.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
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Jeffrey Mervis @policyhound.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Researching while Chinese: The full story of what is happening to Chinese postdocs--and faculty members--at the University of Michigan and Indiana University www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Chinese postdocs in U.S. hit with a wave of prosecutions and deportations
The U.S. government has recently convicted multiple postdocs for improper shipments of biological materials. Some see a replay of the 2018 China Initiative
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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
This #InternationalWomensDay I want to tell the story of Lilian Vaughan Morgan. I learned of Lilian this past year - what a badass. Lilian was a leading scientist when women weren't welcome in the lab, nor even the department. But she contributed immensely to the genetics of sex determination 1/n
A photo of a young Lilian Vaughan Morgan, sitting with a book on her lab staring into the distance.A photo of an older Lilian Vaughan Morgan, sitting at a lab bench with a microscope and dozens of glass milk bottles bunged with cotton. Lilian is in the middle of applying ether to anaesthetize a bottle of flies.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Nice !
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The First Cleaner Ant? A Novel Partnership in the Arizona Desert
I give an account of an undescribed ant species from Arizona that licks and nips the much larger workers of a different ant species in manner remarkably parallel to the actions of cleaner fish that c...
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Katharina Hoff @katharinahoff.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
1/ BRAKER4 hatched! The Earth BioGenome Project is on track to sequence ~1.5M eukaryotic species. Every one needs a structural annotation. No Perl monolith was going to survive that. So we rewrote BRAKER from the ground up. github.com/Gaius-August...
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Ant folks 🐜🐜🐜, we are looking for colonies of Linepithema iniquum in Europe. They were reported from the Wales Botanic Garden a few years ago. Are you aware of any other indoor populations?
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Charles Mullon @charlesmullon.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
With @saramitri.bsky.social, @sonjalehtinen.bsky.social and L. Lehmann we’ve launched the UNIL Center for Theory in Ecology and Evolution @unil.bsky.social🇨🇭 To kick things off, we’re offering short visiting fellowships for theorists in ecology & evolution. Apply & pls RP 😀 tinyurl.com/2wem36zz
unil.ch
Unil center for theory in ecology and evolution (UCTEE) - FBM Unil
Page Unil Center for Theory in Ecology and Evolution of site Faculty of Biology and Medicine hosted by the University of Lausanne
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Takashi Akera Lab @takashiakeralab.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Congrats Duilio on discovering the 1st Toxin-Antidote system in vertebrates! 🎉He single-handedly established the embryo project in my lab!👍
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Dr. Wen-Juan Ma | 马文娟 @wenjuanma84.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
🚀 New lab preprint on #SexChromosomeTurnover is out on @arxiv.bsky.social Huge congrats to lab thesis student for submitting his PhD @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social fellowship: big milestone and fingers crossed 🤞 and to all students for the submissions🤞🤞 More to come soon… 🐸🧬 arxiv.org/abs/2602.23624
arxiv.org
Sex chromosome stability and turnover across vertebrates: a developmental gene regulatory network perspective
Sex chromosomes have evolved repeatedly across the Tree of Life, yet their evolutionary fates differ strikingly among lineages. In mammals and birds, highly degenerated Y/W chromosomes have remained s...
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Superbe !
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.
Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.
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PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I wouldn’t put it this way for research, as science isn’t about winning. But I also returned last week from China with similar sentiments about Chinese prowess. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Just Returned From China. We Are Not Winning.
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Dr. Wen-Juan Ma | 马文娟 @wenjuanma84.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
🚨Hiring a postdoc! Are you interested in #evolutionarygenomics, #sexchromosomes, #transposableelements & #Sexspecific #recombination in 🐸🧬? Join my lab @vubrussel.bsky.social 🔹 @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social funded up to 3y 🔹 Deadline 10/3/2026 🔹 Start ~1/6/2026 Apply 👉: jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-P...
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Dr. Wen-Juan Ma | 马文娟 @wenjuanma84.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Feeling grateful to be featured by @vubrussel.bsky.social #VUBTomorrow on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science👩‍🔬 The piece highlights our lab’s work on sex chromosome evolution🧬🐸 vubtomorrow.be/en/wen-juan-... @womeninstem.bsky.social #WomenInScience #WomenAndGirlsInScience #STEM
vubtomorrow.be
A sexual revolution in the animal kingdom
Wen-Juan Ma awarded ERC Grant for research into diversity and evolution in sex chromosomes
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
The most satisfying genome assembler to run, ever. Huge appreciation for the team behind hifiasm 👏
doi.org
Efficient near-telomere-to-telomere assembly of nanopore simplex reads - Nature
A genome assembly method called hifiasm (ONT) allows the assembly of chromosomes from telomere to telomere without the need for ultra-long reads, and outperforms conventional methods on most evaluatio...
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Takashi Akera Lab @takashiakeralab.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
vilcek.org/news/breakin...
vilcek.org
Breaking Fundamental Biological Law: Research by Takashi Akera Investigates Selfish DNA - Vilcek Foundation
Winner of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, Akera’s novel research findings have huge implications for infertility and chromosomal disorders.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Amazing work
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Yes!!
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Yeah! Some #wasplove on the cover for our article on complementary sex determination. Photo from Nicolas Vereecken.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
New work from @miyapan.bsky.social and our team, bringing ant, bee, and wasp labs together. @chuanxinyu.bsky.social shows that the ANTSR locus we discovered in ants has determined sex for 150+ My across bees and stinging wasps 🐜🐝, despite virtually no sequence conservation 😮 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Apply for a PhD position in the Pan lab @miyapan.bsky.social at MPI Biology 🇩🇪 to study the molecular mechanisms and evolution of sex determination in haplodiploid insects 🐜🐝.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Junior professorship in evolutionary ecology of Hymenoptera, Frankfurt, Germany 🐜🐝
academics.de
Professur (W1 mit Tenure Track) für Evolutionäre Ökologie der Hymenopteren - Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main bietet Stelle als Professur (W1 mit Tenure Track) für Evolutionäre Ökologie der Hymenopteren in Frankfurt - jetzt bewerben!
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Celebrating a new building for our Center for Evolutionary and Organismal Biology at Zhejiang University 🎉, with an amazing symposium bringing together leading voices in evolutionary biology from around the world.
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Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to regret listening to this bird:
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Join @miyapan.bsky.social’s new lab at the Max Planck Institute for Biology. Two PhD positions on ants to study the molecular mechanisms of complementary sex determination and epigenetic sex determination 🐜🐜🐜. Multiple PhD projects available in the Institute.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Beautiful!
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Daniel Kronauer @danielkronauer.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
New preprint from the lab: A reference brain for the clonal raider ant. With this resource, which is based on 40 individual brains, you can register and compare all kinds of samples in a common space. It comes with lots of detailed protocols and a user-friendly GUI. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Friday Flyday! A mating pair of big-headed flies, Pipunculidae, photographed in Texas.
Macro photograph of two mating flies in side view, the smaller one underneath and perched on a brown twig, against a smooth dark green background. The flys' heads are large, rounded, and made almost entirely out of giant, encompassing rusty red compound eyes.
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
@AntCommunity 🐜 🐜 Chengyuan Liu found a Camponotus ant colony where all sexual larvae have red spots of various sizes, but worker larvae don’t. Any idea what this is?🤔 Video in the comment.
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Nicholas Per Huffeldt @nphuffeldt.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
I definitely wasn’t early to the Listers party, but I’m glad I made it. Can recommend to all birder adjacent and bird curious folks 🪶 m.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...
m.youtube.com
LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching
YouTube video by owen reiser
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Honour McCann @honour.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
There’s a leak - and a conceptual artist - at the Max Planck 👌
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Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
"Striking diversity of male-killing symbionts and their mechanisms" by Hiroshi Arai (@haraipapilio.bsky.social), Daisuke Kageyama (@daisukekageyama.bsky.social) & co "Why [and how] do maternally inherited endosymbionts kill male hosts?" Find out here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Figure 1. Diversity of male-killing (MK) endosymbionts across arthropods.
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Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Would a rose by any other gene smell so sweet?
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Which species is that?
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Buck Trible @bucktrible.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
tinyurl.com/4twykhnx, tinyurl.com/2f72a6we Piekarski: “"If some environmental factor affects caste, it will affect size too,” “…As far as we can tell, no matter which environmental variable you manipulate, the [genetically encoded] relationship between ant body size and caste remains unchanged"
tinyurl.com
Static allometries of caste-associated traits vary with genotype but not environment in the clonal raider ant | PNAS
Polyphenic traits in animals often exhibit nonlinear scaling with body size. Static allometries (i.e., scaling relationships) themselves can exhibi...
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Invasive Tapinoma ants at Ingelheim station Germany are so determined they’re crossing rails to get food. Total takeover 😮
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
These NPG spinoff journals are out of control
A picture of a bottle of hummus. It is labeled NATURE HUMMUS
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Hugo Darras @hugodarras.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
PostDoc position @Uni Mainz (Germany) with @crltt.bsky.social and me #genomics #transcriptomics #Neurobiology to investigate the olfactory system of ants from genes to neurons Information: seafile.rlp.net/f/53a92045be...
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