Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026But one very cool result was we had was a weakly penetrant effect when knocking down the gene grain in D. melanogaster, that phenocopied (at least partially) the leg phenotype of D. prolongata. We are doing additional investigations of this right now! 180
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026We did RNAi knockdown of these genes in Drosophila melanogaster, and several had quantitative impacts consistent with expectations. 120
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Nonetheless, we identified a number of "candidate" genes with interesting changes in expression. 110
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026What did we find? Many cool things! Please read the paper! doi.org/10.1093/evol.... But a few key things. First, the overall variation in gene expression in these tissue at this developmental time point does not seem to suggest these tissues have profound changes in gene expression yet. 140
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Here are what the three species legs look like as adults. academic.oup.com/view-large/f... 110
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Drosophila prolongata is a rarity amongst species in the melanogaster sub-group (~175 species) with male biased overall size, and exaggerated legs used as weapons and ornaments. Here is another wonderful picture. This one is from the amazing image database from gompel.org/images-2/dro... 281
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026I am excited to tell you about our new study led by Tyler Audet and in collaboration with Stefan Lüpold's group. Below you see two species. On the right is Drosophila melanogaster. On the left, Drosophila prolongata. Notice the highly exaggerated legs of the males in D.p! doi.org/10.1093/evol... 35120
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 12/03/2026I hope this works ( @vdveenb.bsky.social @bbolker.bsky.social ) 100
Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 08/09/2023Don't answer that. I know the answer is always pictures of my puppy sleeping 110