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Jasmine Alqassar

@jasminealqassar.bsky.social
494 followers 449 following 7 posts

PhD Student at GWU Biology interested in the Evo Devo of lepidopteran silk & salivary glands | she/her

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Reposted by Jasmine Alqassar
Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
In preprints: the genetic basis of the development and evolution of melanic pigmentation on butterfly wings @pbeldade.bsky.social discusses @hanliconius.bsky.social's preprint, showing how natural variation in lncRNAs & miRNAs might contribute to phenotypic differences. doi.org/10.1242/dev....
doi.org
In preprints: the genetic basis of the development and evolution of melanic pigmentation on butterfly wings
A recent preprint by Joseph Hanly and colleagues (Hanly et al., 2026 preprint) investigates the role of a recently identified long non-coding RNA, ivory, and an associated microRNA, mir-193, on wing…
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paul frandsen @paulbfrandsen.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Really excited to have this paper on population-level variation in the hyper dynamic h-fibroin silk gene out in @molbioevol.bsky.social! A short 🧵
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
introducing barfbow, a little tool that aims to encourage the use of variable brightness to improve effective com, accessibility and scientific accuracy in figures. github.com/evolvwing/ba... If you need palettes with colors that are easy to distinguish on a plot or map, pls check it out!
visual output from barfbow, a Python tool to generate OKLCh color palettes with varying brightness, including an example of generated palett, plus color-vision simulations, monochrome rendering, named swatches, and OKLCh walk wheels.
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Pia Sen @pia-sen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
(1/8) Very excited to share my first PhD preprint on phages from Hawaiian volcanic fumaroles from the East Rift Zone (ERZ) of Kīlauea! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Anyi Mazo-Vargas @anyimv.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
🦋✂️🧬 🧪 New preprint! Led by @donyaniyaz.bsky.social CRISPR‑Cas9 knockouts of ABCG transporters across butterflies & moths reveal how pigment pathways shape color during development. #CRISPR #Lepidoptera #pigmentation Feedback welcome 👩‍🔬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
New preprint form me and the McMillan lab at STRI and Martin lab at GWU, digging into scale cell type specification and differentiation in Heliconius wings, with some insights on the lncRNA gene ivory. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Comments/suggestions welcome!
Heliconius erato demophoon sat on a pink, yellow and white lantana flower. The left side of the butterfly is white, while the right side is the usual black and red, but with some white clonal patches.
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Luca Livraghi @lucalivraghi.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
New pre-print with some updates on ivory:miR193 in a highly polymorphic moth. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We mapped ivory (again!?) this time controlling aspects of camouflage in Anticarsia gemmatalis. Mapping, SVs, Expression and Function. Comments/suggestions welcome!
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Biology Open @biologyopen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
#WntA is a crucial marker of stripe elements early in development for the Nymphalidae butterfly family. @jasminealqassar.bsky.social & co explore if WntA has maintained its role in stripe elements over 95 million years of evolution in the Hesperiidae family of butterflies. doi.org/10.1242/bio....
Hypotheses of stripe pattern homology between nymphalids and hesperiids. (A) Current summary of the nymphalid ground plan, mainly based on the terminology of Schwanwitsch (Nijhout, 1991; Schwanwitsch, 1924) and including recent updates by Otaki and Mazo-Vargas et al. (Mazo-Vargas et al., 2017; Otaki, 2012; Otaki, 2021; Schwanwitsch, 1956). Discalis elements (D1 and D2); CSS, central symmetry system (cyan); BoSS, border ocelli symmetry system (magenta); Oc, forewing border ocelli; pPf and dPf, proximal and distal parafocal elements; MBS, marginal band system (green). Colored vignettes denote vein intersection landmarks. Magenta square, junction between R and M vein trunks; yellow dot, M1-M2 junction; red star, junction between discal crossvein and M3; blue cross, M3-Cu2 junction; green triangle, Cu1-Cu2 junction. Rectangles feature the name of marker genes. (B) Ventral wing patterns of the nymphalid Prepona eugenes with ground plan annotations proposed by Schwanwitsch, 1956 (left: reproduction of published drawings; right: equivalent annotations as color overlays). (C) Phylogenetic relationship between Papilionoidae families. (D) Ventral wing patterns of the hesperiid P. sidae annotated as in panel A, and highlighting the inferred CSS predicted by Schwanwitsch, 1956 (left panel). According to this author, the CSS marks a grey pattern in forewings, and a dislocated white stripe pattern in hindwings, suggesting uncoupling of pattern and color state in fore/hindwings in skippers. The forewing CSS is markedly dislocated along the Cu1 vein (arrowhead).
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
🚨New paper! 🚨 @jasminealqassar.bsky.social led this work on the silk glands of the pantry moth. These two long tubes inside the caterpillar continuously make a ton of silk How does this special organ work? www.cell.com/iscience/ful... @cp-iscience.bsky.social 🧵THREAD🧵
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Donya Shodja @donyaniyaz.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Minos transgenesis enables robust, stable germline integration of transgenes in Lepidoptera; providing a reliable alternative to piggyBac, whose native transposases can cause transgene remobilization or instability in moths and butterflies:
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Luca Livraghi @lucalivraghi.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Hey Lep researchers! "Given the risks of transgene remobilization and instability associated with piggyBac transposases of lepidopteran origin, we urge researchers interested in developing transgenesis in moths or butterflies to consider using Minos-based tools."
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
It's out, Minos transgenesis in the pantry moth by @donyaniyaz.bsky.social @lucalivraghi.bsky.social High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers peerj.com/articles/202... @peerj.bsky.social
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Transgenic Plodia larvae expressing the very bright mBaoJin (mStayGold variant) in its silk glands. Also some gorgeous 3xP3:mCherry staining of larval ocelli and glia. (see revised preprint) by pantry moth wizards @donyaniyaz.bsky.social & @lucalivraghi.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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paul frandsen @paulbfrandsen.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Very cool work by @jasminealqassar.bsky.social, @evolvwing.bsky.social, and co. And some stunning pictures as an extra treat!
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Preprint alert from the lab @jasminealqassar.bsky.social led this elegant study of gene expression in the silk glands of our favorite alternative "silk worm", the pantry moth. Mega-polyploid cells with thousands of genome copies just to express a handful of proteins doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Check out our deep dive into the molecular genetics of male-specific cell type : the gorgeous UV-iridescent scales of Sulphur Butterflies by lab wizards 🦋🔬 🖥️ 🧬 Ling Sheng Loh @hanliconius.bsky.social and a big team 1/n
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Jasmine Alqassar @jasminealqassar.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I am really thrilled to share that our paper, led by Izzy Novick, resolving the Tineidae phylogeny using UCEs and exploring the origins of keratinophagy and synanthropy in the family is now published in Molecular Ecology. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Ultraconserved Elements Reveal the Relationship Between Facultative Keratinophagy and Synanthropic Evolution in Clothes Moths
Synanthropic species live in close association with, or benefit from, humans. Despite their potential impacts to human health, little is known about the mechanisms driving synanthropic life-history e...
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Awesome new paper by @lucalivraghi.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... in @currentbiology.bsky.social on the evo-devo of a butterfly color variation enjoy the show!
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Preprint! Minos-mediated transgenesis in the pantry moth www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... By @donyaniyaz.bsky.social
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
The Lepidoptera Genomics meeting July6-12 in Crete is going to be amazing and they extended the abstract deadline. I wish I could go (most of the team is going) events.gwdg.de/event/880/
events.gwdg.de
The 12th international Workshop on molecular biology and genetics of the Lepidoptera
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN We are delighted to invite you to join us at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, set just outside the lovely Cretan village Kolymbari, for a stimulating and enriching event. With 150 ...
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Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Thrilled to share that this paper is out now in Development! journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
journals.biologists.com
Lepidopteran scale cells derive from sensory organ precursors through a canonical lineage
Summary: The wing scales of butterflies and moths are derived from sensory organ precursors and are homologues of mechanosensory bristles.
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Jasmine Alqassar @jasminealqassar.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
My first paper is out today in GBE! A genome assembly and annotation for the webbing clothes moth. academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... A short 🧵
A colorful Circos plot with an image of the webbing clothes moth superimposed on top of it. The moth is golden in color with iridescent scales, a fuzzy head, long antennae, and long legs.
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
New preprint by butterfly wizard @lucalivraghi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression
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Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
A lovely commentary on @lucalivraghi.bsky.social and @hwkmthcrspr.bsky.social's recent papers, by VanKuren and Kronforst (bsky-less?). "“Being wrong” has never been a bad thing in science because good scientists cannot let go of those little things that just do not line up" - 🔥🔥🔥
pnas.org
PNAS
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...
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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
There’s loads of invertebrate macrophotographers on Bsky now, so I’ve whipped up a starter pack to make it easy to fill your feed with excellent bug photos! #Invertebrate #Macrophotography 🧪 go.bsky.app/5CHHo2r
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Dichromat Chloe (4% of scientists) @dichromat-chloe.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
@science.org Sorry to be trolling already (this one is from 10.1126/sciadv.ado4167) but a lot of your papers are hard to read for 4% of scientists. Other journals like the New Phytologist issue guidance about figure color accessibility. You could also ask your editors to do better 💜thank you💚 Chloe
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Dichromat Chloe (4% of scientists) @dichromat-chloe.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
(please amplify) 4% of scientists face an important barrier to an the ENTIRE FIELD of single-cell genomics and here is why
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Joe Hanly @hanliconius.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Hey Lepidoptera folks, here’s a Starter Pack of Lepidopterologists! If you want to be added (or removed), just @ me with your favourite: #buttetflies? #moths? go.bsky.app/U3HPgpW
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