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Leon Hilgers

@leonhilgers.bsky.social
359 followers 549 following 34 posts

Researcher @Senckenberg. Evolutionary genomics, global change, novelties, climate, reptiles & fishes! He/him

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Reposted by Leon Hilgers
Kathryn R Elmer @profkathrynelmer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
we have a PhD studentship open in the NorthWestBio Doctoral Training Programme. This is a "CASE" Studentship, meaning it is academics together with a charity partner and involves an internship. Currently open for international applicants; home UK applicants from 2 Nov. www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy to share results of the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social phase 1, providing reference genomes covering 21 bat families. New insights into bat phylogeny, ancestral genome reconstruction, European origin & ancestral echolocation. Great work by a team of 100+ colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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Ariadna Morales @ariadnamorales.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Very happy to see our paper out in Nature! 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇 A huge collaborative effort to revisit the evolutionary history of bats using 103 reference-quality genomes and an extensive fossil dataset, and to build a genomic resource for many questions still to come. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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Dimitris Kontopoulos @dgkontopoulos.io · 11/09/2026
Thrilled to share our new Genome Biology and Evolution paper! Here, we study the associations between evolutionary shifts in #torpor across placental mammals and changes in individual protein-coding #genes. 1/7 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag216
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Andrew Hendry @ecoevoevoeco.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Maybe you have heard about our Alaska stickleback introduction experiment? You might want to apply for our multi-PI freshwater science postdoctoral position. The video below is of one of our source lakes for the intro. scasscsa.mcjobboard.net/jobs/235865
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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Our cypriniform microsynteny paper is now available online at @systbiol.bsky.social : academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
academic.oup.com
Microsynteny Analysis Clarifies the Early Diversification of Cypriniform Fishes
Abstract. While genomic data are powerfully informative for phylogenetic inference, traditional sequence-based analyses can be confounded by issues like ho
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Ben Moran @ben-moran.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Hybrid zones are increasingly common; to what extent are human impacts on the environment the cause? We used pop gen, water chemistry, GIS, and ecotoxicology to explore the causes of hybridization in swordtails. With @mollyschumer.bsky.social, now out in Current Biology! www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Increased rates of hybridization in swordtails are associated with water pollution
Anthropogenic disturbance can drive hybridization by altering pre-mating reproductive barriers. Moran et al. pair population genomic surveys with water chemistry and GIS data to show that human develo...
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Fredrik Jutfelt 🐠 @jutfelt.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Come join us, PhD and postdoc positions! Please spread! Supervisor @patricepottier.bsky.social (patricepottierlab.com), me as co-supervisor. Impacts of climate change on different life-stages in fish.🐟🧪 PhD web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103... Postdoc web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103...
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Isabel Almudi @isabelalmudi.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
What happens when evolution adds an extra pair of eyes? Male mayflies evolve an extra pair of dorsal compound eyes, the Turbanate eyes, thought to help males detect females during mating swarms. we have investigate how this remarkable evolutionary novelty develops. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
@eksramos.bsky.social et al. reveal that the marine transition in turtles is characterized by rapid evolution and expansion of genes linked to iron metabolism, organ morphogenesis, sensory perception, mirroring other secondarily marine tetrapods. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag114 #evobio #molbio
doi.org
The genomic basis of independent marine transitions in turtles: convergent episodic adaptation and demographic shifts
Abstract. The transition from terrestrial to marine environments represents one of the most fundamental evolutionary shifts in vertebrate history, requirin
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Happy to announce the release of TOGA2 data for 68 turtle genomes, generated with a cryptodiran and a pleurodiran turtle reference. The combined TOGA2 annotation consistently improves annotation completeness compared with RefSeq. All data at genome.senckenberg.de/download/TOGA2. Genome browsers ...
genome.senckenberg.de
Index of /download/TOGA2
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Mozes Blom @moosblom.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
⏰⏰⏰ 6 days more to apply!! Don't be shy if you feel like you don't fit all criteria; motivation, curiosity and fun to work with, are the most important traits that we are looking for! ⏰⏰⏰
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Michael Bok @mikebok.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I am hiring a PhD student to join our group in Lund, Sweden working on an ERC-funded project to untangle color and polarization vision in some amazing crustaceans – minute water fleas and pugnacious mantis shrimp! Please forward this to promising students. Apply here: lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Check out this fantastic #new #genome #ressource for >1000 mammals 🦊 and >850 birds 🐦 🧬
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
When these #eels 🐟were caught, the world still ran on sail and steam. #Darwin was years away from "Origin of Species🐦". #Mendel had not even planted a pea🪴. Today, the same specimens may tell us whether/how eels can adapt to the #Anthropocene🐟🏢.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
What a #collection @nhmwien.bsky.social 🤩 #flexibEEL #museomics #eels #evolution #Wien
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Ali Seleit @aliseleit.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
(1/15) Thrilled to share new Evo-Devo work where we address the molecular, cellular & morphometric basis of an extreme axis segmentation program in the Japanese eel — an animal that forms 120 vertebrae.
biorxiv.org
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Good morning from Vienna☀️! Sampling #historical 100+ year old #eels for the #flexibEEL project in the fantastic #collection of the NHM Wien @nhmwien.bsky.social 🙂🐟 #eels #evolution #museomics
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Dr. Solomon David @solomonrdavid.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
NEW: Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes @worldwildlife.org www.worldwildlife.org/publications... “Vital freshwater fish migrations are collapsing; hundreds of species need urgent, coordinated cross-border action” Please share!
Cover photo of the World Wildlife Fund’s Migratory Fishes report. Photo of a European Eel underwater.
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I wrote a short Nature Methods News & Views piece on deep learning based gene finders such as ANNEVO. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Learning genes deeply - Nature Methods
Annevo uses deep learning to achieve unprecedented accuracy in eukaryotic gene annotation, approaching the performance of evidence-based methods.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
These are just some highlights🔆, so please check out the paper and repost🔁!! 🙂 Thanks so much @dgkontopoulos.ecoevo.social.ap.brid.gy @hillermich.bsky.social @ebpgenome.bsky.social @sgn.one and many more 🙏
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Additionally, genes under positive selection suggest a mechanism by which turtle cancer resistance mainly operates through a “prevent and repair” strategy. 🩹❤️‍🩹
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Finally, we explore turtle cancer resistance under oxidative stress. (Early)turtles faced increased oxidative stress due to their fossorial and/or aquatic lifestyle 🌊. Loss of NMRAL1 🧬decoupled increased oxidative stress exposure from stress-induced error-prone DNA repair.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
This gene loss is linked to a turtle-specific deletion in a rearrangement breakpoint that inverted in chicken. These findings link breakpoints to gene loss 🧬🚫associated body plan changes 🐢and highlighting gene losses as an under-appreciated driver of evolutionary innovation.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Gene losses 🧬🚫 contributed to turtle innovations!! Amazingly, two out of 12 typically conserved genes lost in turtles cause disproportionate dwarfism with broad compact body shapes in mammals, matching the remodeled skeletal morphology that first evolved in stem-turtles🦴🐢.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
So then, what is it? We explore the role of repeats for fissions, by using the still "intact" sister lineage to disentangle what came first, repeat increases or chromosome fissions. Our results indicate that genome wide repeat content increases promote fissions at already repeat rich fragile sites.✅
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
With this insight, we test the prior hypothesis that chromosome number and sex determination coevolve in turtles. Ancestral reconstructions reveal punctuated chromosome 🧬evolution: slow fission&fusion 🐌 rates, interrupted by dramatic accelerations📈. However, sex determination does NOT drive these❌!
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Next, we identify sex chromosomes in the chelidae, which have diverse sex chromosomes (micro & macro). Combining chromosome capture, m&f resequencing data, analyses of Y linked GATA repeats and ancestral genome reconstruction, we show that genetic sex determination evolved only once on a micro-chr.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Inferred declines in the last 140k years are likely mainly driven by population structure (see www.nature.com/articles/hdy... for the theory), which calls into question common interpretations attributing similar declines to climate change.
nature.com
On the importance of being structured: instantaneous coalescence rates and human evolution—lessons for ancestral population size inference? - Heredity
Heredity - On the importance of being structured: instantaneous coalescence rates and human evolution—lessons for ancestral population size inference?
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Linking demographic inference (#PSMC) to historical climate, biome reconstructions & sex determination modes, showed ancient climate change likely drove population sizes. However, consistent recent population declines are best explained by time alone... but why?
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
We now fill this gap & provide seven new reference genomes 🥳🐢 #VGP
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
However, to study these amazing turtle traits 🐢 from a genomic perspective, one thing was lacking: Reference quality genomes 🧬 for one of the two extant turtle clades: The side-necked turtles (they actually fold their neck sideways - see below).
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Turtles are just amazing🐢! These "hopeful monsters" originated during one of the biggest climate crises, remodeled the vertebrate skeleton🦴, exhibit extreme longevity 🏆 with remarkable cancer resistance and repeatedly evolved genetic sex determination🧬 from temperature dependent sex determination 🌡️.
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I hear you want novelty🦎->🐢, chromosome evolution 🧬, sex determination🩷, link population history📈 & climate🌏🌡️? Or you share my love for wonderfully weird animals? Side-necked turtle genomes reveal chromosomal dynamics, skeletal innovation and cancer resistance www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A 🧵
Chelodina longicollis, Eastern Long-necked Turtle. Melbourne Museum. 
Photographer: David Paul, Source: Museums Victoria
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Happy to share that our work with Ekaterina Osipova, @maggiemcko.bsky.social, Tim Sackton, Maude Baldwin & fantastic collaborators on convergent and lineage-specific genomic adaptations in sugar-feeding birds is published in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... While high sugar intake ...
science.org
Convergent and lineage-specific genomic changes shape adaptations in sugar-consuming birds
High-sugar diets cause human metabolic diseases, yet several bird lineages convergently adapted to feeding on sugar-rich nectar or fruits. We investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms in hummin...
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Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
"Medaka: A novel model for analyzing genome-environment interactions" by Kiyoshi Naruse & colleagues "Endemic to habitats spanning from 4 to 40°C and varying salinities, [medaka] combines broad ecological adaptability with experimental tractability." Read more: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
From Permits 📜 to Samples🧪🧬 Addressing Key Challenges for High-Quality Reference Genome Generation in Europe🧬🇪🇺 Now published in Mol Ecol Res! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Thanks to the @ergabiodiv.bsky.social team!!!🙂
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Sam Yeaman @samyeaman.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Want to study the genomics of repeated adaptation with data from hundreds of species? New funding for non-Canadians @ grad or postdoc level. Internal competition at UCalgary with very short deadline so please get in touch ASAP!! sshrc-crsh.canada.ca/en/funding/o...
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Arne Jacobs @fishyomics.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Integrative PhD position available in my lab on the mechanisms (gene expression, metabolism, microbiome and hormones) of intestinal remodelling in lampreys. Come work in a great and fun research environment with @nealdawson.bsky.social & Adam Dobson (not here). Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
gla.ac.uk
University of Glasgow - Colleges - College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences - MVLS Graduate School - PhD Research Opportunities - College Futures Themes PhD Programme
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Happy to present TOGA2, developed by Yury Malovichko @ymalovichko.bsky.social, the faster, memory-efficient & more accurate TOGA1 successor (github.com/hillerlab/TO...). And annotations, orthologs & gene loss/dup data generated with 4 references for 883 placental mammal and with 5 refs for 676 ...
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Arica Beisaw @abeisaw.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Come join us in Heidelberg for the first German fish meeting 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬🧬🔬🐟🐠
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Katerina Guschanski @kguschan.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
If you like genomics, speciation, and primates, this PhD position is for you! Unraveling the genomic architecture of speciation and gene flow in guenons, a diverse group of African monkeys. Funding through DTP. Do reach out with questions! #genomics #genome_assembly evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...
Faces of different guenon species to show their morphological differences
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Jukka-Pekka Verta @jpverta.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
One week to apply for our fully funded PhD position in Norway! This is a really exciting project in collab. with University of Helsinki and Benchmark Genetics. Samples are ready - you do (read: learn) everything - functional genomics, bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype associations 🤩 Please RT!
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POPGROUP59 @popgroup2026.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Exciting news! The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris. This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics. More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk See you there !
populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
Population Genetics group 59
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Maxwell Shafer @maxshafer.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
This is just the first effort of our foray into cichlid behaviour and genetics! If you are interested in working on the evolution, genomics, and neurobiology of sleep and chronobiology @uoftcellsysbiol.bsky.social in beautiful Toronto, please reach out! shafer-lab.netlify.app
shafer-lab.netlify.app
Sleep Evolution Group
A highly-customizable Hugo research group theme powered by Wowchemy website builder.
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Stephen I Wright @stepheniwright.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Please share broadly: I am looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on a collaborative project on the temporal population genomics of invasive Capeweed (using contemporary and herbarium genomics), with ‪‪@shaky-dingo.bsky.social‬ and colleagues
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Xueling (Ling) Yi @xuelingyi.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
I will present my freshly published paper on bat diet reconstruction and phyllostomid ancestral omnivory at ESEB @eseb2025.bsky.social, on Tuesday August 19th, poster session 2 P02.375. Looking forward to it!🦇
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Bioinformatics Advances @bioinfoadv.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
🧬 Explore the latest from Bioinformatics Advances: “Exonize: a tool for finding and classifying exon duplications in annotated genomes” Full article available: doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbaf177 Authors include: @chriswheat.bsky.social
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Thanks a lot🙂!!
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Leon Hilgers @leonhilgers.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
You link #phenotype 🦜 to #genotype 🧬 with #comparative #genomics 💻? This #review is for you 📜: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... We review new #methods, remaining #challenges and #future directions and highlight recent key studies. Thanks @hillermich.bsky.social! Please share! 🙂
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