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Matt Kustra

@matt-kustra.bsky.social
385 followers 184 following 11 posts

Evolutionary ecologist with a focus on sexual selection and speciation. Currently a Miller postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. PhD from UCSC '24. BS from UVA '18 Biol + CS. Website: kustra-matt.github.io

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Reposted by Matt Kustra
Jay Gallagher @jay-gallagher.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🐟🚨 New paper! 🚨🐟 Where do behavioral differences come from? Early life environment clearly matters... ...or not? Early environment affected behavior, but NOT how different individuals became from each other. Those differences were seeded before birth through factors OTHER than genetic variation 🤯
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Born This Way: Individuality Is Seeded Before Birth and Robust to Ecological Stress
We reared and recorded behaviours of clonal Amazon mollies in standardized environments, with and without predation stress, from birth through week four of life, to understand how the developmental e...
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Ariel Kahrl @arielkahrl.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A reminder that Hamilton is hiring an Evolutionary Ecologist this fall! Deadline is Oct 1! A note: Evolutionary Ecologist is broad, and we are happy to see applications from Evolutionary biologists as well (main teaching course is upper level Evolution lect/lab). Feel free to touch base with Qs!
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
New preprint led by amazing undergrad @ogolwala.bsky.social! Within ~10,000 years, sperm traits have diverged between trophic specialists in this young radiation of pupfish. Hybrids are fertile, but show transgressive sperm kinematics and reorganized integration. With @fishspeciation.bsky.social.
Density plots of sperm straightness comparing two species of pupfish (molluscivore and scale-eater) and their hybrids. Hybrids have straighter sperm than the parental species.
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Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The prestigious Miller Research Postdoctoral Fellowship is open! University of California, Berkeley This is a postdoc fellowship with substantial support and independence to be hosted at a lab at Berkeley, reach out with interests! miller.berkeley.edu/nominate-app...
miller.berkeley.edu
Miller Research Fellowship | Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science
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Jeff Groh @jeffgroh.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...
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Tyler J. Carrier @tylerjcarrier.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New paper entitled "Sea urchin eggs contain a plastid-derived structure that contributes to their development" is now out in @plosbiology.org! Here is a summary... journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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Krish Sanghvi @krishsanghvi11.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Sperm can “age” independently of the male, when stored in male or female reproductive tracts. Our meta-analysis finds widespread evidence across animals (including abstinence in men). Important consequences for fertility, sexual selection, haploid selection! doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Are you looking for a PhD position, hoping to learn sexual selection theory from one of the true experts in the field? Lehtonen's work is awesome - Look at this and apply! ats.talentadore.com/apply/doctor...
ats.talentadore.com
Doctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology (1-2 positions)
The Department of Biological and Environmental Science is seeking to recruit Doctoral Researcher in sexual selection theory (1-2 positions) starting 1.9.2026, or as soon as possible after that for a m...
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Henry Arenas-Castro @henryarenas.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Applications to the Gordon Research Seminar in Speciation are now open! We encourage PhD students & postdocs from all geographies, backgrounds, disciplines to APPLY! This 2d seminar in beautiful Lucca 🇮🇹 will be followed by a 5d conference open to the broader community. www.grc.org/speciation-g...
Screenshot of the registration page of the Gordon Research Seminar in Speciation 2027 at Lucca, Italy
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Ben Hopkins @brhopkins92.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Looking forward to #Dros26 this week. My lab is recruiting and I would be delighted to chat with anyone interested in grad school/postdoc positions in evolutionary cell biology and developmental genetics. Please reach out if interested!
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feña Palominos @fishfena.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Hi friends! Please check Dr. Rosa Navarro’s interview: she is a Professor and PI at #UNAM and the current President of the Mexican Society for Developmental Biology 🪱 🧬 🧫 #LatinaxinDevBio #DevBio #DevelopmentalBiology @lasdb.bsky.social Stay tuned as we highlight more #latinx scientists! 🫶
media.tenor.com
a man in a white shirt is dancing in front of a crowd
Alt: a man in a white shirt is dancing in front of a crowd holding a football ball with “together, we are america” written on it
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Lee Phillips @badphysicist.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Julia is quickly becoming the successor to Fortran, once the standard for high-performance computing in science, mathematics, and engineering. It’s powerful and fun to use. Get a solid foundation with a good book: lee-phillips.org/amazonJuliaB... #julialang #physics #programming #mathematics
lee-phillips.org
Rankings of Julia books on Amazon
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
New paper out in @funecology.bsky.social y.social: Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice! We find ovarian fluid only has a positive effect on sperm function at colder temperatures and that sneaker males have faster sperm than dominant nesting males at warmer temperatures. (1/3)
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
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EvolDir @evoldir.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
UNC Charlotte seeks a postdoc in Cnidarian genomics and immunity for an NSF-funded project. Requirements include a relevant PhD and expertise in sequence data analysis. More details: jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/66089. #postdoc
jobs.charlotte.edu
Postdoctoral Fellow, Biological Sciences_Reitzel lab
The Reitzel Lab at UNC Charlotte is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join our team investigating the molecular and genomic basis of immunity in cnidarians. This position offers the opportunity to work at the intersection of genomics, immunology, and evolutionary biology, contributing to cutting-edge research on host–microbe interactions in marine invertebrates.Duties and Responsibilities● Analyze large-scale sequence datasets to characterize gene expression and genomic variation.● Collaborate with graduate and undergraduate researchers in a dynamic team environment.● Contribute to publications, presentations, and grant proposals.● Engage in interdisciplinary research connecting genomics, microbiology, and physiology.Qualifications● Ph.D. in biology, bioinformatics, genomics, or a related field.● Demonstrated expertise in large sequence data analysis (e.g., RNA-seq, genome assembly, comparative genomics).● Strong computational and statistical skills for handling high-throughput datasets.● Excellent communication skills evidenced by peer reviewed publications and conference presentations● Strong collaboration skills.Preferred (but not required):● Experience in microbiology or animal physiology.● Background in marine invertebrate biology or immunology.Position Details● Start Date: Flexible, ideally before June 2026.● Funding: Guaranteed for 2+ years.● Environment: Collaborative lab with graduate and undergraduate researchers.● Location: University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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Jeff Groh @jeffgroh.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑
biorxiv.org
Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado
In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, pollination occurs via a synchronized rhythm of floral sex timing between two hermaphroditic flowering types. A-type plants present female-phase flo...
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Reposted by Matt Kustra
Sophie Jean Walton @sophiejwalton.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
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Julia Saltz @juliasaltz.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
My latest paper, Cryptic female choice can maintain reproductive isolation, with @servedio.bsky.social and Suzanne Alonzo is now out in the October issue of @journal-evo.bsky.social ! (1/3) academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
academic.oup.com
Cryptic female choice can maintain reproductive isolation
Abstract. Sexual selection has long been considered an important mechanism of speciation. Despite growing empirical evidence that postmating sexual selecti
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Kristen Behrens, PhD @behrenskristen.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
For bounded, the devil’s hole pupfish #SciArtSeptember
Colored pencil drawing of a devil’s hole pupfish, which is a cute little dark blue guy with gray/black fins
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Had a great time writing this quick guide on male alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) with Suzanne Alonzo! Was a fun challenge to try and summarize everything that is so fascinating about male ARTs in ~1000 words.
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Male-killing! feminization! parthenogenesis induction! cytoplasmic incompatibility! etc.Wolbachia & its friends do all sorts of reproductive manipulations. F Brenninger, @romanzug.bsky.social & I ploughed through existing equations for their spread... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.70024
summary of reproductive manipulation types
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Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Congratulations to this year's Hamilton Award finalists! 🎉 Join us Thursday, May 29 to hear these outstanding student talks. See the full schedule on the meeting website: www.evolutionmeetings.org/program-over... @evolmtg.bsky.social
Text: Virtual Evolution 2025. Society for the Study of Evolution Hamilton Award Symposium. Thursday, May 29, 1:30 PM - 7:30 PM Eastern (GMT-4). 2025 Finalists: Meaghan Clark, Dylan DeBaun, Devon DeRaad, Simon Innes, Josh Knecht, Kip Lacy, Gina Lamka, Prothama Manna, Gemma Martinez-Redondo, David Peede, Gabriel Preising, Jeremy Summers, David Tian, Matthew Treaster, and Amanda Vieira da Silva.
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feña Palominos @fishfena.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Check my article contribution for @qb3-berkeley.bsky.social about the Chichancanab pupfish radiation! 🐟😍
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Excited to share the preprint of my last PhD chapter, "Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice." We find that warm temperatures relevant to climate change reduce female influence on sperm velocity and expected paternity of preferred, dominant males in the ocellated wrasse.
biorxiv.org
Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice
Reproduction is often more thermally sensitive than survival. Thus, understanding the thermal sensitivity of reproductive interactions is crucial given global warming. However, it is unknown how tempe...
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Matt Kustra @matt-kustra.bsky.social · 07/02/2024
My first ever preprint! @tylercarrier.bsky.social and I hypothesized that reproductive manipulating microbes could shape the evolution of marine invertebrate developmental life-history. Using models, we provide insight into the conditions on when it is possible! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Microbes as manipulators of developmental life-history
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
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Tyler J. Carrier @tylerjcarrier.bsky.social · 06/02/2024
New preprint on how microbial manipulators—the aquatic relatives of Wolbachia—can serve as a mechanism to induce marine invertebrates to undergo transitions in developmental life-history. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Microbes as manipulators of developmental life-history
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
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Murielle Ålund (she/her) @muriellealund.bsky.social · 17/10/2023
A new chapter of the CSH perspectives in biology special volume on #Speciation is out! "Genetics and the Evolution of Prezygotic Isolation" 🧪
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Tyler J. Carrier @tylerjcarrier.bsky.social · 16/10/2023
I am an evolutionary ecologist that uses marine invertebrates—especially sea urchins and their echinoderm relatives—to study how microbial symbioses are essential to reproduction and development.
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Emma Whittington @emmawhit.bsky.social · 12/10/2023
I'm finally getting around to doing my intro post. I'm a postdoc interested in the molecular interactions between the ejaculate and the female postmating, and their potential to contribute to reproductive isolation and speciation. 🧪👩‍🔬#HiSciSky #AcademicSky
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