iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jan Hrcek @janhrcek.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Save the date and spread the word about the next meeting of the @droseu.bsky.social, a friendly research community! Looking forward to welcoming you all in České Budějovice! #Drosophila

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DrosEU @droseu.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Save the date! The 17th DrosEU workshop will be held in České Budějovice on the 24th to 26th May 2027. Thanks to @janhreck.bsky.social for hosting us! #Drosophila #genomics

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 29/09/2025

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Could humans and AI become a new evolutionary individual?” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.

An illustration of a human and a robot watering a tree together.
Image credit: Dave Cutler (artist).

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Jitka Polechová @polejit.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

PhD-position vacancy in Jan Hrcek's lab lab.hrcek.net, Czech Academy of Sciences: Exploring how rapid evolution in communities allows maintenance of genetic variation and species diversity. @erc.europa.eu 🪰 🧬 🌏 🧪Application deadline: January 7th 2026

Ilustration of evolution in ecological communities, feuturing Drosophila

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Luis-Miguel Chevin @lmchev.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Check out the paper explaining what this is about, and also the database itself!

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Deepa Agashe @deepaagashe.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Please apply for this, and/or encourage your mentees and peers to do so!

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Arvid Ågren @arvidagren.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Working any sort of within-organism conflict? Submit a paper to our special issue in @jevbio.bsky.social!

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Pepi (Josefa) González @gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Join us in Montpellier if you are interested in #evolution #genomics #adaptation #invasive species or if you want to get to know a collegial group of #Drosophila enthusiasts

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Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

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Luis-Miguel Chevin @lmchev.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

I wrote a commentary about the recent paper by @deepaagashe.bsky.social and @vrindarvkm.bsky.social Also go have a look at the original paper if you haven't ! The timeframe of prediction for eco-evolutionary dynamics | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

We hope you enjoy this artistic representation of a red flour beetle showing changes in the building blocks of its fitness on entering a new corn environment (right).

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Our work has broad implications for predicting population performance under environmental change using key fitness metrics.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

We showed that these phenotypic changes at generation 70 happened over and above those that happen within a single generation in the new environment. Single generation phenotypic changes were also adaptive in most traits, though not enough to reverse population decline.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Average population performance correlated strongly with ancestral development rate (how quickly larvae pupate or eclose as adults). We measured evolved development rate and reproduction at generation 70 in all evolving populations and found striking increases in both, indicating adaptive evolution.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

We put these populations in a challenging new environment (corn flour) and tracked their population dynamics for 70 generations. The populations showed the typical U-shaped recovery curve associated with evolutionary rescue, when declining populations recover their growth rates via adaptation.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

We used 10 wild-collected populations of the red flour beetle from different locations in India, with different phenotypic trait distributions in key fitness-related traits (like longevity, development rate, starvation resistance, cannibalism and reproduction).

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Our work on evolutionary rescue is finally out in this week's issue of PNAS! Check out the NCBS communications team piece on our work quoted below.

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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

This year I’m teaching a science writing course. When the course started, I had this exact conversation with the students - Your thoughts are fuzzy phantoms that ping around in your brain. If you want to catch and share those thoughts you need to pin them to the page.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

🌆 Our work has broad implications for predicting evolutionary responses to climate change and human-induced environmental stressors, as well as for managing pest & pathogen populations that develop resistance to pesticides & antibiotics.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

🧬 We also saw dramatic trait evolution - after 70 generations, beetles developed much faster in corn and produced more offspring than their ancestors. Evolution finds a way!

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

🪴 The most interesting finding? Development rate was the single best correlate of population success, female longevity and reproduction were close runners-up. Beetles that could develop faster as juveniles helped their populations thrive both during and after the rescue event.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

📈 We collected over 10,000 population census points and found that almost all populations showed remarkably similar "evolutionary rescue" - that classic U-shaped curve where populations first crash, then recover as they adapt to their new conditions.

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

🫠 We took 10 different populations of flour beetles from across India and moved them to a challenging new environment (corn flour instead of their usual wheat flour). Would they survive or go extinct? And which traits would predict their success?

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

📜 New preprint alert. Our work on evolutionary rescue is now up on bioRxiv! We tracked flour beetle populations for ~5 years (70 generations) to understand how populations adapt to harsh environments, and which traits help them survive.

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Pratik Kumar @dyechemist.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

If making chemical tools for biology excites you, consider applying to the NCBS graduate program! My lab plans to hire 1–2 graduate students this cycle. More info on my lab @ dyecraftlab.com

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Vrinda Ravi Kumar @vrindarvkm.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Some weekend fly art can really lift your Monday blues. Mixed media.

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