This Week in Evolution

Nels and Vincent discuss how duplication of a gene encoding a transcription factor led to evolution of a novel cell type in the slime mold Dictyostelium.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Gene duplication leads to novel cell type (Current Biol)
• Evolution of multicellularity (TWiEVO 11)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 81
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art Vincent – John Bonner's slime mold movies

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Louise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Louise Moncla

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• Within-host diversity of influenza virus H5N1 (PLoS Path)
• Mumps virus outbreak in Washington (eLive)
• SARS-CoV-2 tight transmission bottlenecks (PLoS Path)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – JWST Images Vincent – 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program

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Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 79 (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

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• SARS-CoV-2 evolution during chronic infection (Nat Med)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 79
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears Vincent – FDA: Don't rush a move to change the Covid-19 vaccine composition

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to [email protected]

Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• ECDC monkeypox risk assessment (pdf)
• Monkeypox virus genomes (Nextstrain)
• Discussion of monkeypox virus genome sequencing (virological.org)
• Balancing positive and negative selection in spike protein (Biochem)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Science on the Side podcast by Morgan Nelson and Ty Chiaro Vincent – Richard Ernst Lecture 2022

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Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Alex Cagan

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• Somatic mutation and age (Nature)
• Zombie gene in elephants (TWiEVO 26)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Alex – Paper.app Nels – Fifty years since Lewontin's apportionment of human diversity Vincent – An Exceptional Village

Martha – Plagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

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Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 75 (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email

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• Making E. coli an insect mutualist (bioRxiv)
• Letters read on TWiEVo 76
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

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Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature)
• Vampire vax (TWiV 809)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Joe Graves

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• On Racism, Not Race (Amazon)
• African Americans in evolutionary science (Behav Ecol Sociobiol)
• Biological variation and the normal (Am J Hum Biol)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Where is Webb? Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association Joe – Biology versus bias

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Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep)
• Host origins of SARS-CoV-2 genome insertions (Virological)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates

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Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Ancient coronavirus epidemic in East Asia (Curr Biol)
• Gene-culture coevolution and human evolutionary transition (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Membrane permeability at the lipid divide (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science Vincent – Virology Live

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to [email protected]