This Week In Evolution (podcast)

This Week in Evolution

Manage series 107070

By Vincent Racaniello. Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio streamed directly from their servers.

This Week in Evolution is a podcast on the biology behind what makes us tick.

29 episodes available. A new episode about every 29 days averaging 91 mins duration .

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 29: Evolution on the wing1:42:23

27d ago1:42:23

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1:42:23

Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of blood feeding to nonbiting in a mosquito, and evolution of bacterial virulence in the house finch caused by incomplete host immunity. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting Mosquito evolution from blood feeding to nonbiting (PNAS) Mosqu ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 28: Genetics of skin pigmentation in Africa1:19:37

about 2 months ago1:19:37

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1:19:37

Sarah Tishkoff joins Nels and Vincent to explain work from her laboratory on the genetic basis of skin pigmentation in Africans. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Sarah Tishkoff Become a patron of TWiEVO Molecular Evolution and the Cell meeting Sarah AMA on Reddit Genetics of African skin pigmentation (Science) Image credit Science ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 27: Coldevo1:18:25

3 months ago1:18:25

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1:18:25

Taking a cue from the recent frigid weather, Nels and Vincent explore how modifications of a neuronal cold-sensing channel regulate diminished cold sensitivity in hibernating mammals. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO Why ground squirrels and hamsters don't mind the cold (Cell Rep) Image credit Letters read on TW ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 26: My Scientist Vinny1:13:35

4 months ago1:13:35

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1:13:35

Vinny Lynch joins Nels and Vincent to discuss how a zombie gene in elephants protects these large, long lived animals from cancer. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Vinny Lynch Become a patron of TWiEVO Lynch Lab Elephant zombie LIF gene induces apoptosis (bioRxiv) Image credit Science Picks Nels - Animalism Vincent - Voyager I fir ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 25: Pigeons show the way1:38:25

5M ago1:38:25

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1:38:25

Nels and Vincent discuss a genomic analysis of the passenger pigeon, which shows that species with large and stable populations may be at risk of extinction after a sudden environmental change. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO Passenger pigeon genomic diversity (Science) Image credit Letters read on TWiEVO 25 Sc ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 24: Good viruses visiting bad neighborhoods1:33:59

6M ago1:33:59

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1:33:59

Marco Vignuzzi joins Nels and Vincent to discuss recent work from his laboratory on redirecting RNA virus evolution in sequence space. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Marco Vignuzzi Become a patron of TWiEVO Vignuzzi Laboratory Redirecting evolution of RNA viruses in sequence space (Nat Micro) Is quasispecies concept relevant to ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 23: The Alus are going to be alright1:14:41

7M ago1:14:41

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Nels and Vincent reveal how the protein DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects caused by invasion of the Alu retroelement into the human genome. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO DHX9 suppresses Alu defects (Nature) Asifa Akhtar on The Latest Thinking This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is th ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 22: E pluribus cerevisiae1:21:31

8M ago1:21:31

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1:21:31

Maitreya Dunham joins Nels and Vincent to explain how her laboratory uses experimental evolution to study yeast flocculation, the community-building cell aggregation trait. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Maitreya Dunham Become a patron of TWiEVO Dunham Laboratory Adaptive Routes to Cell Aggregation in Yeast (Genetics) Making the ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 21: A virus with a green thumb1:45:29

9M ago1:45:29

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1:45:29

Rich Condit joins Nels and Vincent to explain how a vaccinia virus protein customizes ribosomes to favor the translation of viral mRNAs with a stretch of A residues in the 5'-untranslated region. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO Rich Condit with Harry Noller (scroll down) Trans-Kingdom mimicry? (Nature) More on ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 20: In the company of cnidarians1:42:35

10M ago1:42:35

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1:42:35

Nels and Vincent explore the role of TSR proteins during colonization of cnidarians by dinoflagellates. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Become a patron of TWiEVO TSR domain proteins in cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis A. elegantissima image credit Letters read on TWiEVO 20 Science Picks Nels - CRISPR 5 ways Vincent - The Vital Questio ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 19: The beauty of the story1:24:09

11M ago1:24:09

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1:24:09

Jonathan Weiner, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beak of the Finch, joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his career and his writing. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Jonathan Weiner Become a patron of TWiEVO Jonathan's Columbia University page Jonathan's author page Science Picks Nels - The Gap by Ira Glass Vincent - EPA remo ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 18: Raiders of the lost orco1:32:43

1y ago1:32:43

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1:32:43

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guests: Ni-Chen 'Sylvia' Chang, Waring 'Buck' Trible, and Sean K. McKenzie Buck and Sean join Vincent in New York, while Sylvia is with Nels in Salt Lake City to discuss the first mutant ant ever made: disruption of orco, a gene required for function of odorant receptors, show defects in social behavior a ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 17: The curious cases of clam cancers1:16:41

1y ago1:16:41

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1:16:41

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Stephen Goff Nels joins Vincent in New York City to speak with Stephen Goff about transmissible clam cancers and the silencing of integrated retroviral genomes. Become a patron of TWiEVO A sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path) Horizontal transmission of clam cancer (Cell) Transmissible b ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 16: Breaking in the making of genes1:17:17

1y ago1:17:17

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1:17:17

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent reveal how introns - the parts of pre-mRNAs that are removed by splicing - were generated by DNA transposons in two different picoeukaryotes. Become a patron of TWiEVO Introns from DNA transposons (Nature) Reverse transcription and integration lecture Image: Elde Lab Mobile Studios on loc ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 15: From cockroaches to grizzly bears1:45:53

1y ago1:45:53

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1:45:53

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Hopi Hoekstra Nels and Vincent speak with Hopi Hoekstra about her career and the work of her laboratory on developmental mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents. Become a patron of TWiEVO Hoekstra Laboratory Hopi on Twitter Mechanisms of stripe patterns in rodents (Nature) Image credit Letters rea ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 14: TWi-light on the Wasatch Front1:49:26

1+ y ago1:49:26

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1:49:26

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guests: Jessica Brown, Michael Kay, Wayne Potts, June Round, and Janis Weis From the Microbial Pathogenesis Retreat of the University of Utah School of Medicine, held at the Utah Museum of Natural History, Nels and Vincent speak with faculty members about their work on bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mirror ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 13: This week in ants1:32:09

1+ y ago1:32:09

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Corrie Moreau Corrie joins Nels and Vincent to talk about her comparative analysis of the genomes of mutualist ants that nest in plants, and non-symbiotic species. Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Moreau Laboratory Different rates of evolution in ant-plant mutualisms (Nat Commun) Im ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 12: Take a left at the goats1:55:43

1+ y ago1:55:43

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1:55:43

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Josh Drew Josh joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his research on the evolution and conservation of aquatic tropical biodiversity, and the historical ecology of 19th century American Whalers. Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Drew Laboratory at Columbia University American Whalers ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 11: Microbial accomplices in multicellularity1:45:43

1+ y ago1:45:43

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1:45:43

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Nicole King Nicole joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the finding of her laboratory that multicellular development of choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals, is regulated by bacterial lipids. Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Nicole King on Twitter Choanoflagellate ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 10: Spicing up peppered moths with a selfish gene1:34:35

1+ y ago1:34:35

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1:34:35

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent review experiments showing that the replacement of a pale moth with a black one during the industrial revolution was caused by a transposable element. Links for this episode Last experiment of Michael Majerus (Biol Lett) Moth melanism mutation is transposon (Nature) Image credit Letters r ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 9: How to crash your gene drive1:38:23

2y ago1:38:23

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1:38:23

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Jim Bull Nels and Vincent speak with Jim Bull about the results of genetic models which suggest that the evolution of inbreeding in response to lethal gene drive might make population control difficult to achieve. Links for this episode Lethal gene drive selects inbreeding (bioRxiv) Panel endorses ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 8: Everyone's a little bit Neanderthal1:37:55

2y ago1:37:55

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1:37:55

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels visits Vincent in the MicrobeTV studio in New York and talks about how key genes of the Homo sapiens innate immune response were acquired from Neanderthals. Links for this episode Introgressed Neanderthal haplotype at OAS locus (biorXiv) Genetic time travel (Genetics) Genetic history of Ice Age Europ ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 7: Pigeon fashion week, feathery boots edition1:23:55

2y ago1:23:55

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1:23:55

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Mike Shapiro Mike joins Nels and Vincent to talk about his work on what controls whether pigeons have scaly or feathered feet, and reveals that the hindlimbs of domestic birds with feathery feet are more like wings at the molecular level. Links for this episode Shapiro Laboratory Shifts in limb ide ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 6: Butterflies are free to shuffle1:42:47

about 2 years ago1:42:47

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1:42:47

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent continue with an emerging sub-theme of TWiEVO - organisms with wings - as they reveal how enhancer shuffling produces diverse butterfly wing patterns. Links for this episode Enhancer shuffling for butterfly wing patterns (PLoS Biol) Batesian mimicry (Wikipedia) Müllerian mimicry (Wikipedi ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 5: Looking at straw colored fruit bats through a straw1:38:21

about 2 years ago1:38:21

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1:38:21

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guests: Kartik Chandran and Sara Sawyer Sara and Kartik join Nels and Vincent to talk about the filovirus receptor NPC1 regulates Ebolavirus susceptibility in bats. Links for this episode Sara on TWiV #193 Kartik on TWiV #314 NPC1 and bat susceptibility to Ebolaviruses (eLife) Science Picks Nels - Sundanc ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 4: Taking the mystery out of the mystery of mysteries1:35:25

about 2 years ago1:35:25

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1:35:25

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Nitin Phadnis Nitin joins Nels and Vincent to explain how he identified a gene that is responsible for male inviability in hybrids from a cross between two species of fruit flies. Links for this episode Cell cycle regulation gene causes hybrid inviability in fruit fly (Science) Phadnis laboratory P ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 3: Recombination is for the birds1:22:15

over 2 years ago1:22:15

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1:22:15

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of recombination in the genomes of birds and yeast. Links for this episode Stable recombination hotspots in birds (Science) Putting the breaks on meiosis (Science) Evolutionary stability of recombination in yeast (Science) Image credit Science Picks Nels - Tardigrade ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 2: Faster than a speeding virus1:13:19

over 2 years ago1:13:19

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1:13:19

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent talk about how a cellular enzyme contributes to the very high mutation rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1. Links for this episode Cell defense enzyme drives high HIV mutation rate (PLoS Biol) High mutation rate of HIV in vivo (PLoS Biol) High viral mutation rates are beneficial ( ...…

This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 1: When (scientific) worlds collide1:13:57

over 2 years ago1:13:57

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1:13:57

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Nels and Vincent launch a new podcast on evolution, and start by discussing how the field has changed through recent mergers of evolutionary and experimental biology in the post-genome era. Links for this episode Elde Laboratory Nels on TWiV 234 Mechanistic approaches to the study of evolution (Nat Rev Ge ...…

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