Hunter Hill

Excited to share this preprint!! with @brandonscooper.bsky.social and Bill Sullivan We tested whether endosymbiotic Wolbachia can alter host gene expression through chromatin modifications that persist from spermatogenesis to adulthood.

Happy Sunday with a new issue of #cebooc! Today @binyammogessie.bsky.social and team report reduced centromere strength in aging oocytes: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42895520/ Read the full issue here: biomed.news/bims-cebooc/... Subscribe: biomed.news/bims-cebooc Powered by @biomednews.bsky.social

40 years ago today, the BDSC made its 1st shipment. To celebrate, Trudy Kaufman, who packed the 1st shipment, boxed up the same kinds of flies for John Roote at Cambridge, who placed the 1st order. Watch for pics of the arrival next week. We’ve shipped 4,882,378 vials total. That’s a lot of flies!

Thrilled to share that our paper is finally out in Science Advances! 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... TL;DR: A Drosophila protamine acts as shields resolving conflict between X and Y chromosomes. Disruption unleashes meiotic drive that kills X-bearing sperm and skews progeny sex ratios. 🪰🧬ᯡ

How long does DNA damage last? @aaronquinlan.bsky.social and I found evidence that lesions are transmitted from parent (P0) to offspring (F1) in C. elegans. If they segregate unrepaired for multiple cell divisions, lesions generate multi-allelism in the F1 germline. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🪰 A new study in #GENETICS demonstrates how the Stellate meiotic drive system in #Drosophila is active in contemporary populations, revealing its evolutionary significance. 🔗 buff.ly/UqEQJrQ

Super proud and excited about this work, led masterfully by Peiwei Chen! A fun and fruitful collaboration with department colleagues Andy Clark & Alexei Aravin. After 30 yrs of studying transposons, this is one of the very first times I see them jump in real time in their natural host! Hurrah! 🥳

So grateful for the new Kathy Matthews Endowment for the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. A wonderful tribute by Kathy's husband, Lawrence Washington, that will help preserve Kathy's legacy and support the fly community for years to come. biology.indiana.edu/news-events/...

The @hypothesisfund.bsky.social has awarded a prestigious seed grant to @uofubiology.bsky.social professor Talia Karasov, who researches the microbial weapons bacteria inflict on each other in an evolutionary arms race that might hold the keys to addressing the threat of antibiotic resistance.

My quote of the day The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. Dr. Seuss

Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our (@jeffsekelsky.bsky.social, Corbin Jones & me) #Meiosis, Recombination & Evolution of Sex class @uncchapelhill.bsky.social geeked out about #BChromosomes w/ Patrick Ferree from @scrippscollege.bsky.social about his @plosbiology.org paper on female meiotic drag in Nasonia: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

“These days, if you’re not a mad scientist, you’re not paying attention.” @standupforscience.bsky.social

🧵 Thread: What happens when transcription isn’t properly shut off during mitosis? Our new preprint explores just that 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

If you're afraid to ask someone for a recommendation, please don't be. It's part of the job of being a mentor, editor, teacher, advisor, former boss, etc. to write recommendations or politely decline. (I wish I could go back in time and tell my former self this.)

BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!

Excellent title - and I'm a sucker for mapping any de novo mutations in insect pigment and pattern mutants. In this case, the culprit seems to be an ncRNA!?!? resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New paper on minimal NNs for phylogenetic inference, with former grad student, Ben Rosenzweig: arxiv.org/abs/2512.02223

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up… Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection. Congrats to whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

OMG--read this thread. Remarkable clever use of a trick to visualize plasmid competition that reveals key insights into evolution!!!! 🧪

Crain, A. T., Nevil, M., Leatham-Jensen, M. P., ..., B., Matera, A. G., McKay, D. J., Duronio, R. J. (2024). Redesigning the Drosophila histone gene cluster: an improved genetic platform for spatiotemporal manipulation of histone function. Genetics, 228(1) academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹 I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes. Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)

To promote the collection, I’ve launched a designer clothing line where synthetic biology meets aesthetics. I will give out 100 free limited edition shirts to the first who retweet and order with their handle in the name! Available here → nickdesnoyer.com 🧵(6/7)

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding. NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

#drosophila @flybase.bsky.social request emergency funding: "As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost" => please donate! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

i encourage all to comment on the federal move to switch scientific staff to political appointees. this would be yet another disaster to the scientific process, unbiased pursuit of knowledge and medicine. deadline june 7. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP...

Treating a new Covid strain like a crime and not a public health issue is deranged.

Do not give them an INCH! It's not: Well, maybe there are some areas where DEI has become too much a focus. It's: FREE COUNTRIES DON'T SEND OUT BANNED WORDS LISTS TO THEIR SCIENTISTS It's not: Well, science isn't perfect... It's: FREE COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE SCIENCE COMMISSARS

🧬NEW review article from Henikoff and Ahmad about emerging epigenomic mapping technologies to study chromatin regulation. Very comprehensive - great for beginners and experts alike! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

For all the scientists who voted for Trump (and I know many of you), I hope the war on DEI was worth it.

If you're wondering why there's been so much insistence lately that COVID-19 was a lab leak, here's why: it is going to be an example for why all biomedical research & public health work should be defunded. No evidence supports a lab leak, but it's used to justify cutting NIH's budget by 40%.

💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out! Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n

You may be fearing your 401k is no longer enough for you to retire. But with all the cuts to NIH and Medicare you also won't live as long. So the policies are integrated.

If only America would protect school children the way it protects Teslas.

Mine in today’s @newyorker.com

So much this.

Local coverage on budget cuts, thanks @nbcnews.com nbcmontana.com/news/local/u...

This is utterly terrifying. The lack of critical thinking is stunning. nbcmontana.com/newsletter-d...

#FluorescenceFriday #Drosophila chromosomes!

Sadly, our colleague and friend Scott Hawley passed away this morning. He was an irreplaceable presence and force for good in the meiosis an Drosophila communities and will be sorely missed.

To all constituents, journalists, and representatives interested in today’s hearings for RFK Jr, please read, consider, and ask the following questions of him. On behalf of the Coalition for the Life Sciences cc: @needhibhalla.bsky.social www.coalitionforlifesciences.org

If you have been affected by the fires in LA, or are concerned about your ability to keep precious Drosophila strains going during the latest funding crisis, we will host your strains as a backup. Please email me. Please amplify. If you are also able to host fly strains, add your name as well.

Per an NIH source: “Discussions with colleagues have suggested that if the universities all come together and raise hell about the delays to funding caused by not holding meetings, that might move the needle. From every state. There are well-funded universities in red states that will be impacted.”

"our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary." "creativity and innovation in the merchandise and services that we offer," - Costco Board. 98% of Costco shareholders agreed with the board.👍🏿 Segregationists denied.