James McCulloch

Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails. www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...

An atlas of eukaryotic centromere architecture reveals recurrent evolutionary dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752431v1

I am so excited to see this preprint out. I started working on springtails with @laurarossevo.bsky.social in 2019, but this pinnacle of our efforts manifested only with heroric leadership of Sam Ebdon! So, what's the deal? 👇

📢✨NEW✨ species of Collembola! ✨ONLINE FIRST✨ Check out the paper by James McCulloch on a new species of Collembola found at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in the latest ONLINE FIRST article ⬇️ soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v...

You swat them away, but more come to replace them – flies are survival experts. Read our latest blog to hear from our experts on why these two-winged wonders are worth studying. 🪰 https://sangerinstitute.blog/2026/08/20/six-facts-about-midges-and-gnats/

Go out at night and you might find springtails all over logs or trees where they're absent in the day. Why? I was glad to collaborate on this new paper, where we show that even in dry-tolerant Willowsia, nocturnal activity is related to environmental moisture. soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v...

Be a dipterist. Be in Costa Rica for #FlySchool2026. See a muscoid #fly perching on a leaf. Tell student so they can collect it. Success!! Wait a minute 🤔 That's not a fly, but weevil mimicking one! This was so convincing, even rapidly moving & poking its wings out 🥰 #Curculionidae: cf. #Mnemynurus

New preprint: 338 coleopteran genomes reveal exceptional rearrangement variation compared to other insect orders. Big congrats to @arf-mln.bsky.social, for getting this giant piece together. Big collaboration of @joanameier.bsky.social's and my groups. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Pleased to say that the first half of my PhD project is now out in preprint format! Using cortical organoids to model the mechanical transitions involved in early neurogenesis, we find that nuclear mechanotransduction is a crucial regulator of the timing and outcome of neuronal differentiation:

Organoids reveal niche-specific mechanotransduction-guided human cortical patterning and cell fate acquisition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.15.736390v1

Exploring Copenhagen while at #SMBE2026 Visit The Little Mermaid & look a few m along the shoreline. You’ll see some impressive (and polycentric) Bolboschoenus (club-rush). Their polycentromeres are likely underpinned by satellites I called Garrett and Colleen More: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I’m excited to be at #SMBE2026! I’m keen to talk to people about chromosome evolution/centromeres in the polycentric sedges and rushes (see poster or www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...) … … or about population genomics of soil arthropods!

🧬🦋 New preprint out! 🦋🧬 What mechanisms underlie large-scale chromosomal rearrangements? Why do rearrangement rates vary so massively across taxa? We explored these questions in Erebia butterflies, a genus with extraordinary chromosome number diversity, from 7 to 52! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

When I sat down with @jamesimcc.bsky.social to learn about all things springtails, I never imagined I'd leave our conversation so inspired about the future of natural science research. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for James. I certainly look forward to following the journey! 😊

A big preprint from my group! Muller Elements are considered to be conserved in flies. We tested it by reconstructing the ancestral dipteran karyotype using 340 chromosomal genomes and suprise suprise, they're not... Led by @juliagries.bsky.social and Sam Ebdon. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵👇

Huge congratulations to @stuwest.bsky.social on his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society! From fig wasps to Pseudomonas, he’s shown just how powerful behavioural ecology can be. I couldn't think of anyone more deserving. www.biology.ox.ac.uk/article/prof...

No clue what a springtail is? Never fret. We've interviewed the UK's national springtail biological recorder and PhD student @jamesimcc.bsky.social . Head to our blog to learn more ⤵️ https://sangerinstitute.blog/2026/03/26/studying-soils-unsung-heroes/ 📸 Tim Jonas #NameItToSaveIt

Want to start doing soil animal macrophotography? Or fancy a rare glimpse into mine and @mesofauna.bsky.social's minds? An article has just dropped in @soilorganismsj.bsky.social, showcasing mine and Andy's love for documenting soil biodiversity! 🧪🪱 Open Access: soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v...

Is there anyone around Newcastle owning a patch of green where we could collect springtails this Tuesday by any chance? More about the project in @jamesimcc.bsky.social's blog post: sangerinstitute.blog/2026/03/26/s...

This #IWD2026 we’re shining a light on the incredible women who’ve been nominated, highly commended or won an NBN Award for Wildlife Recording since 2015💛 Huge thanks to all. Know an inspirational woman who records or verifies wildlife? Nominations for #NBNawards26 are open! bit.ly/NBNawards26n...

And this is my favourite figure, nicely illustrating diversity and turnover of oligocentromeric satelites. Look at Carol and Sandra - one invaded the other at least 2x, which I find particularly amusing.

Very proud of @jamesimcc.bsky.social to submit his first PhD paper about evolution of genomes and centromeres in taxa with oligocentromeric organisation. Lots of interesting discoveries including possibly the first reported re-evolution of monocentricity.

Chromosomes are often classified as either monocentric (single centromere per chr) or holocentric (centromeric activity spread across each chr). In reality, there is a continuum in centromere organisation - and cyperids are a fascinating system to explore this in as James shows in this preprint! 🌱