Jukka-Pekka Verta

What drives the evolution of life histories at the species, population, or molecular level? Why are these Atlantic salmon so incredibly small? We are inviting potential candidates to express their interest to write a MSCA postdoctoral fellowship with us: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/hosting...

With UN CBD #COP17 meeting in Yerevan, we made an interactive portal to report genetic diversity loss per country: combines genetic diversity-area relationships, global habitat maps, Living Planet Index, Red List and indicator A.4. Check out the portal here: genetic-diversity-report.github.io

Brilliant feed today featuring *both* couch potato and beer belly! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

First indication of pink salmon reproduction in Sweden 😱 - New paper from @tabstaveley.bsky.social @evathorstad.bsky.social 🐟🎏 #SluAqua doi.org/10.1051/kmae...

New commentary from the lab - can we identify principles of transcriptional regulation & cis-regulatory element (CRE) control of gene expression? With @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social & @joadelas.bsky.social in @cp-molcell.bsky.social A thread 🧵 doi.org/10.1016/j.mo...

Philip Ball wrote a thoughtful popsci piece in @quantamagazine.org on Waddington’s landscape for cell fate decisions Includes our work with David Rand using dynamical systems theory & single-cell data to make the landscape metaphor quantitative & predictive www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif...

Some genomic inversions can persist for millions of years. This study by @judithmank.bsky.social @vdbijl.bsky.social & Yuying Lin reveals how ecological conditions and mate choice help maintain this hidden layer of #genomic diversity in guppies. 🧪#evolution #academicSky buff.ly/6sEgmgT

In #Drosophila subquinaria, divergence in male chemical signaling isn’t driven by sexual selection alone—genetic constraints can significantly limit future evolutionary responses @uottawascience.bsky.social Jarvis & Rundle 2026 doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

We are often asked whether pangenomes are worth the hassle. The files can be large and methods to explore them are much more challenging than linear references. Earlier this week, we preprinted a clear example of how and why pan-genome graphs are so important for trait discovery.

Our latest paper on building models of cell fate decisions -with David Rand, Marine Fontaine & @joadelas.bsky.social- combines developmental biology, dynamical systems theory and bioinformatics. I wrote a short piece to summarise it & explain ideas behind the approach briscoelab.org/blog-quantif...

"Philosophy of Biology: The power of theory in the life sciences" elifesciences.org/articles/112... @zdblount.bsky.social shared this thought-provoking paper with the lab group.

We have a new #preprint on #lunar #reproductive #timing as a #magictrait in #speciation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... with former PhD students Alexander Jacobsen 🧪💻 Runa Ekrem 🦟🌊 🙏 Big thanks to both for the great work! #EvoBio #barriers #Chronobiology #circadian #MarineEcology

🧬🔬 Why are enhancers transcribed and how does that impact gene regulation? I’m really excited to share our new paper in @science.org showing that noncoding RNAs control the timing of gene activation in embryos. With Mike Levine #ScienceResearch @columbiamed.bsky.social A few highlights below... 🧵👇

Conserved covariance structure underlies 60 million years of morphological diversification in primates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.748908v1

I'm looking to hire a postdoc to work on the RepAdapt + MacroMar projects, analysing genomic data from >130 species of plants, animals, and fungi (VCFs are processed, ready to go). Lots of potential for creativity and collaboration! yeamanlab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/...

🚨My first PhD chapter is now out on bioRxiv ! A 🧵 1/n

We are looking for a TT professor in Rapid Marine Adaptation to study marine eukaryotic evolution to climate change. Join our growing & vibrant department! Please spread the ad: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Tenure-T... Contact me if you need more information! @univie.ac.at

new paper in @molecology.bsky.social from MVLS-DTP @uofgmvls.bsky.social research of @teamlizard.bsky.social 's J Smout 🧬 gene expression & alternative splicing in a viviparous lizard; new candidate genes + some known from other amniotes 👀🦎 @sbohvm.gla.ac.uk onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🧬 New from Aqil et al! 📄 Mismapping of sequencing reads from polymorphic duplications generates spurious trans-eQTLs

(1/10) The majority of human genetic variation is located in non-coding regions. The great challenge of the post-genomic era is to assign function to these variants. We reasoned that combining haplotyping with allele-specific multiomics can help pinpoint the functional ones: rdcu.be/fgr5W. A thread:

Thanks to a couple of recent Ws on the funding front, we have 3 open postdoc positions in Helsinki, Finland in the field of salmonid fish ecological and evolutionary genomics. DL 7.8. More details in advert: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

Nature research paper: Alternate RNA decoding results in stable and abundant proteins in mammals go.nature.com/4vtxVUh

Our brilliant PhD students are at #SMBE2026 ! S22: P334 Rachel Carboni with snMultiomics S22: P339 @xindih.bsky.social with epistasis vs modularity in GRNs (w/ @fishcongen.bsky.social) S22: talk at 17:45 @jennisiren.bsky.social with GxE in gene expression (w/ main sup @pyhatanja.bsky.social)

Published version @pnas.org of our collaborative work with Talia Karasov Lab (tkarasovlab.org) et al., 🧵👇 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @cloeucl.bsky.social @ugiatucl.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @uofubiology.bsky.social #microsky #phagesky

Exciting breakthrough technology from the lab, now live in @cellcellpress.bsky.social ! Instead of cutting the genome where proteins bind (e.g., Cut&Tag), D&D-seq scars the DNA with a deaminase, allowing single cell genome mapping of TFs and chromatin remodellers!

Much has been written about The Selfish Gene, and few books have been both as influential and as persistently contested. To commemorate its 50th anniversary, here are some brief thoughts in the latest issue of @science.org. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Have you ever wondered if fish yawn? (and if they do, what that tells us about yawning?) The first preprint from the lab and a serendipitous observation ⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/6) What if aging begins, in part, as a bargain made in youth? In turquoise killifish, editing vgll3—a gene linked to puberty-timing in humans and salmon—revealed one of the first causal single-gene examples of antagonistic pleiotropy in vertebrate aging 🧵

Twenty five years on from Dolph Schluter's book "The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation" that reshaped the way adaptive radiation was studied, this review revisits key questions raised to evaluate the progress made over the past quarter century, 8 of which remain unresolved...🌍🧪👇

Reinforcement influences the ability of cryptic female choice to exert conspecific sperm precedence in hybridizing Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.08.723816v1

Excited to share this new pre-print from the fantastic @kelsiehunnicutt.bsky.social! Kelsie put together a thoughtful and thorough review on hybridization in animal evolution: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v.... She tracks notable shifts in perspectives on the study of hybridization through time.

From diminishing returns to entrenchment: a unifying theory of epistasis along adaptive walks revealed by Fisher's geometric model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.07.723117v1

New TREE paper led by Jana Nickel on 'Hitchhiking of deleterious mutations within chromosomal inversions' doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... Broadly, if inversions are linked to an adaptive trait, homokaryotypes are at high frequency, and purging can reduce deleterious mutation load.....

Heidbreder et al. leveraged natural hybrids of wood ant species to highlight the underappreciated impact of Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibility connectivity on the persistence of reproductive barriers over time. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag063 #evobio #molbio #speciation

Join us in wishing a massive happy 100th birthday to the man who has inspired millions of people around the world to care about nature and look after our planet - the incredible Sir David Attenborough! 🎉

"AI-assisted grants produced more research, but not necessarily more breakthroughs."

New paper! 70 years since their introduction via a sewer, we detailed the unexpected Great Lakes pink salmon invasion history, their plasticity to adapt to new environments, and research needs relevant for managing the species everywhere! 🦑🐟🌎 @evathorstad.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/faf....

Interested in pleiotropy dissection but not sure where to start, which methods are useful, which studies offer illustrative examples, or how to robustly validate your results? Look no further 👀 rdcu.be/eSfAZ

Ever wondered what makes some alleles dominant (A) and others recessive (a) ? In our new paper, we explored how a series of recently discovered "dominance modifiers", genetic elements that have long remained elusive, achieve their regulatory function. journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Ongoing DFO cuts to the Genomics Program and across the organization further compromise the capacity to conduct critical research evaluating the impacts of cumulative stressors and pathogens on salmon survival and to aid in the conservation of imperiled stocks 🧪🌎🌐🦑🐟 thetyee.ca/News/2026/04...

Our new paper is officially out in @newphyt.bsky.social! We disentangle how plants balance the trade-offs between rapid growth and water conservation. We found that Cape Verde Arabidopsis use a highly coordinated drought escape strategy driven by pleiotropic genes.

This is wild: the authors find evidence for giant, macro-predatory octopuses in Late Cretaceous oceans that might max out at *62 feet long,* comfortably large enough to attack, kill and eat mosasaurs

Uzezi Okinedo and @brooklebee.bsky.social characterized pleiotropy in local adaptation in endemic sunflower populations that exhibit bimodal life-history strategies. Their results support a model of ecotypic divergence under gene flow. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag098 #genome #evolution #PlantSky

Safe to say that we are very excited about this here at ESEB! Huge thanks to Brian Golding for entrusting us with the fantastic service that you have created and curated for the years! Follow @evoldir.bsky.social

Once-Adventurous Salmon Can’t Believe She Ended Up Moving Back To Birthplace, Having A Bunch Of Kids https://theonion.com/once-adventurous-salmon-can-t-believe-she-ended-up-movi-1825827223/

Ever seen a reindeer having dreams? Be my guest :) #bliss

Finally is the paper where we present the unique genomic architectures of the Arctic codfishes out!! Nice work by @gadus-sivus.bsky.social and co-authors … @biovitenskap.bsky.social @unioslo-cees.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It's out! I hope this work encourages folks to move beyond a standard "one variant, one gene" QTL paradigm and consider proxitropic variant effects. Big thanks to the reviewers and editors at @ajhgnews.bsky.social for their help! @sbmontgom.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...