Rebecca Tarnopol

Now that the cat’s out of the bag: Excited to announce I will be starting a research group as a Sandler Fellow this August at UCSF! We will study the evolution of protein toxins at the host-pathogen interface across scales of biological organization. Learn more here: www.tarnopollab.org

Stoked for this GRC and also for the corresponding GRS June 12-13, co-chaired by @meganbehrmann.bsky.social and myself. Will be an excellent meeting for students and postdocs in functional evolutionary genetics working in diverse model systems! More to come here: www.grc.org/molecular-me...

Hey #Drosophila folks - the #flycross #mentee survey is open for #grad students, #postdoc and #pretenure faculty. ~95 mentors from across the world, with diverse expertise. The co-chairs @shyama13.bsky.social and @jocmcdonald.bsky.social have done a phenomenal work in taking the program forward 🎉

Meet GEValT! Germline Engineering by Viral transduction! No more injections www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fly people: please consider nominating your PhD student who completed their dissertation in any area of Drosophila research between July 2025 and December 2026 for the @genetics-gsa.bsky.social Larry Sandler Award. Nominations due by November 12: genetics-gsa.org/awards/larry...

Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds. ⁠ Learn more on #NationalHummingbirdDay: https://scim.ag/3YMuQQu

Nominations for the GSA Larry Sandler Award are now open! genetics-gsa.org/awards/larry... This award recognizes an outstanding PhD thesis (graduating between 07/2025 and 12/2026) in any area of Drosophila research. Include 1) the thesis abstract, 2) the Nominee's CV and 3) a nomination letter.

MCB is hiring Assistant Professors across 3 divisions!: 🧪BBS: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05483 🧬GGED: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05481 🦠IMM: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05486 🗓️ Application Deadline: October 19, 2026 🔗 Click the links or scan the QR codes to learn more and apply

I’m thrilled to share that our search for a tenure-track colleague in my *truly wonderful and collegial* Genetics, Genomics, Evolution and Development Division in the MCB Department at Berkeley @berkeleymcb.bsky.social is live! Please share this broad search widely: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05481

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Eukaryotic domestication of a bacterial immune protein following horizontal transfer https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.30.722052v1

Now accepting applications for our 2027 Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution! These awards support students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs to conduct #ecology and #evolution research. Deadline is June 30, 2026: bit.ly/4umYKZd #science

A bacterial gene acquired by parasitoid wasps contributes to venom secretion against host defence -in @embojournal.org with @rokaslab.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Are you curious about animal origins? Want to perturb their genetics to find out more? Now it's a lot cheaper: the FUNR @frutag33.bsky.social Lab's effort to make transfection more accessible for choanos (& relatives) is up now! 🧬 
 A brief 🧵1/5

Proposals are due May 18 for this year’s Graduate Research Excellence Grants! Up to $2500 for 1st and 2nd year grad students and up to $3500 for 3rd years and above. Learn more and apply now! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Very honored to receive this award from GSA! I have immense gratitude for my advisor @nkwhiteman.bsky.social, labmates, collaborators, mentees, and the fly community, who in many ways potentiated my graduate research. Looking forward to sharing my work at my favorite meeting in my favorite city!

The #fly community aims to achieve a comprehensive genomic study of the Drosophilidae family. @pankajd.bsky.social @bernardkim.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social @darrenobbard.bsky.social present a comparative gene annotation for 301 #Drosophilidae species @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4c3pyrI

Are you a Drosophila researcher & member of @genetics-gsa.bsky.social (at any level of training)? Please vote in the Flyboard elections (we have an amazing slate of candidates) before Feb 20, 2026. Please check your email or go to this website to vote: genetics-gsa.org/2026-fly-boa... Pl repost.

Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Excited to share the latest work by outstanding PhD student @kdc509.bsky.social. This was one of our first forays into experimental evolution and uncovered some cool connections between potassium transport and antimicrobial resistance in S. aureus. Major kudos to Killian!

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social undergrads, there is still space in this course on the cellular, genetic, and developmental basis of evolution taught by Professor Nicole King and me this Fall. Find out why, as Dobzhansky, said "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Applications now open for the SSE GREG Rosemary Grant Advanced Awards! These grants provide up to $3500 to expand your dissertation work. Submit your proposal by September 15! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

📢 There is a lab technician or lab specialist position available in my lab, starting fall 2025. The position will involve molecular biology, microbiology, drosophila work, and more. Please share with anyone who may be interested and apply here: jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/R0...

Pleased this paper led by Teru Matsunaga at University of Tokyo (former postdoc) and in collaboration with many colleagues is out @official-smbe.bsky.social Molecular Biology & Evolution: doi.org/10.1093/molb.... Palp-expressed Or42a is an isothiocyanate sensor and can drive aversion to ITCs…

We currently have a call for support that has gone out to European labs, to support FlyBase-UK. We are asking our colleagues from labs in the US and other countries to wait for a similar call to them that will go out in the near future, to support the US sites. We thank you for your patience.

Get the word out far and wide. New opportunity from the Simons Foundation in the Eco-Evo space. 2026 Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution Awards, due July 31, 2025, only for incoming PhD students who plan to start their PhDs in Fall 2026. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

🚨New paper alert!🚨 We show that hummingbird beaks have changed in shape & size since around WWII, driven by the rise of commercialized feeders! 🧵 📄 Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #ornithology #evolution #GlobalChangeBiology

Wolbachia uses ankyrin repeats to target specific fly proteins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.654400v1

I know you like #Drosophila and I know you like #Genomes - but do you also like #Genes? Coding DNA annotation of 304 species of Drosophilidae! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genomics and reproductive biology of Leptopilina malgretoutensis Buffington, Lue, Davis & Tracey sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Figitidae): An asexual parasitoid of Caribbean Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.645512v1

Excited to be in sunny San Diego for my 5th (!) fly meeting #Dros25! I will be giving a poster (329T) tomorrow on some new host-parasitoid experiments — would love to chat with interested folks!

Excellent news about an excellent resource from our excellent collaborator!!

Our work on Velvet Ant venom was published online today in Current Biology www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...