WGDip

This time last year marked the beginning of the #WGDip project! 🥳 Are you interested in eukaryotic evolution & whole genome duplication? So are we! Find out more about who we are and what we are doing on our website: www.rediploidisation.org 🧪🧬 @ukri.org #BBSRC #sLoLa

Congrats to #WGDip team members Dan Macqueen, @manukumargundappa.bsky.social & colleagues for their @natecoevo.nature.com paper, which shows that regulatory evolution following WGD was shaped by developmental & tissue-specific constraints that act across vertebrate species🐟🧪 edin.ac/4hVnxAe

Congrats to #WGDip team members @tomlewin.bsky.social @dervc.bsky.social @phylogenie.bsky.social & @peterhox.bsky.social , who with their colleague @yjluo.bsky.social , provide evidence consistent with lineage-specific rediploidisation following a cryptic polyploidy event shared by all bryozoans! 🧪

More on #WGDip participation at the International Polyploidy Conference 2026! Dan Macqueen discussed rediploidisation's role in making new genes🧬, while Drew Larson & Kevin Bird shared insights on rediploidisation following WGD in the salmonids 🐟 and apple tribe🍎.

Big congratulations to our ECRs who shared their work through poster presentations at #IPC2026! Great science on display from Annabelle Knutson, Brianna Banting, Emily Haley, Kevin Bird, Morgane Milin & Zoe Vance. Thank you for sharing your work & sparking great conversations #Polyploidy #ECR #WGDip

What an incredible few days at the International Polyploidy Conference 2026! 🧬 Great to have discussions with such a fantastic #polyploidy community! Huge thanks to the organizers, speakers, and everyone who presented for making it such a great meeting. #WGD #IPC2026

1 week to go until the International Polyploidy Conference! 🎉 The #WGDip team is heading to the Netherlands with a full lineup of speakers & presenters. We are excited for a great week of polyploidy science. 🧪 See you all there 👋 #IPC2026 www.pe-rc.nl/events/inter...

Congratulations to Lukasz Niezabitowski, @roisinlong.bsky.social , @phylogenie.bsky.social & Aoife McLysaght on their paper “A comprehensive and accessible database of jawed-vertebrate ohnologs” 🐟🧪 Read here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Access the database here: ohnologs.com

Thanks @luohaoxu.bsky.social for presenting at #WGDip’s science forum. Using snow carp as a model, he argued that chromosome fusions often initiate rediploidisation after autopolyploidy. Featuring a haplotype-resolved assembly with 443 chromosomes (20n!) & insights into polyploid sex determination.

The #WGDip team is investigating the role of whole genome duplication & rediploidisation in shaping the evolution of eukaryotes. We've added a new page showcasing some of the lineages & organisms we're exploring (it's not an exhaustive list!). Take a look 👇 www.rediploidisation.org/meet-the-gen...

Huge congratulations to #WGDip project partner Aoife McLysaght for receiving the Community Service Award from @official-smbe.bsky.social. This recognises Aoife’s outstanding contributions and commitment to building stronger research communities through collaboration, leadership, and generosity. 👏

The #WGDip team really enjoyed #SMBE2026! We shared posters from Zoe Vance, Anthony Redmond and Lucas Freitas, plus flash talks from Róisín Long and Lukasz Niezabitowski. Great to see growing interest in rediploidisation with lots of interesting chats! Thanks to the organisers for an epic meeting! 👏

📢 Join us for a seminar by Professor Luohao Xu: "Snow carps as an emerging model for polyploid genome evolution". 🗓️20 July 2026 ⏰14:00–15:00 📝 Register HERE: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/zeAtDkh2iR This talk follows Professor Xu's recent publication in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

Showing some @wgdip.bsky.social work at #SMBE2026! Swing by poster 217 for a chat about whole genome duplication in yeast and why many of the duplicated genes appear to have been created at different points in time

The @royalsociety.org Pangenomics Transforms Evolutionary Biology conference highlighted how pangenomics is revolutionising evolutionary biology & polyploid research. 🧪 Well done to all presenters and co-organisers 👏@henrylnorth.bsky.social @joanameier.bsky.social @charlottewright.bsky.social

WGDip team member Ilia Leitch @biggenomes.bsky.social travelled to Edinburgh to speak on the importance of genome size variation across the tree of life, considering ecological & evolutionary consequences. With Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social who updated us on his research progress in #WGDip

Congrats to the Oxford team including #WGDip team member Peter Holland @peterhox.bsky.social on their @nature.com paper on the importance of WGDs in the development of vertebrate brains🧠, showing that resulting ohnologues continued to support cell-type evolution & development of vertebrate brains 🧪

#WGDip hosted @ferdix.bsky.social (University College London) who reviewed the emergence of chaetognaths & priapulids. Discussing gene duplication, cryptic WGD, the impact of gene loss & maintenance or dispersion of ancestral bilaterian linkage groups & the emergence of new cell types & morphologies

Are you interested in eukaryotic evolution & whole genome duplication? So are we! Find out more about #WGDip and the work we have been doing on our website: www.rediploidisation.org

Happy #BiologicalDiversityDay! 🌍🌿🐟🐌 #WGDip explores how WGD & rediploidisation have shaped eukaryotic diversity through evolutionary time. By studying genomes from a wide range of organisms, we aim to understand how these processes contributed to the extraordinary diversity of life we see today!

Angiosperms have a complex evolutionary history shaped by WGD, with different plant groups experiencing these events at different times & frequencies! #WGDip is looking at the Maleae tribe. This fascinating group includes familiar favourites like apples, pears & quinces 🍏🍐🍎

#WGDip is exploring the genomic history of species across the eukaryotic tree of life. This includes the flowering plant order Ericales - an incredibly diverse lineage with over 12,000 species! Chances are, you already know (and love) some of its members… like tea, kiwi, and blueberries! 🍵🥝🫐

Congrats to @luohaoxu.bsky.social & team for revealing the role of chromosome fusions in initiating asynchronous rediploidisation in autotetraploid snow carp. Featuring #WGDip lead Dan Macqueen as co-author. A landmark study in our ongoing understanding of rediploidisation! @nature.com @ukri.org 🧪

Today we celebrate #NationalDNADay and reflect on how far genomic science has come, from discovering the structure of DNA🧬 to the completion of the Human Genome Project🌐. Without these insights, modern evolutionary genomics projects like #WGDip wouldn’t be possible! 🧪

Happy #EarthDay! 🌍 As evolutionary biology researchers, we’re reminded every day that the diversity of life on Earth is the result of millions of years of evolution, adaptation, & resilience. Today we acknowledge the importance of protecting the natural world that makes this research possible! 🐌🐟🌱

Our ECRs recently travelled to Dublin for two fantastic days filled with science, collaboration, and a bit of well-earned fun! #WGDip #ECR

📢Join us at the International Polyploidy Conference! #WGDip will be present with two invited speakers: Project Lead Prof. Dan Macqueen & Project Partner Prof. Aoife McLysaght. www.pe-rc.nl/events/inter... @w-u-r.bsky.social @pe-rc.bsky.social #IPC2026 🧪

Want to hear more from the #WGDip team members? Head over to our website to watch the full video series. 🎥🗣️💬 www.rediploidisation.org/video-files @ukri.org #BBSRC #sLoLa

Hear from Jack, a Science Engagement Manager at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. He hopes that #WGDip will engage the public with the DNA data revolution & explain why large-scale datasets are key to answering some of science’s toughest questions! 🧬🌍 @sangerinstitute.bsky.social

Hear what impact Peter hopes #WGDip will have on the science community and on our understanding of what happens following a whole genome duplication! @peterhox.bsky.social

Hear why Aoife is excited to be working as part of the #WGDip team. Aoife is a project partner lead from Trinity College Dublin. 🌟Tell us what excites you about your work!🌟 @tcddublin.bsky.social

Hear what impact Ilia hopes #WGDip will have on the science community and on our understanding of evolution! She is a project co-lead from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 🌟How do you see WGDip impacting your research?🌟 @biggenomes.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social

🧪A recent article in Science Advances revisits long-debated WGD events during early seed plant evolution. Using dosage-sensitive genes as markers of WGD, the authors found little support for an angiosperm-specific WGD, and strong evidence for a single WGD shared by all seed plants. buff.ly/W0hQYno

Hear about Dearbhaile's role in #WGDip, a Post-doc from the University of Oxford. 🌟Tell us what your typical day looks like!🌟 @dervc.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk

The #WGDip team has created videos spotlighting our amazing researchers and team members. We asked about their roles, what excites them, and the impact they hope WGDip will have. Stay tuned over the coming weeks and check in regularly to hear their stories!

As part of our sLoLa project meeting, the #WGDip team got a tour of the beautiful Wellcome Sanger Campus 🌿🧬Great science, great company, and an inspiring place to talk all things whole-genome duplication! @sangerinstitute.bsky.social @ukri.org

The #WGDip team kicked off 2026 with an in-person meeting hosted at the Wellcome Genome Campus✨. We had a fun, science-packed two days that strongly advanced our plans to work together across both our research and science outreach plans - it's going to be an exciting year!

📢Meet the team! Andrea Mazgaleva is a Project Coordinator in the Tree of Life Programme. For the #WGDip project, Andrea will be overseeing the production of 15 chromosome-level reference genomes through the ToL pipeline. 🧬💻

🧪New preprint from WGDip lead Dan Macqueen with collaborators from the AQUA-FAANG project www.aqua-faang.eu, including WGDip team member Manu Kumar Gundappa. Exploring regulatory evolution following the autotetraploid WGD ancestral to salmonids (featuring rediploidization!) doi.org/10.64898/202...

We are 8 months into the sLoLa-funded #WGDip project! Find out more about our project and the work we have been doing on our website: www.rediploidisation.org

From all of us on the #WGDip team, we’re wishing you a joyful, restful, and cosy holiday season ❄️🎄 We can’t wait to see what the year ahead has in store! 🎉

📢Meet the team! Finn McHale is a Research Assistant from the University of Oxford. His recent Master's project investigated WGD of snails and slugs!🐌 Now he's looking for signs of delayed rediploidisation in other invertebrate genomes with #WGDip Read Finn's paper here:📝 doi.org/10.1002/jez....