We've been funded to start using Dictyostelium as a model system for early endomembrane evolution!! Now I'm hiring a Postdoc to join the lab in Edmonton and start playing with Dicty in the lab:) iaejup.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

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The kinetochore is essential for cell division across species, but its components and organization evolve dramatically. How can that be? Our first foray into this fascinating question is up now on biorxiv: 🧪 1/12 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Thrilled to share this pre-print from an exciting collaboration with @bnashby.bsky.social, @asherleeks.bsky.social and @bramvandijk.bsky.social! Viral cheats that emerge through social evolution, under vertical transmission as proviruses, become defense systems to their hosts.

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New preprint from our lab, with @sultannazir.bsky.social! 🚨 Defense systems in pro- and eukaryotes are often derived from the very parasites they now defend against. Here we show how this all starts with the emergence of cheaters in parasite populations! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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🚨 New paper with @bramvandijk.bsky.social, out now in Genome Biology and Evolution! Why do accessory genes so often hitch a ride on temperate phages? We show that spatial structure alone can tip selection toward a prophage locus over a chromosomal one. doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 🧵 Two mechanisms:

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