Jenn Coughlan

This is so cool:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Discovery of a Genetic Toxin-Antidote System in Vertebrates

hat tip to @asaflevylab.bsky.social

Figure demonstrating how the ordering of temperatures through time determines whether an ectothermic population experiencing those temperatures will go extinct

Thrilled to share that my first dissertation chapter is now published at Ecology! dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

We embed TPCs into population dynamics to show how changing temperatures' ordering — not just its distribution — increases extinction risk (i.e. heatwaves matter!)

@esajournals.bsky.social

thank you!!!!!

aww, thank you!!!!

so excellent to know- I'm outing myself as a Canadian!!!

Finally, it's been an incredibly weird year (personally, professionally, globally, etc). I've been trying to reconnect with my joy of science, and most importantly, with the people that I have the pleasure & privilege of working with. So happy we get to share some of that joy with y'all!

a man applauds in front of a sign that says schitts sook proud ALT: a man applauds in front of a sign that says schitts sook proud

We're excited to dig-in more deeply: with theory and LOTS OF MAPPING!! Also, we're keen to know how common this phenomenon is (i.e., this cool paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...). In the meantime, I'm so proud of Megan, Hagar, and Pia and all of the TREMENDOUS work they've put into this paper.

So all-in-all, we think that hybrid seed inviability is evolving so rapidly, in part, because selfish evolution paired with introgression means that incompatibility alleles can invade and spread. This creates a patchwork of incompatibility in these closely related species.

We find evidence that this barrier seems to evolve via conflict. Interestingly though, we also find evidence that two incidences appear to share a genetic basis & have a history of introgression, potentially suggesting that introgression has moved incompatibility alleles around the landscape.

a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue out and says `` wait ! what ?? '' . ALT: a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue out and says `` wait ! what ?? '' .

So, we've discovered what looks like a rapidly and repeatedly evolving barrier (the entire complex is ~600-700kya). The barrier is strongly structured by geography rather than phylogeny. What's up with that?

a man in a leather jacket is making a funny face while looking at the camera . ALT: a man in a leather jacket is making a funny face while looking at the camera .

There are other, closely related species endemic to the Sierras. So we crossed those too! Low & behold, they too have the SAME pattern of incompatibility. Wild! But that's not all- I'd seen this pattern of incompatibility before: www.cell.com/current-biol...

a man with curly hair and glasses is making a funny face and saying huh . ALT: a man with curly hair and glasses is making a funny face and saying huh .

We performed an absolutely MASSIVE intraspecific crossing survey (3K crosses!) & find that hybrid seed inviability has evolved within the widespread M. guttatus, with seeds dying when pops from the Sierras are the sire. Curiously, these Sierran pops are NOT monophyletic, which got us thinking...

Introgression and parental conflict shape repeated occurrences of postzygotic isolation in Mimulus Postzygotic reproductive isolation is often thought to accumulate as a byproduct of neutral divergence. Yet it frequently evolves rapidly, in line wit…

I am SO THRILLED to share our first fully-lab lab paper!!!!!! Led by @hybridzones.bsky.social & @hagarsoliman.bsky.social, w/ a major assist from @pfschwarz.bsky.social!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read more below, if you're curious (you should be- it's AWESOME!!!!!!!)

link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy International Women’s Day! We are grateful to the incredible women who lead (and have led) the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution, & to all the women ecologists & evolutionary biologists across Canada for their important work. You help make our society, country, & planet a better place!

Joyeuse Journée internationale des femmes! Nous sommes reconnaissants envers les femmes extraordinaires qui dirigent (et qui ont dirigé) la SCEE, ainsi qu’envers toutes les femmes écologistes et biologistes de l’évolution à travers le Canada pour leur travail essentiel.

The School of Biosciences at University of Birmingham is recruiting FIVE Assistant/Associate Profs in areas including fungal biology, plant science and bioengineering. Full details below 🍄🌾🧬🧫

Friends, we need to set the bar higher than this.

Just a few days left to submit the ASN student research award (due March 13th)!!!! This is an AWESOME opportunity for students to get some grant writing experience!!! We LOVE reading your grants and giving feedback!!!!!!!!!!! Apply, Apply, Apply!!!!!!

www.amnat.org/announcement...

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

Are you a grad student attending #Evol2026? Submit your talk for the SSE Hamilton Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation! Finalists will present their talks during the virtual portion of the meeting. Apply during registration. Deadline April 15! shorturl.at/qDIP4 @evolmtg.bsky.social

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

📢 Now accepting proposals for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Applicants must be members of SSE. Deadline: May 18, 2026
www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Heliconius erato demophoon sat on a pink, yellow and white lantana flower. The left side of the butterfly is white, while the right side is the usual black and red, but with some white clonal patches.

New preprint form me and the McMillan lab at STRI and Martin lab at GWU, digging into scale cell type specification and differentiation in Heliconius wings, with some insights on the lncRNA gene ivory.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Comments/suggestions welcome!

I will request that you cover your welcome-to-class yacht rock classics themed as big concepts in popgen (I recall there being a thread about this ages ago).

yes, yes, yes!!!!!

YES!!! Where's @jeffgroh.bsky.social???? Get the band back together again!!!

Promises to be poppin (🍿)

BUT SRSLY PLEASE REGISTER, WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

this looks AWESOME!!!! Congrats to all- I can't wait to read!!!!!

Cara Brand Department of Genetics at Rutgers University

Cara will continue her work on coevolution between DNA satellites and essential host proteins in her new lab in the Dept of Genetics at Rutgers! See: genetics.rutgers.edu/people/facul...

So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.

Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

University of Toronto is hiring:
Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology

#assistantprofessorposition

OMG I can't believe you're missing this bonkers blizzard AND hanging with a Welwitschia