#evo devo

[variety-hour]

Against all odds, I submitted a defense-draft of my dissertation to my committee.

Next week, I defend!

#mycology #evo devo #computer biologist

[markscherz]

now accepting guesses as to what this embryo becomes when it matures

#evo-devo is a hell of a drug #zoology #animals #embryology #nature #evolution #can't post a source without giving it away so… sorry. #but the first author on the paper is named Gross #which is just #*chef's kiss*

[homeostasister]

Fun fact: I just learned that

(Source)

I don't know why, but that's so funny to me. Imagine being a developing flower but you're on the edge of the flowerhead so you just have to grow your one single huge petal while your neighbors are making functional stamens and carpels, all to make it look like you're a single unified flower so your plant can get more pollinated. What a strategy, gosh.

#there's whole ass flowers out there whose entire function is Petal #biology #fun fact #plants #flowers #flower development #daisies #compound flowers #evo devo amirite?

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

I know you probably get asked this all the time, but if the technology to clone dinosaurs existed what do you think would happen? (Aside from how they could never be released in the wild, of course) What dinosaur would you most like to see? Also, do you think we could bring back dinosaurs (to a small degree) through selective breeding with birds over time? I doubt it would be possible, but I like to dream!

So, we can't clone nonavian dinosaurs because they're super old. DNA degrades pretty rapidly, and we do not have actually confirmed DNA fragments from anything older than around 2.5 million years. It's just impossible to clone nonavian dinosaurs unless we figure out time travel.

If we do figure out time travel and bring nonavians back, I need to see the first dinosaur. I need to see what level of fluff it had. Frankly, tons of triassic weirdos, because I need to see their floof levels and figure out how feathers evolved. Beyond that, there's too many dinosaurs for me to list.

If we're talking about the avian dinosaurs from the past 2.5 million years we *could*, theoretically, find DNA for and bring back, then I want Pelagornis. That eldritch horror was taken from us waaaaay too soon.

Reverse engineering a dinosaur won't work. I know, because that's what I wanted to do originally, and I went to my first grad program to figure out how to do it, and I learned a lot, and what I learned was that the answer is "no" and Jack Horner needs a new hobby. There's too many variables afoot and too many nonavian dinosaur features that just cannot be put back into the bird genome. What can ya do.

#deextinction #cloning #dinosaurs #birds #evo-devo

[songofwizardry]

obligatory appreciation post for acapella science—every couple months i go back down a rabbit hole and am reminded how brilliant those songs and videos are!

#i am listening to the evo devo one again #and like #it fully formed the basis of my understanding of the field and is why i read endless forms most beautiful #and granted i know fuck all about the subject but both the lyrics and the graphics do such a good job of explaining it??? #my favourite of course is the exoplanets aladdin one #but it's more striking for me to watch the ones about fields i *don't* know very much about #bc you can just see the amount of thought that went into communicating the ideas shine #stem

[wethecelestial]

huge gamer W

#science #@ everyone trying to change the names why would u take away literally the only enjoyable part of evo-devo bio.... #i found out today that they changed the name of MAP kinase kinase kinase (which modifies MAP kinase kinase which in turn modifies MAP kinase #) to ERK.......cowards!!!! #it literally doesn't even make it easier to remember #anyways im so close to finishing all my readings and ran out of steam literally at the last 3....does anyone want 2 learn about genetic #imprinting and genomic medicine for me and then download it all into my brain #the body exists outside itself

[chilope]

just. unironically listening to a cappella science on spotify.

#evo devo and bantings imparted years are just straight bops i will not apologize

[botanyone]

How Gene Duplication Led to the Evolution of Nectar Spurs

Tropaeolaceae flowers have a peculiar feature – a nectar spur formed by the swollen base of the floral tube, that growths on only one side of the flower. New research published in the Annals of Botany by Sebastián Martínez-Salazar and colleagues revealed that duplication of the gene TCP4 in the Tropaeolaceae lineage seems to have enabled the emergence of their unique nectar spurs. The…

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#Annals of Botany #evo-devo #spur evolution #Tropaeolaceae #Tropaeolum

[iiiridium]

Congrats on being the person who won the frog thing!

lol thanks

this is why i got my ecology & evolution degree, so i could successfully guess things on tumblr

#evo devo will always be a mystery to me though. i studied stuff like population genetics and systematics mostly #also i just like frogs a lot. and herps in general

[what-in-crustacean]

I love how scientists naming things range from just naming it after someone or the place where the thing was found, to descriptive names

Then there's the sonic hedgehog gene

Where a bunch of graduate students named it that bc they didn't know it was going to be one of the most important genes in development in organisms and their completely exhausted minds thought it looked like sonic the hedgehog

#bio stories #still my favorite naming story #then i had to listen to my 70 yo professor say sonic the hedgehog every day when i was in evo devo

[inthewindtunnel]

Paradox Obscur

Evo-Devo

#Paradox Obscur #Evo-Devo #Youtube

[markscherz]

As you're a proper phd scientist who made it through the gauntlet of higher education, I then assume that you have done some classes that have landed you in a fly lab or two. Do you happen to have a favorite Drosophila melanogaster mutation? Mine is apterous because they're flies who cant do the one thing they're named for (they can't fly).

I managed to avoid the fly labs, but I had amazing lectures by the inimitable Dr Vernon French during my bachelors at the University of Edinburgh about evo-devo and Drosophila. No better way to develop a deep fascination with HOX genes and other transcription factors. Off the top of my head, I think Bithorax is pretty nifty.

[src]

#drosophila #homeobox #HOX #evo-devo #answers by Mark #wolf-pearl #this is not related to herpetology #science #animals

[doyouseethisshitmyliege]

I finished agro biotechnology!! In 1 day !! :D

#i can start plant evo devo tomorrow and hopefully finish that too #life is good 🤸‍♀️

[catboybiologist]

could you explain why/if we can't just copy the genes of one animal and splice them into another animal, for example why we couldn't give humans cat ears?

There's no one easy way to answer this, but the basic answer is that it's not that simple. There's no one gene, or even easily reducible set of genes, that just is "make cat ears". Not only is there a network of genes activated within a cell, there are a myriad of signals from nearby cells (the "microenvironment") as well as cues from the rest of the body and environment.

So each one of the cells making your ear isn't just encoded to be a cell that makes your ear. In fact, most of them don't have any "ear" genetic characteristics or activation. They're generic cartilage or skin cells that were told to grow more or less by neighboring cells or distant cells during carefully coordinated times during growth and development. Each cell interprets this signal in different ways, and also receives multiple signals at a time, the combination of which can produce unique results.

The easiest to interpret example of this is finger development. During development, when your hand is still a fingerless paddle, a single cell on the pinky side of your hand (or thumb side, it could be reversed) releases a signalling molecules to nearby cells. A cell receiving the highest dose will start to become a pinky, and send a signal for the cells immediately around it to aide in that. The next cell that isn't aiding that, but still receives the initial signal, receives a lower concentration of that signal since it's further away. That lower concentration signals a ring finger, and it repeats until you get thumbs at the lowest concentrations.

That's the most visible example, but it's similar to what happens all over the body- signals that are dependent on the structure and genetics of the microenvironment, not just the genetics of the developing cells alone.

This careful network of timing, signals, gene activations, and spatial placement of cells is the core of the field of Developmental Biology (which, technically, my PhD is in as well bc it's often wrapped in with molecular bio lol).

So making cat ears on a human genetically would essentially require not only genetic manipulation, but also babysitting the fetus the entire time and adding in localized signals to the microenvironment of the developing ear cells, which is essentially impossible. There's too much "human" flying around to realistically get that result, and an attempt at doing so would essentially be akin to molecular sculpting. That's why *my* preferred approach would be epithelial stem cell manipulation/printing and subsequent grafting, but that's an entirely different thing.

If you're interested in this kind of thing, the most approachable and engaging summary of developmental biology is the book "Your Inner Fish", by Neil Shubin, the discoverer of Tiktaalik. He summarizes a lot of dev biology through the lens of evolutionary biology, which is a great way to see how differences in structures have arisen and differentiate across the tree of life.

If you want a shorter introduction, and like cute but kinda "cringey in the way you love" science parodies: the song evo-devo by a capella science is really fun and gets stuck in my head a lot:

But yeah, hope that answered your question!

#biology #developmental biology #catboy #catgirl #nyanbinary #if this combination of tags doesnt describe my entire persona idk what does

[homochadensistm]

BEAUTIFUL ISRAELI LESBIAN WIFE, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ARCHAEOLOGY? of the archaeological sites in Israel, which one is the coolest? do you have a favorite culture, time period? which cave is the best? most interesting pre-Bronze Age site(s)? of archaeology in Israel (sites and as a study/historiography), is there anything particularly weird, like just fucking bizarro? any vampire graves?

idk if theres one coolest site, a lot are pretty neat. theres a one of its kind (in the whole world) bronze age graveyard with over 2000 burials, theres the 'middle eastern Stonehenge', theres the first ever burial of human+dog, theres the witch of Hilazon cave, theres the underground towns of the Negev, theres the meeting point between European Neanderthals and H. sapiens, and the 2nd meeting point between later European immigrants and 'assimilated' European early humans, and much more. My fave periods are probably the Netolithic-Chalcolithic cause of the huge and intertwined evolutionary and cultural shifts, and the Middle Paleolithic, for the same reason, since Im a big fan of evo devo and a firm believer in the culture->biology->culture thesis.

Theres lots of caves in Israel and I simply cannot pick The Best. I like Amud cave a lot.

As for bizarre stuff....idk, I think the plastered PPNB skulls are pretty weird. There are intermediate bronze age tombs that were dug 8 fucking meters into the ground, which I also think is weird. Theres a cursed tomb too. In general the whole necropolis of Beit Shearim is really freaky to walk through, especially the areas that arent yet fully open to the public, with the narrow, moist and pitch black corridors stretching between each burial chamber and the collapsing ceiling lmao.

#israel #archaeology

[elodieunderglass]

Was thinking about your horrible things with legs tag once again, because it is a treasure, and I remembered the fruit fly mutant Antp or Antennapedia, which I think fits.

It's a Hox gene mutant that causes them to grow legs where their antennae should be.

Bon appetit

Thank you! This is referred to in this very accurate translation of despacito educational video about evo-devo at 2:20 - “switch a couple bases in the proper places, you’ll be watching flies grow legs out of their faces”