Lab Updates

We have several exciting developments in the lab…

• Several members walked in support of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention.

• We participated in the second annual KU Center for Genomics Symposium. The event was a success with many great research talks from colleagues both near and far, two poster sessions, and a fun Up-Goer-5 competition where scientists explain their research using only the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language (it’s harder than you think!).

• Rob attended a mini Meiotic Drive conference in Switzerland, where 25 researchers from around the world worked on finalizing a new review for the field.

• Anjali, Jesse, and Rob attended the Evolution meeting in Albuquerque, NM, where Jesse and Anjali gave talks and took pictures with some old lab friends of those of us who couldn’t attend the conference.

• Nilanjan studied hard all spring and summer and successfully passed his qualifying exam at the end of summer!!!

• There was a successful outing to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, which it seems like we are making an annual lab event.

Recent Papers and Preprints

• Evolution of five environmentally responsive gene families in a pine‐feeding sawfly, Neodiprion lecontei (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae)

KL Vertacnik, DK Herrig, RK Godfrey, T Hill, SM Geib, RL Unckless, ...

Ecology and Evolution 13 (10), e10506

• SARS-CoV-2 Mac1 is required for IFN antagonism and efficient virus replication in cell culture and in mice

YM Alhammad, S Parthasarathy, R Ghimire, CM Kerr, JJ O’Connor, ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (35), e2302083120

• The genetic basis of variation in immune defense against Lysinibacillus fusiformis infection in Drosophila melanogaster

BR Smith, KB Patch, A Gupta, EM Knoles, RL Unckless

PLoS Pathogens 19 (8), e1010934

New special issue of Journal of Evolutionary Biology focusing on sex chromosomes

ESEB’s Journal of Evolutionary Biology published a special issue on sex chromosome evolution today. The issue features several contributions from lab members. First, Wen-Juan Ma (postdoc) organized and served as one of the guest editors for the issue. Maggie Schedl (graduate student) designed the cover image (see right). The lab (including Wen-Juan, undergrads Emma Knoles and Murtaza Shoaib, and technician Kistie Patch) published a paper on aneuploidy and meiotic drive. Wen-Juan also wrote an introduction and review with Michail Rovatsos.

Lab bowling outing

Part II of our lab retreat was a trip to the bowling alley. We had a very broad range of skills.

Several new members of the lab!

This fall we have several new arrivals:

Maggie Schedl: Maggie started as a technician in the lab in fall 2021, but has transitioned to become a masters student this fall. Maggie works on the Drosophila innubila Nudivirus.

Emma Knoles: Emma was an undergraduate and technician in the lab and is now in the KU PREP program (https://prep.ku.edu/) , a post-baccalaureate program. Emma works on the evolution of immunity and is applying to PhD programs this fall.

Anjali Gupta: Anjali is a new EEB PhD student in the lab. She comes from NG Prasad’s lab at Mohali IISER in India. Anjali will work on the role of antimicrobial peptides in the gut and systemic immunity.

Taylor Conway: Taylor is a new EEB PhD student in the lab. She comes from Rebekah Rogers’ lab at UNC Charlotte. Taylor will work on aspects of meiotic drive in Drosophila.

Paul Ginsberg: Paul is a new KU Center for Genomics Postdoctoral Fellow. He comes from the University of Georgia, where he did his PhD with Kelly Dyer. Paul will be co-advised with Justin Blumenstiel and will work on B chromosome evolution.

Wen-Juan to start a faculty position in the Biology Department at Vrije Universiteit Brussels

Wen-Juan Ma (current postdoc) will start her own position in the Biology Department at the Free University of Brussels. The lab will be funded by an ERC Research grant and is recruiting at all levels PhDs/Postdocs/tech. The Ma Lab will focus on studying all topics on the evolution and genomics of sex chromosomes, sex determination, and evolution of sex. We will largely work on amphibians but also work on insects, plants and fungi to address related questions.

Big events in the lab

July and August will be busy months for the lab. First, Sarah Mullinax will defend her dissertation on July 21st. She’s the first student to graduate from the lab. The next day, Kervens Accilien will take his qualifying exam. We’ve had Jaedyn O’Reilly working in the lab this summer as an NSF REU student. We also have three new people coming: Paul Ginsburg (KU Center for Genomics Postdoctoral Fellow) coming from the University of Georgia, Taylor Conway (EEB graduate student) coming from UNC Charlotte, Anjali Gupta (EEB graduate student) coming from the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) in Mohali, and Emma Knoles (KU PREP) scholar coming from KU! Looking forward to a busy fall!

Note also that KU will be hiring several researchers in genomics this fall, so be on the lookout!

Nilanjan Roy joins the lab as a graduate student

Nilanjan Roy

Nilanjan Roy is a new graduate student in the lab after completing a full round of rotations. Nilanjan is from Dhaka, Bangladesh and holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Military Institute of Science and Technology in Dhaka. He will work on various aspects of transcriptomic responses to infection in Drosophila. Welcome Nilanjan!