Start of the Bast-Lab
I am very happy that my research group will start November. Thank you, DFG Emmy-Nöther Program! http://www.zoologie.uni-koeln.de/bast.html
New Recipe Video
Check out this new recipe video for “Berni Pasta”. An easy and quick to prepare dish that can be made vegan.
Two new preprints
Before Christmas, Kamil and me published two paper on bioRxiv: Genomic features of asexual animals Are there any general consequences of asexuality? We reviewed and reanalysed evidence in 24 asexual animal genomes available. Asexual reproduction drives the reduction of transposable element load Sexual reproduction drives success of parasitic TEs. Abandon sex and you will be […]
Genomes from Dantelabs
I ordered the Black Friday special deal to sequence the full human genome with 30x coverage and 100 bp PE reads for only 169€ from dantelabs. Curious what comes out of it. Not just the health report but also how I can use it to do some ancestry analyses maybe using fineSTRUCTURE or iAdmix. All […]
New recipes added
You can now find the very important recipe for “Mousse au chocolat” as well as “Abatzder”. The hit for every party.
New paper: Consequences of asexuality in natural populations: insights from stick insects
New paper: Consequences of asexuality in natural populations: insights from stick insects Featured in Nature Research Highlights: Sex pays off for stick insects despite costs We empirically tested theoretical predictions of the genomic consequences of asexuality using 5 Timema sex-asex sister pairs that are ecologically similar: signatures of arrested GC-biased gene conversion in asexuals that […]
New paper: effective selection in ancient asexuals
No sex, no problem! Biologists from Goettingen and Lausanne analyse how loss of sex affects the genetic makeup of oribatid mites Sexual reproduction is linked to various benefits for the survival of a species. Amongst others, sex counters the accumulation of accidentally occurring deleterious mutations by allowing for exchange of genetic material. According to the […]
Redesign of the homepage
I re-designed the homepage a bit and it is still ongoing.
New paper: Decay of sexual trait genes in an asexual parasitoid wasp
A bit late, but here is a new paper from Ken on decay of genes involved in sexual traits I am co-author on. Available open access at GBE.
New book chapter
Kirsten, Tanja and me wrote a while ago a chapter on the “Evolution and Maintenance of Sex” for an encyclopedia of evolutionary biology. I am really happy how it turned out. You can find it here (and upon request): researchgate