Ayush Valecha
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ayushvalecha.bsky.social
Ayush Valecha
@ayushvalecha.bsky.social
180 followers 630 following 7 posts
Doctoral Researcher modeling protective symbiosis @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social‬
#evolutionary_theory | #epidemiology | #microbiology
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Reposted by Ayush Valecha
bweek.bsky.social
Really nice opportunity to run polygenic adaptation experiments on Drosophila as a postdoc with the great @nedabarghi.bsky.social ! Located at MPI in the lovely town of Ploen. Come join this wonderful research community ::))

evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...
https://evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldir/PostDocs//MPI-EvolBiol_Germany.PolygenicAdaptation
A Postdoctoral position is available in Evolution of Polygenic Traits Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology- Pl�n, Germany. Our group studies the genetic basis of adaptat...
evol.mcmaster.ca
November 14, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
Big cheers from MPI for Evolutionary Biology! 🎉
Our alumna Dr. Christin Nyhoegen wins the KlarText Prize 2025 for her piece “Penicillin and a Small Dose of Mathematics.”
She shows how math helps improve antibiotic treatments and prevent resistance. 👏
#KlarTextPreis #MPIEvolBio #ScienceCommunication
November 14, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
alyulina.github.io
How is functional variation at large-effect loci maintained in natural populations, even as environments change? In a paper led by @mkarag.bsky.social, we tracked known pesticide resistant alleles in outdoor 𝘋. 𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 cages & inferred selection and dominance from temporal sequencing data.
Glass beads of all sorts balancing on wavy threads.
November 6, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Happy to share this AREES paper on Evolutionary Immunology
www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fu...
Now "officially" published OA. Hope its useful... it was a joy working w great colleagues on this one. @nataliesteinel.bsky.social @grahammunology.bsky.social @laurenfuess.bsky.social
www.annualreviews.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
annadewar.bsky.social
Great to have Dr David Sünderhauf visit Oxford over the past couple of days!

A really nice talk on competition between plasmids carrying CRISPR-Cas and Toxin-antitoxin systems. Theory, experiments and bioinformatics all in one project!

@davvi36.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
natmicrobiol.nature.com
#NewResearch

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition

@erikbakkeren.bsky.social

#microsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology
Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
sarahhird.bsky.social
For some (like 👉 this guy 👈) this is Drop Everything Important.

www.target.com/p/lego-ideas...
The evolution of STEM Lego set. Lego set on sale from $79.99 to $45.99. Sale ends Friday
November 6, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
vincentcastric.bsky.social
With @aconga.bsky.social we wrote a short Dispatch to highlight two awesome companion papers in @currentbiology.bsky.social by @jeffgroh.bsky.social, @gcbias.bsky.social and by Liu et al. on how the control of heterodichogamy is going nuts in the Juglandaceae :

www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
aconga.bsky.social
Hermaphroditic plants also use TIME ⏰🌿 to avoid selfing.

Two new @currentbiology.bsky.social papers explore the rapid turnover of this trait in the wingnut family.

Both @vincentcastric.bsky.social and I summarized these findings 👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1m2MA3QW8S...

#Evolution #PlantBiology
November 4, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
gcbias.bsky.social
A nice commentary by Contreras-Garrido & @vincentcastric.bsky.social on our & Liu, Wang et al's papers on the fascinating genetics & evolutionary turnover of wingnut tree mating systems
@currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Evolution: Disassortative mating going nuts
Reciprocal timing of the maturity of male and female flowers on distinct plants is a powerful outcrossing-enforcing mechanism. Two new studies reveal surprising diversity of genetic systems controllin...
www.cell.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
keila-stark.bsky.social
Most major theories in ecology assume some sort of equilibrium, but only ~half of empirical tests acknowledge it & even fewer observed it in their system. Does this matter? How did the idea become so pervasive in ecology anyway? Find out in our new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Equilibrium Conundrum
Although an assumption of equilibrium dynamics underlies most ecological theory, the evidence for this dynamic in nature and in empirical studies is scarce. This creates an unfortunate disconnect bet...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
cbank.bsky.social
We have an open PhD position (application deadline 9 January 2026) in "Theory of fitness landscapes" at @unibe.ch 🤓⛰️📊👩‍💻🎓: banklab.github.io/positions/

Please share widely!

#QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED
October 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
cbarragan.bsky.social
My new Emmy Noether Group is recruiting!

🔬 Two PhD positions in plant pathogen evolution

🧬 Start: April 2026 (flexible)

📍 Dept. of Phytopathology & Plant Protection @rstam.bsky.social @uni-kiel.de

⏰ Apply by 15 Dec 2025

🔗 More info: www.uni-kiel.de/personal/de/...

Do get in touch or share 😊
Aktuelle Ausschreibungen
Aktuelle Ausschreibungen
www.uni-kiel.de
November 3, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
clsong.com
Ecology faces an accumulation of models but not an accumulation of confidence. Our new paper w/ Jonathan Levine www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @natecoevo.nature.com introduces a rigorous test rooted in queueing theory to falsify inadequate models and build confidence in useful ones.
Rigorous validation of ecological models against empirical time series - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Validating theoretical models against empirical data presents challenges. Here the authors present an assumption-light method to validate ecological models against time series data, along with a dedic...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
Bacteria can borrow viruses to spread defence genes! 🦠🔬
Researchers at @MPI_EvolBio found that “jumbo phages” can carry bacterial mobile DNA, allowing the bacteria to hijack viral machinery for their own protection.
👉 www.evolbio.mpg.de/3840277/news...
November 3, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
josselin-clo.bsky.social
The second Ph.D. chapter of Diane's thesis is out as a preprint. She studied the joint evolution of autopolyploidy and self-fertilization under a gametophytic self-incompatibility context.

Feel free to comment, and congratulations, Diane!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Autopolyploid establishment under gametophytic self-incompatibility: the impact of self-fertilization and pollen limitation
Polyploidy is widespread in plants, yet the establishment of neo-polyploids is limited by minority cytotype exclusion (MCE). As polyploidy has been associated with higher selfing rates in empirical st...
www.biorxiv.org
October 31, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
dnarnaresearch.bsky.social
Autopolyploid establishment under gametophytic self-incompatibility: the impact of self-fertilization and pollen limitation
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Autopolyploid establishment under gametophytic self-incompatibility: the impact of self-fertilization and pollen limitation
Polyploidy is widespread in plants, yet the establishment of neo-polyploids is limited by minority cytotype exclusion (MCE). As polyploidy has been associated with higher selfing rates in empirical st...
doi.org
November 1, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social
bioRxiv on predator-prey interaction between Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and V. cholerae and how chitin alters V. cholerae biofilm formation and predator-prey interactions - from Carey Nadell
biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 13d
Vibrio cholerae interaction with predatory bacteria on chitin suggests an alternative mode of biofilm formation in marine snow conditions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.31.685833v1
November 1, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
ricardsole.bsky.social
Why do some cancers respond to immunotherapy while others don’t? A new paper by @guimaguade.bsky.social shows, using maths, that as tumors mutate, they face a trade-off: growing faster can also make them easier for the immune system to spot. @sandyanderson.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 31, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
bnashby.bsky.social
Super proud of Daniel Kim, whose paper on coevolutionary cycling and the evolution of virulence has just been published in @journal-evo.bsky.social. Daniel was in high school when he did this research and has just started his undergraduate degree @kebleoxford.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1093/evol...
Coevolutionary cycling in allele frequencies and the evolution of virulence
Abstract. Coevolutionary cycling in allele frequencies due to negative frequency-dependent selection—sometimes referred to as Red Queen Dynamics—is a key p
doi.org
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
sonjalehtinen.bsky.social
New(ish!) paper on how within-host competition and antibiotic resistance shape the fitness of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes, out in August in Plos Biology. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Competition significantly influences bacterial population dynamics, particularly in how strains interact within and between hosts. This study shows that within-host competition in Streptococcus pneumo...
journals.plos.org
October 31, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
arvidagren.bsky.social
*NEW PAPER*

How much of a threat are within-organism conflicts, really?

In Biology & Philosophy, @martijnschenkel.bsky.social, Manus Patten, and I present a mathematical framework to measure evolutionary individuality in the face of internal conflicts. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Screenshot of the abstract. It reads In biology, individuals can be identified at various levels of organization, ranging from the molecular and cellular—e.g., viruses and protists—to the organismal and societal—e.g., termites and termite colonies. This nested biological hierarchy results from evolutionary transitions in individuality, in which lower-lying entities (particles) come together to form higher-level entities (collectives). These collectives are then taken to be individuals in their own right, capable of being the units on which selection acts and where adaptations may reside. Challenges arise, however, when we recognize the possibility for internal conflict, for example from selfish genetic elements within organisms. Here we develop a quantitative approach to biological individuality, in which collectives qualify as individuals to the extent that their particles possess a unity of purpose—i.e., that they possess aligned fitness interests. We propose a mathematical framework that measures the degree of individuality exhibited by organisms and other biological collectives in the presence of internal conflicts. This framework not only helps pinpoint where in the hierarchy biological individuality sits, but also identifies the level at which adaptation may reside. We develop two metrics: fitness unity, which measures the threat posed by internal conflicts to a collective individual’s status as an optimizing agent; and trait unity, which measures differences in optimal strategies among its particles. Finally, we consider cases where internal conflicts become so disruptive to individualized biological collectives so that it no longer makes sense to think of them as individuals, but instead as compromises of multiple competing particles.
October 31, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
kateduncan.bsky.social
If you’re interested in metals, microbes and maths 🤘 - please check out this PhD on the impact of metals on microbial communities with @thecopperdoctor.bsky.social @blindmath.bsky.social Denis Patterson and myself, you’d be based in Durham & be part of a vibrant interdisciplinary research group
blindmath.bsky.social Andrew Krause @blindmath.bsky.social · 17d
We're advertising a PhD at the intersection of mathematical ecology, metallobiology, and microbiology to study the impact of metals on microbial communities with @thecopperdoctor.bsky.social @kateduncan.bsky.social and Denis Patterson. Come join us in lovely Durham!

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
When nutrients turn toxic: how metals shape microbial coexistence
iapetus.ac.uk
October 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
paulbrainey.bsky.social
@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Jumbo phage–mediated transduction of genomic islands | PNAS
Bacteria acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer, typically mediated by mobile genetic elements (MGEs). While plasmids, bacteriophages, and c...
www.pnas.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Ayush Valecha
leahhouri.bsky.social
What does mating look like when you only have a single shot at getting it right?

Very excited to share our work on an almost-invisible female control, rapidly evolving mating recognition systems, and species that break the rules and take over the world. IN MOSQUITOES>
The male genitalia of an 𝘈𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘴 mosquito
October 28, 2025 at 8:57 PM