This Week in Evolution

Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Click arrow to play Download  TWiEVO 75   (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe (free):  Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Making E. coli an insect mutual...

Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature) Vampire vax ( TWiV 809 ) Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks! Science Picks Nels –...

Joe Graves joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his career in evolutionary biology and his recent book that answers questions about race and racism. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Guest: Joe Graves Subscribe (free):  Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode On Racism, Not Race (Amazon) African Americans in evolutionary science (Beh...

Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep) Host origins of...

Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode...

Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode SARS-CoV-2 mutation rat...

Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life's Edge. Host:  Nels Elde Guest: Carl Zimmer Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode On Life's Edge by Carl Zimmer Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks! Science Picks Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin Carl – From telomere to...

Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this epis...

Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Evolutionary portrait of S...

Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Recombination in B.1.1.7 lineage (Virological) CoVariants Letters read on TWiEVO 67 Time stamps by  Jolene . Thanks! Scie...

Nels and Vincent review a preprint demonstrating that changes in the genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B1.351 and P.1 allow the viruses to reproduce in mouse cells in culture and in laboratory mice. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Tony Schountz on TWiV 668 SARS-CoV-2 variants i...

Nels and Vincent review evidence that a single amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has driven adaptation to humans, followed by an update on the status of variants of concern. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Selective sweep drove SARS-CoV-2 adaptation (bioRxiv) Nov...

Nels and Vincent consider evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2, and update the situation on novel virus variants of concern with potentially altered fitness and reactivity with antibodies. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Nature) mRNA v...

Nels and Vincent wrap up 2020 with a discussion of novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa, how to interpret the rapidly emerging genome sequence data and what to look for in the coming weeks as these variants spread across the globe. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron...

Daniel joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his new book on army ants, the wickedest insects ever to roam the planet, and his research on them and clonal raider ants. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Guest: Daniel Kronauer Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode This Week in Ants ( TWiEVO 13 ) Raiders of the Lost Orco ( T...

Nels and Vincent discuss an opinion piece on 12 evolutionary insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping human nature, and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in an immunosuppressed patient. Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Microbe. TV on instagram Pandemic exposes human nature (PNAS) Carl Bergstrom calls BS (Twitter...

On the fifth anniversary of TWiEVO, Nels and Vincent invite 12 evolutionary biologists to describe exciting future directions for the field and their laboratory in the next five years. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Lillian Fritz Laylin , Talia Karasov , Andrew Kern , Sarah Tishkoff , Dmitri Petrov , Nancy Chen , Amanda Larracuente , John McCutcheon , Ambika Kamath , Chip Aquad...

Nels and Vincent answer listener questions and discuss a newly discovered virus of amoeba with a nearly complete ORFan genome: none of the proteins encoded in the viral genome look like any other proteins. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Yaravirus (PNAS) Letters read on TWiEVO 5...

Simon and Heather join TWiEVO to discuss their analysis of the evolutionary history of ACE2 usage by coronaviruses in the Sarbecovirus genus. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Simon Anthony and Heather Wells Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Evolutionary history of sarbecovirus ACE2 binding (bioRxiv) Bomba...

Jessie, Allie and Tyler join Nels and Vincent to describe their work on deep mutational scanning of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Jesse Bloom, Allie Greaney, and Tyler Starr Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Links for this episode Bloom Laboratory Deep mutational scanning of SARS-CoV-2...

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, including understanding recurrent mutations in the viral genome, and the potential for re-emergence of the virus from an animal reservoir. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity (Inf, Genet, Evol) Re-emergence of...

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, with a report that the coronavirus proofreading enzyme stimulates RNA recombination, and debunking the conclusion that a change in the viral spike glycoprotein is associated with increased human to human transmission. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a pa...

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, including function of the furin cleavage site, whether Vervet cells are an informative system, another bat isolate, and a nomenclature to assist genomic epidemiology. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO SARS-CoV-2 in...

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, focusing on what the genome sequences tell us about the virus. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Clement Chow with COVID-19 (Salt Lake Trib) Scientists exposed to coronavirus (Nature) CoV by Britt Glaunsinger (YouTu...

Nels and Vincent examine SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, examining what the spike glycoprotein sequence informs us about the origin of the virus. Hosts:  Nels Elde  and  Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free):  iTunes , Google Podcasts ,  RSS ,  email Become a patron  of TWiEVO Distinct CoV name needed (Lancet) Proximal origin of SARS-COV-2 (virological) CoV spillovers not rare (Goats and...