Latest Genotype Podcast Episodes
TWiEVO 98: The worms strike back!
This Week in Evolution - February 27, 2024 15:23 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss how behavioural individuality determines infection risk in clonal ant colonies. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode Join the MicrobeTV Discord serv...
TWiEVO 97: Germs trapping worms
This Week in Evolution - February 27, 2024 15:19 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent review a study of the key processes required for the different stages of fungal carnivory by a nematode-trapping fungus. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode...
TWiEVO 96: Going bananas over the origins of corn
This Week in Evolution - December 26, 2023 20:03 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss the origins of two modern day agriculturally important plants: a role for two different wild teosintes in making modern maize, and the origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Po...
TWiEVO 95: Watering the viruses until they bloom
This Week in Evolution - November 14, 2023 23:53 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss how the rewetting of seasonally dried soils, a critical event in Mediterranean grasslands that reactivates dormant soil microorganisms, leading to pulses of carbon and nitrogen mineralization, and is accompanied by a bloom of viral diversity, followed by extensive viral ...
TWiEVO 94: A bacteria, a phage, and a selfish element walk into a cryptomonad
This Week in Evolution - September 29, 2023 17:44 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent take apart an amazing symbiosis consisting of two bacteria, one bacteriophage, and seven different genomes all within a single-celled alga. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Li...
TWiEVO 93: Faster than a speeding bacteria
This Week in Evolution - August 25, 2023 01:24 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent review a collision of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, using a minimal synthetic bacterial cell with only 473 genes, the smallest genome of any known organism that can be grown in lab culture. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podc...
TWiEVO 92: There's algae in the jar
This Week in Evolution - July 21, 2023 17:47 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent explain a study of how interspecies competition between two algae influences evolution of metabolism and size. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode •Join ...
TWiEVO 91: Meet your very distant cousins
This Week in Evolution - July 17, 2023 21:10 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss new findings using phylogenetic approaches about how complex eukaryotic cells emerged from prokaryotic ancestors, which firmly place eukaryotes as a clade nested within the Asgard archaea. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent RacanielloS Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Go...
TWiEVO 90: The mystery of the mouse mummies
This Week in Evolution - May 12, 2023 17:29 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent provide insights into the mystery of mouse mummies on the summits of >6000 m Andean volcanoes, including whether they were living there and if so why? Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of...
TWiEVO 89: On the outer rim of tumor evolution
This Week in Evolution - April 25, 2023 01:36 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss the observation that cells on a boundary of a solid tumor have higher growth rates compared to those in the center and how to model this difference using genome sequencing data. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcas...
TWiEVO 88: Dog days of evolution in the shadows of Chernobyl
This Week in Evolution - March 26, 2023 13:38 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent review a study of the dogs of Chernobyl which reveals that genetically distinct populations with different amounts of western breed contributions to their genomes, the first step in assessing the effects of exposure to long-term ionizing radiation. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent...
TWiEVO 87: Nathan Clark's revolutionary hair care advice
This Week in Evolution - February 21, 2023 22:39 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNathan joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his approach to understanding how species adopt novel traits to overcome challenges, and its application to identifying coding and noncoding sequence changes that underlie mammalian hairlessness. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Nathan C...
TWiEVO 86: Pulling out the stops in genetic code evolution
This Week in Evolution - February 05, 2023 13:13 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss how evolution of changes in stop codon assignment might occur, and a novel mechanism for altering the meaning of translation stop codons discovered in a trypanosomatid with the apropos name, Blastocrithidia nonstop. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (...
TWiEVO 85: Teaching old dogs new genetic tricks
This Week in Evolution - December 21, 2022 12:19 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss the use of genome sequence data for over 4,000 domestic, semi-feral, and wild canids to understand the genetic drivers of canine behavior. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEV...
TWiEVO 84: Decoding our defenses to the Black Death
This Week in Evolution - November 08, 2022 21:14 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent review the use of ancient DNA to identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death by studying populations before, during, and after the pandemic. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email B...
TWiEVO 83: Evolution spreads its wings (and then loses them)
This Week in Evolution - October 24, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsFlorian Maderspacher from Current Biology joins Nels and Vincent to discuss a special issue of the journal on birds. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Florian Maderspacher Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for th...
TWiEVO 82: A genetic hack for the human brain
This Week in Evolution - September 25, 2022 20:31 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, emai...
TWiEVO 81: Evolution's new and improved slime molds
This Week in Evolution - August 24, 2022 20:43 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss how duplication of a gene encoding a transcription factor led to evolution of a novel cell type in the slime mold Dictyostelium. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links...
TWiEVO 80: Viruses of a feather bottleneck together
This Week in Evolution - August 01, 2022 18:36 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsLouise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Louise Moncla Subscribe (free): Apple P...
TWiEVO 79: When the immune system is away, SARS-CoV-2 will play
This Week in Evolution - July 02, 2022 14:47 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 79 (103 MB .mp3, 86 min) Subscribe ...
TWiEVO 78: The virus daily double
This Week in Evolution - May 26, 2022 16:21 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email...
TWiEVO 77: The mutations of our lives
This Week in Evolution - April 26, 2022 18:01 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsAlex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Guest: Alex Cagan Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for th...
TWiEVO 76: One-step symbiosis
This Week in Evolution - March 22, 2022 17:36 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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 Po...
TWiEVO 75: Even the BANAL coronaviruses are interesting
This Week in Evolution - February 24, 2022 20:26 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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 virus...
TWiEVO 74: On racism, not race with Joe Graves
This Week in Evolution - February 03, 2022 18:40 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsJoe 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 TWiE...
TWiEVO 73: With a little help from your hosts
This Week in Evolution - December 28, 2021 19:05 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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 ...
TWiEVO 72: Echoes of evolution both shallow and deep
This Week in Evolution - October 26, 2021 15:42 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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 Subs...
TWiEVO 71: Faster than a speeding coronavirus
This Week in Evolution - September 27, 2021 01:34 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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, G...
TWiEVO 70: On Life's Edge with Carl Zimmer
This Week in Evolution - August 03, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsCarl 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 Zim...
TWiEVO 69: Swimming in SARS-CoV-2 sequences
This Week in Evolution - June 30, 2021 21:37 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 164 ratingsNels 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 S...