Natural Variation in C. elegans 1-octanol Olfactory Avoidance Behavior—A Conversation with Denise Ferkey

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee member X has a conversation with Denise Ferkey of University at Buffalo about how natural variation in C. elegans responds to odors. Using hundreds of wild strains from the Caenorhabditis Natural Diversity Resource, the team found that wild worms were either as sensitive as the lab reference strain N2 to the aversive odorant 1-octanol or less so, and they traced this reduced avoidance to a single region on chromosome II. Read her paper titled, "Natural variation in C. elegans 1-octanol olfactory avoidance behavior," published in the October 2026 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkag189. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee co-chair Anindya Ganguly and member Racheal Asaolu interview Colin LaMont of University of Oslo. They discuss LaMont's work which presents a new mathematical method for calculating how strongly selection favors a genetic variant directly from an evolutionary tree, without knowledge of exact population history, finding that ancestral lineages act like strategists anticipating future selection rather than just responding to it in the moment. Read his paper titled, "Optimal control and the dynamics of ancestral lineages," published in the August 2026 issue of GENETICS: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyag122 Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#PopGen #PopulationGenetics #NaturalSelection #phylogenetics #evolution #EvolutionaryDynamics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientists Multimedia Subcommittee member Racheal Asaolu has a conversation with Dr. Randall J. Roper of the School of Science at Indiana University. They discuss Roper's work. Read his paper titled, "Genetic analysis of triplicated genes affecting sex-specific skeletal deficits in Down syndrome model mice," published in the May 2026 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkag056. Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Thank you to the Multimedia Subcommittee, particularly the production team for this episode: Racheal Asaolu, interviewer; Shruti Shastry, Audio Quality Control Coordinator; Laetitia Chauve and Anindya Ganguly, researchers. #Trisomy21 #SkeletalDeficits #SexDifferences #MicroComputedTomography Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientists Multimedia Subcommittee member Luke Arnce interviews Caitlin Peaslee of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health and Science University about her research. Read her paper titled, "Mapping whole-organism genetic comorbidities across model species using unified ontologies," published in the April 2026 issue of GENETICS: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyag038 This study developed a cross-species computational framework, CoMo DBM, to analyze 204 mouse genes that caused non-obstructive azoospermia and mapped their phenotype associations across human, zebrafish, fruit fly, and roundworm databases. Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#GeneEditing #cancer #GeneOntology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee advisor Sarah Renee Phillips interviews Srishti Patil of the German Cancer Research Center and Dr. Robert Noble of City St. George's, University of London about their research. Read their paper titled, “Preventing evolutionary rescue in cancer using two-strike therapy,” published in the February 2026 issue of GENETICS: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf255.Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#evolution #cancer #GeneticRescue #variation #selection #mutation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee member Debraj Manna interviews Dr. Matt Rockman of New York University about inbreeding depression in Caenorhabditis elegans. Read Dr. Rockman's paper titled, “Variation in inbreeding depression within and among Caenorhabditis species,” published in the December 2025 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf200. Special thanks to the Production Team for this episode, ECS Multimedia Subcommittee members Debraj Manna, interviewer; Sara Shahba, researcher; and Laetitia Chauve, Audio Quality Control Coordinator.Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#genetics #Celegans #caenorhabditis #InbreedingDepression Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee co-chair Sarah Renee Phillips interviews Dr. Shraddha Lall of Harvard University about the evolution of variation in behavior in Drosophila. Read Dr. Lall’s paper titled, “Family-based selection: An efficient method for increasing phenotypic variability,” published in the October 2025 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf165. Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#genetics #evolution #Drosophila #behavior #variation #selection Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee member Faye Romero interviews Dr. Gary Churchill of the Jackson Laboratory about longevity-associated loci in diversity outbred mice. Read Dr. Churchill’s paper titled, “Analysis of lifespan across diversity outbred mouse studies identifies multiple longevity-associated loci,” published in the August 2025 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf081Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this installment of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee member Laetitia Chauve interviews Dr. George Chung, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Dr. Kristin Gunsalus’s lab group at New York University’s Department of Biology, about a new algorithm he has developed to identify telomeres from long reads sequencing datasets. Read Dr. Chung's paper titled, “TeloSearchLR: an algorithm to detect novel telomere repeat motifs using long sequencing reads,” published in the June 2025 issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkaf062Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Podcast Notes:Thank you to the GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee, in particular the production team who worked on this episode: Faye Romero, Sarah Renee Phillips, Laetitia Chauve.#telomeres, #telomere repeat motif, #long-read sequencing, #nematodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Genetics in Your World, GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee member Allie Hutchings interviews Dr. Evan Dewey of Winthrop University about the functions of Blm helicase N-terminal IDR. Read Dr. Dewey's paper titled, “Functions of the Bloom syndrome helicase N-terminal intrinsically disordered region,” published in the March 2025 issue of GENETICS: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf005. Music: Loopster Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Podcast Notes:Bloom syndrome helicase (Blm) has important roles in maintaining genome stability. About half the protein is predicted to be intrinsically disordered (IDR), and its functions are poorly understood. The authors of this study identified regions that are locally conserved in closely related Drosophila species, then deleted these and assayed various functions. They find that each region is required for a subset of Blm functions. The authors’ modeling suggests these regions adopt structure in complex with Top2alpha and the results provide novel insights into Blm IDR functions. Dr. Evan Dewey would like to acknowledge the following colleagues: Colleen C. Bereda, Dr. Jeff Sekelsky, Dr. Christopher A Johnston, Denise Soroka, Dr. Mitch McVey, Carolyn Turcotte, Dr. Nila Pazhayam, Mohamed A. Nasr, Priscila Santa Rosa, Susan McMahan, Dr. Robert J. Duronio, Dr. Gregory Matera, Dr. Dan McKay, and Dr. Richard Cripps.Thank you to the GSA Early Career Scientist Multimedia Subcommittee, in particular the production team who worked on this episode: Allie Hutchings, Interviewer; Sarah Shahba and Laetitia Chauve, Researchers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.