S. Pascoal

Testing the genomic link between intraspecific mating traits and interspecific mating barriers

The paper investigates whether loci involved in intraspecific mating traits are co-opted in interspecific mating barriers using population genomics in Australian cricket species.

Can recent evolutionary history promote resilience to environmental change?

The paper tests if evolutionary history predicts resilience to environmental change by comparing burying beetles evolved with or without parental care under heat stress.

ROS induction as a strategy to target persister cancer cells with low metabolic activity in NRAS mutated melanoma

The paper identifies ROS induction as a strategy to target MEK-inhibitor resistant NRAS-mutated melanoma cells by exploiting their quiescent metabolic state and elevated baseline ROS levels.

Selection on the joint actions of pairs leads to divergent adaptation and coadaptation of care-giving parents during pre-hatching care

The paper investigates how joint nest preparation behaviors evolve in burying beetles under different care regimes, finding that males adapt first and females coadapt secondarily.

Parental care results in a greater mutation load, for which it is also a phenotypic antidote

The paper shows that parental care increases mutation load but can also mitigate its negative effects, leading to higher extinction risk without care.

The evolutionary demise of a social interaction: social partners differ in the rate at which interacting phenotypes are lost

This study investigates how long social traits persist when not expressed, finding that offspring care demands decay faster than parental supply and male care decays more than female care in burying beetles.

Automated compound testing in zebrafish xenografts identifies combined MCL-1 and BCL-XL inhibition to be effective against Ewing sarcoma

Rapid, ultra-local adaptation facilitated by phenotypic plasticity

The paper shows that phenotypic plasticity and genetic accommodation drive rapid adaptive divergence in burying beetles despite gene flow between populations.

Silent crickets reveal the genomic footprint of recent adaptive trait loss

The paper examines the genomic effects of recent sexual signal loss in crickets, finding pleiotropy, hitchhiking, and regulatory disruption associated with the trait loss.

Superior stimulation of female fecundity by subordinate males provides a mechanism for telegony

The paper shows that subordinate males in burying beetles stimulate female fecundity more effectively than dominant males, leading to non-genetic inheritance of offspring body size and supporting telegony.