The axolotl has the ability to regenerate its brain. Using single-cell transcriptomics, four new studies in Science reveal evolutionary innovations in reptile and amphibian brains. Learn more in this week's issue: fcld.ly/wpmwvc9

THIS IS WILD! ⁦Justus⁩ and I wrote a perspective on how advances in single cell transcriptomics in non-traditional critters is expanding our understanding of vertebrate brain evolution. The articles we highlighted are doing amazing work!! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Check out the 4 (!) gorgeous papers from @matosches, David Hain, Elly Tanaka and Treutlein lab, and Xiaoyu Wei from @BGI_Genomics, looking at salamander, dragons, and axolotls to understand brain evolution! Comparative transcriptomics is coming of age! Now out Science Magazine

A molecular atlas of an Australian dragon’s brain sheds new light on over 300 million years of #brainevolution. New research from Gilles Laurent’s lab MPI for Brain Research Max Planck Society and @matosches Columbia University Science Magazine News: bit.ly/3AFRL3G Paper: bit.ly/3wLjG0T

Four new studies in Science reveal evolutionary innovations in reptile and amphibian brains using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. fcld.ly/wpmwvc9 (THREAD) 🧵

By comparing salamander brains with those of lizard, turtle, and mouse, researchers in a new Science study track the evolutionary innovations that gave rise to the mammalian six-layered neocortex, which salamanders do not have. fcld.ly/cwhp8oa

Congrats to Maria Tosches @matosches in the Columbia Biological Sciences Dept Columbia Biological Sciences for two new papers in Science Magazine on brain evolution in salamanders! biology.columbia.edu/news/new-paper…

Excellent and succinct summary of our recent work🦎

Amazing new findings from Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD and colleagues on transgenerational inheritance of traits controlled by biased gene expression changes in offspring. Very cool work.

Provocative and exciting discovery from Bianca Marlin - how a parent's experience of a scary smell is passed on to the offspring #transgenerational

Adeno-associated viruses for efficient gene expression in the axolotl nervous system biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #biorxiv_neursci

Adeno-Associated Viral Tools to Trace Neural Development and Connectivity Across Amphibians biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #biorxiv_neursci

Super excited to see that our all-viral method to target isochronic populations of neurons during neurogenesis works across species!! Congrats Lora B. Sweeney @matosches and teams!!!

AAVs work in amphibians! 🐸🦎 Check out the outcome of our collaboration with Lora B. Sweeney lab and team, showing AAV transfection in salamanders and frogs across life stages! @matosches grateful to my colleagues @AstridD_93 David Vijatovic for getting this cool story out

I am very excited to share our latest manuscript on the axolotl nervous system. We established the use of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to perform circuit tracing in the axolotl brain and retina: doi.org/10.1101/2024.0… with Elly Tanaka @IMPVienna

And because amphibians rock, check out this beautiful manuscript on using AAVs in the CNS of P. waltl, X. laevis and P. bedriagae by @matosches and Lora B. Sweeney labs: doi.org/10.1101/2024.0… Very grateful for the coordinated preprint release! Go community!

Excited to announce that our 2025 Advanced Research Training Course schedule is up and applications are open! 🎉🎉🎉 See you in Woods Hole! mbl.edu/courses

Exciting news in amphibian biology! A new paper by Lora B. Sweeney David Vijatovic and more ISTAustria, Eliza Jaeger @AstridD_93 @matosches Columbia University and colleagues from אוניברסיטת תל אביב Tel Aviv University University of Utah Scripps Research & Caltech just published in Developmental Cell.