@Shimaleech

PostDoc at Unversity of São Paulo | Comparative genomics | Evolution of parasitism and bloodfeeding | Niche transition | Worms 🏳️‍🌈 He/him/his

Joined September 2018
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  • Followers131
5Media
Rafa Iwama retweeted
Karma Nanglu@KNanglu1 Oct 2025
Pleased to announce our new @thePeerJ paper describing the first body fossil of a leech is now out! Led by @danielledecarle this was a super fun project to work on, facilitated by our great collaborators @AndrewWendruff @lbabcock1007 @Shimaleech peerj.com/articles/19962/
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Rafa Iwama retweeted
Karma Nanglu@KNanglu23 Oct 2023
Out now in @Ecol_Evol is our paper on the importance of natural history research to topics as varied as education, policy management, and conservation, with a wide array of experts #MuseumMonday onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/… 🧵👇
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What happens when you ask ChatGPT to write you the song "Mr. Hennig, give me a tree" sung to the tune of Pat Ballard’s Mr Sandman? Yesterday we found out... (A thread)
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Origins and diversification of animal innate immune responses against viral infections rdcu.be/c3lC5
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If you are interested in the evolution of the immune system in animals, check out our review about the evolution of immune responses against viruses in Metazoa. We talk about the ancient root of many components of the innate immune system! nature.com/articles/s41559-0…

Origins and diversification of animal innate immune responses against viral infections

Nature Ecology & Evolution - This Review collates the current understanding of the innate immune systems in classic model and non-model organisms, highlighting ancestral complexity and...

nature.com
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All Placozoa look like pancakes, despite being animals that are 500+ million years old and genetically distinct. In our new phylogenomics paper we described a new species, classes, orders, and families using molecular morphology. @AMNH @SFCNY @burnsajohn frontiersin.org/articles/10.…
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Rafa Iwama retweeted
Karma Nanglu@KNanglu19 Oct 2022
#WormWednesday I’m excited to share that our paper on Deuterostome origins is now out in Biological Reviews; @csout0 @LenaDoesScience @Davey_F_Wright and I survey the fossil, developmental, and molecular evidence for early deuterostome evolution: tinyurl.com/3etzhppv 🧵👇
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Placobdella akahkway n. sp. (#Clitellata: Hirudinea: Glossiphoniidae), a new leech species from central #Canada. mapress.com/zt/article/view/… #Taxonomy
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Isopod slide time!!! 🛝🛝🛝🥅
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Did you know that not all leeches are bloodfeeding? We searched for anticoagulants in non-predatory leeches in our new paper in @ZoolJLinnSoc. We found that they may still be functional, potentially indicating that they are used for other purposes. academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/…

Leech anticoagulants are ancestral and likely to be multifunctional

Abstract. Bloodfeeding leeches have powerful anticoagulants that allow them to feed for extended periods. However, many leech species are predatory rather

academic.oup.com
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We found that these anticoagulants are still under negative selection, indicating that at least part of their original function is still intact in predatory leeches.
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But what are these proteins doing if they are used for bloodfeeding? Well, they might have multiple function that we still don't know.
Falta 1h pra minha defesa. Surtei e mudei tds os slides. ficou bom?
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How do people decide to be proactive? In this paper, we propose that people decide to be proactive depending on its cost and benefits! @FalkLieder @RationalityE link.springer.com/article/10…

Toward a formal theory of proactivity

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience - Beyond merely reacting to their environment and impulses, people have the remarkable capacity to proactively set and pursue their own goals....

link.springer.com
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Do you like blood and worms? Last week we published a paper in GBE about the origin and evolution of a protein family related to bloodfeeding in leeches. Check this thread for a quick overview.
GBE (Genome Biology and Evolution)
@GenomeBiolEvol5 Feb 2021
The Origin and Evolution of Antistasin-like Proteins in Leeches (Hirudinida, Clitellata): buff.ly/3tk3bpb
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However, in this study we were able to root the antistasin-like gene tree using sequences from non-leech annelids. We also found protein sequence motifs that were exclusively present in clades containing proteins that are involved in bloodfeeding.
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Our results tell us a little about how these proteins evolved in leeches, but there are still many things that we still don’t know. For example, are these motifs changes really related to bloodfeeding or anticoagulantion? Hopefully we can answer this question in future studies.
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