Author: Mateusz Matuszewski

A paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution by Soumen Mallick and colleagues, including Freerk Molleman from our institute, uses detailed satellite images from forests in Germany to show that trees tend to show delayed budburst the spring after they have been severely attacked by caterpillars. They also showed that this delay then reduces insect…

Diversifying selection on a key regulator of missing-self innate immunity Rocco F. Notarnicola et al. (2026, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag082) show how an innate immune regulator (CFH), thought to be conserved by its interactions with self-components, is instead very polymorphic and under diversifying selection, likely due to selective pressures from pathogens like Borrelia highjacking it to evade immunity….

In the study published in Ecology Letters  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.70377 Neha Pandey and colleagues report that populations in which males are aggressive and armoured in lethal weapons are less stable compared to populations in which males are benign. Populations with aggressive males are mores sensitive to population disturbances and show slower recovery. This research was funded by NCN grant UMO-2020/39/B/NZ8/00152/4…