Now out! We show that TEs can be horizontally transferred between fungal species via Starships. Once transferred, these TEs can become active, changing the genome organization and affecting the lifestyle of the recipient fungus. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @oggenfussursula.bsky.social #TEsky

I have a new review out in TiG titled, “The ecology of horizontal gene transfer”! I’ve been thinking about these ideas for years and this field is growing so fast it’s becoming impossible to review it. I hope this paper sparks discussion on different ways we can look at DNA transfer!

New paper out in MBE! 🧵 "Genomic Perplexity and the Evolution of Context-Dependent Function" The big idea: genes don't have fixed functions. Function emerges from context - genomic, cellular, environmental. And we can quantify this. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Ecstatic to see the first chapter of my PhD published in MBE! Most laterally acquired genes in plants are degenerating - the retained genes may to be more successful because they bring over their own regulatory machinery academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Bourne et al. analyzed immune receptor gene repertoires of 15 domesticated crop species, showing that grapes, mandarins, rice, barley, and yellow sarson exhibit reduced immune receptor gene repertoires compared to wild counterparts. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf147 #genome #evolution #PlantSky

Really cool project with a lovely lab, I've had a great time so far with the joys of HGT and would definitely recommend !! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Our new paper shows that plasticity that has evolved to deal with one stressful situation, can help plants to adapt rapidly to new stressful situations. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... @meebangor.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social @ukri.org @pnas.org