Max Brown 🌱
@euphrasiologist.bsky.social
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I like plants. Lecturer on plant genetics and ecology at Anglia Ruskin University. Views my own.
pinned post!
New lab website up at
euphrasiologist.github.io
It’s bare bones as it’s just starting really!
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Home - Brown Lab
https://euphrasiologist.github.io
about 1 year ago
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Paul D. Taylor
about 2 months ago
#FossilFriday
Cousins in life, companions in death. Belemnite guard by chance preserved in the body chamber of the ammonite Parkinsonia from the Jurassic.
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Nicolas Galtier
4 months ago
Happy to hare that the preprint I was advertising below has been published by the Journal of Evolutionary Biology:
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Thanks
@jevbio.bsky.social
for supporting responsible publishing!
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Danna Staaf
2 months ago
I can't overrecommend this incredible paper about water skaters (genus Halobates). No one knows how they evolved. No one knows what they eat. They are superhydrophobic, which means water LITERALLY CANNOT WET THEM. Perhaps we should call them anti-water skaters? 🌊🧪
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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Why did only one genus of insects, Halobates, take to the high seas?
Oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface and house a dizzying array of organisms, including five species of the peppercorn-sized ocean-skater Halobates, which live exclusively at the ocean surface...
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001570
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Fantastic time going to and presenting at Lille Popgroup. Many new and familiar faces! Always here to talk about plants and mitochondria. Until next year!
#popgroup59
#ppg59
#pgg59
3 months ago
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Rob Waterhouse
5 months ago
TE dynamics across high-quality
#genome
assemblies of 75 bee species to quantify their diversity in an evolutionary context
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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A comparative analysis of transposable element diversity and evolution across 75 bee genomes - BMC Genomics
Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive DNA sequences that can alter their position and abundance within genomes. While TEs are known to have various impacts on genome structure and function, our u...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12864-025-12190-9
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Pat Heslop-Harrison
5 months ago
Exciting PhD project with me and @vorontsovams.bsky.social RBG Kew on Grass Diversity, developing a phylogeny using morphology and genomics for the tropical forage grass genus Urochloa. Applications at
centa.ac.uk/students...
but contacts Bat or me to discuss
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Lightbulb beer in Cambridge. Sheffield did it better
@popgroup2026.bsky.social
right?
@cfcollins.bsky.social
@luketdunning.bsky.social
😍
6 months ago
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Brian J. Enquist
6 months ago
Genomic divergence across the tree of life 🧪🌐https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2319389122
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Genomic divergence across the tree of life | PNAS
Nucleotide sequence data are being harnessed to identify species, even in cases in which organisms themselves are neither in hand nor witnessed. Bu...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2319389122
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Charlotte Wright
7 months ago
How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
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Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly
The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...
https://tinyurl.com/atlasbluebutterfly
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Justin Blumenstiel
8 months ago
The original circos plot? From the 1947-1948 Carnegie Yearbook, the page prior to McClintock's Mutable Loci in Maize paper.
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Headed to
#ESEB2025
, anyone else headed there? Excited to see all the talks and sessions!
8 months ago
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Euphrasia marshallii, Fair Isle, 2018. What a beaut!
9 months ago
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Science Magazine
9 months ago
The appearance of large language models caused a drastic shift in the vocabulary of academic writing, according to an analysis in
#ScienceAdvances
of more than 15 million biomedical abstracts published from 2010 to 2024.
scim.ag/3IhpoQF
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Delving into LLM-assisted writing in biomedical publications through excess vocabulary
Excess words track LLM usage in biomedical publications.
https://scim.ag/3IhpoQF
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Steven Robbins
10 months ago
Short-read metagenomic sequencing cannot recover genomes from many abundant marine prokaryotes due to high strain heterogeneity and platform-inherent GC bias (likely viruses, too), but Nanopore long reads can address this. A results thread on our recent preprint 🧵.
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It’s a crime that ‘cargo dist’ has run out of funding 😭
github.com/axodotdev/ca...
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GitHub - axodotdev/cargo-dist: 📦 shippable application packaging
📦 shippable application packaging. Contribute to axodotdev/cargo-dist development by creating an account on GitHub.
https://github.com/axodotdev/cargo-dist
9 months ago
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Potential Euphrasia vigursii, the Cornish Eyebright from fieldwork with Edinburgh University evolutionary biology PhD students. The Euphrasia work continues!
9 months ago
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Big Orobanche out in the verges. And bright yellow! What a beauty :)
10 months ago
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Paul D. Taylor
10 months ago
#MolluscMonday
Non-marine bivalves pack a spectacular stone panel in a 16th century fireplace at Hardwick Hall (NT), Derbyshire. This ‘cockleshell marble’ is associated with the Tupton coal seam of Late Carboniferous age.
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Ian Henderson
10 months ago
A three year postdoctoral position is available in my group, investigating plant centromere structure, function and evolution
@camplantsci.bsky.social
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51488/
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Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51488/
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Max Brown 🌱
10 months ago
We have a unique opportunity for a junior researcher, PhD student or postdoc, to use a revolutionary technique for mineral nutrient imaging and tracing in plants. Please re-post! Interested candidates should apply through the portal at the link below:
career5.successfactors.eu/career?compa...
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Career Opportunities: Postdoc or PhD student position in Plant Physiology (22260)
https://career5.successfactors.eu/career?company=universitdP&career_job_req_id=22260&career_ns=job_listing&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH
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Enrique Gonzalez Duran
10 months ago
There's a press release for our new
@natplants.nature.com
article! Plants use fast DNA repair to guard against risky gene transfers from their own organelles—the lessons might go beyond plant biology Release
tinyurl.com/prnpegrb
by
@mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social
Paper:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Why Plants Patch Broken DNA So Fast
Researchers uncover how rapid DNA repair protects genomes from internal threats, with implications for cancer biology
https://www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2795373/news_publication_24784106_transferred?c=6211
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Pablo Castro Sánchez-Bermejo
11 months ago
My PhD dissertation is now available here:
dx.doi.org/10.25673/118...
In the thesis, I showed that trait expression, intraspecific and intraindividual trait variability depend on forest composition and species diversity. Further, they are components that matter for measuring functional diversity
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Share_it: Patterns of intraspecific and intraindividual trait variation in trees along experimental diversity gradients
http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/118870
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Matthew Hahn
12 months ago
Not really my announcement to make--I am but a lesser co-author--but IQ-TREE 3 has just been released! (Most credit to Minh Bui and
@roblanfear.bsky.social
and their labs)
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
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IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models
https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/8916/
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WGDip
12 months ago
We are excited to announce the 'official' start of our BBSRC funded sLoLa project, where we aim to uncover the role of rediploidisation in shaping evolution after genome duplication events across the tree of life! Find out more:
www.rediploidisation.org
vet.ed.ac.uk/roslin/news-...
#WGDip
#BBSRC
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Experts examine DNA changes that shaped life on Earth
Four-year collaborative project seeks to understand key process linked to evolution.
https://vet.ed.ac.uk/roslin/news-events/archive/2024/experts-examine-dna-changes-that-shaped-life-on-earth
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We are mid Daffodil (Narcissus) season in the UK. Go out and see what you can find, these daffs are across 3 divisions but there are 12 to find :)
12 months ago
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Max Brown 🌱
Alex Mackintosh
over 1 year ago
My and Derek Setter's work on gene flow is now published in the latest issue of Genetics. We show that it is possible to detect past gene flow between two populations by summarising the asymmetry in pop-specific external branch lengths. 1/2
tinyurl.com/5ff8ch9e
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Genealogical asymmetry under the isolation with migration model and a two-taxon test for gene flow
Abstract. Methods for detecting gene flow between populations often rely on asymmetry in the average length of particular genealogical branches, with the A
https://tinyurl.com/5ff8ch9e
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Max Brown 🌱
about 1 year ago
We would love feedback on a new NCBI-BLAST service we are launching today:
sky-blast.com
Under the hood it's the same BLAST executable and databases provided by NCBI, with a replica of the NIH's interface - providing an alternative to the US gov service that's less congested, faster & more reliable
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Aaron Vogan
about 1 year ago
We did it! We caught Starship
#transposons
moving between
#fungal
species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Luke Dunning
about 1 year ago
Looking for a PhD? Come work with us on Horizontal Gene Transfer in crops! Deadline 14th March
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
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Horizontal gene transfer and its role in crop adaptation and evolution at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Horizontal gene transfer and its role in crop adaptation and evolution at University of Sheffield, listed on FindAPhD.com
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/horizontal-gene-transfer-and-its-role-in-crop-adaptation-and-evolution/?p177792
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Max Brown 🌱
NPR
about 1 year ago
The plant, formally known as Ovicula biradiata, is especially notable for being the simultaneous discovery of a new species and genus. It was found with help from the community science app iNaturalist. By
@jamesdoubek.bsky.social
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Meet the 'wooly devil,' a new plant species discovered in Big Bend National Park
The plant, formally known as Ovicula biradiata, is especially notable for being the simultaneous discovery of a new species and genus. It was found with help from the community science app iNaturalist...
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5308248/wooly-devil-new-species-genus-big-bend
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Jessica Thomas Thorpe
about 1 year ago
I'll be talking about my
#ProcB
isopod phylogenomics paper in the Royal Society Publishing Ecology & Evolution Online Seminar Series, live (with Q&A) next Weds 26th Feb 2pm (UK). Please reshare to reach all the lovers of
#isopods
(&
#phylogenomics
), who might be interested in their
#evolution
! 🧪
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Max Brown 🌱
Jane Langdale 🌱 🌾
about 1 year ago
A curious, modest man with an encyclopaedic knowledge. No ego but a quiet self-confidence that inspired many. No doubt many publications in the coming years will report innovative ideas that he thought of decades ago….
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Max Brown 🌱
KamilSJaron.bsky.social
about 1 year ago
With
@katiejenike.bsky.social
and a bunch more of our fellow k-mer enthusiasts, we put together a manuscript on k-mers in biodiversity genomics. A guide if you will, that covers k-mers from basics to some really funky stuff...
genome.cshlp.org/content/35/2...
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The telomere identification toolkit now has a publication:
academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
We used simple algorithms and fast tooling. The telomere database comes with ~500spp too!
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tidk: a toolkit to rapidly identify telomeric repeats from genomic datasets
AbstractSummary. tidk (short for telomere identification toolkit), uses a simple, fast algorithm to scan long DNA reads for the presence of short tandemly
https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bioinformatics/btaf049/7994463
about 1 year ago
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Some spent Epipactis from Glasgow Necropolis a few weeks ago :)
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 year ago
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Max Brown 🌱
PuckerLab
about 1 year ago
The first pan-plastome study with collaborators at Bielefeld University / CeBiTec and TU Dresden:
doi.org/10.1186/s128...
@bpucker.bsky.social
@toheitka.bsky.social
#Genomics
#Evolution
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New lab website up at
euphrasiologist.github.io
It’s bare bones as it’s just starting really!
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Home - Brown Lab
https://euphrasiologist.github.io
about 1 year ago
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Interesting opportunity for early career plant scientists!
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 year ago
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Max Brown 🌱
Rob Waterhouse
about 1 year ago
Protein Sequence Assessment Using a Reference ORF Network - PSAURON assigns a score to coding DNA or protein sequence that reflects the likelihood that the sequence is a genuine protein-coding region.
academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...
#genome
#gene
annotation
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PSAURON: a tool for assessing protein annotation across a broad range of species
Abstract. Evaluating the accuracy of protein-coding sequences in genome annotations is a challenging problem for which there is no broadly applicable solut
https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article/7/1/lqae189/7944703
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