Excited to share our new Science paper on American chestnut restoration. >10 years of collaboration with TACF, Hudson Alpha, and a community of scientists, students, and staff. Thousands of GBS and WGS libraries and so many hours of HPC wrangling... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very happy to see our article comparing the responses of hybrid poplars in 17 common gardens, out now in @newphyt.bsky.social! We estimated reaction norms to predict how warming winters could change where different ancestries are favored. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Looks like the Dems will pick up 12 seats in the VA House of Delegates, which will go from 51-49 to 63-37 D-R. That's an honestly shocking result.

Excited by new #NSFFunded research from #PopUpPoplars led by @michellezavala.bsky.social that shows the importance of considering cytonuclear interactions to plant function The role of cytonuclear interactions to plant adaptation across a Populus hybrid zone www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

6yo asking if heaven is a real planet and I’m not sure where to begin.

New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles 159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist) 🧪 @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Maybe we should have an analog to the bar association but for academic science. Changing 12 alleles and earnestly claiming you’ve resurrected an extinct species would surely be grounds for disbarment.

Low range 4wd barely sufficient today

Our paper on the past, present, and genomics-enabled future of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) tree breeding for resistance to invasive pathogens is on BioRxiv. 🧵with some background and a few things we found 👇 bsky.app/profile/bior...

New plant adaptation research from @samyeaman.bsky.social and his team: ucalgary.ca/news/plant-a...

First major paper from the lab! The work was led by super talented postdoc Maria Akopyan. She explored how reference bias skews estimates of diversity, demography, divergence & recombination rate with help from @elliecat.bsky.social & awesome ungrad Matthew. Full thread coming soon 🤓

We are hosting an information session for our Virginia Tech Translational Plant Sciences Center graduate program this Thursday. Prospective Ph.D. applicants can register and get the Zoom link here: virginiatech.questionpro.com/tpscvirtualr...

Big hill on our backyard but little snow the last few years. Call it adaptation to climate change…

New preprint up! We sequenced hundreds of samples from across one of Earth's oldest living organisms - the Pando aspen clone - to understand how mutations accumulate and spread in long-lived clonal organisms. Our results were…surprising. 1/30

Just wanted to let folks know that I am still looking to fill this position. I am hoping to start reviewing applications on Monday. Thanks for passing this along to anyone who might be interested.