The dynamics of silent variation in Mimulus guttatus: Codon usage bias and linked selection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.18.725996v1

We are hiring plant breeders at over 20 USDA research locations. These positions are a priority as we try to rebuild after losing significant numbers of scientists and staff over the past year. Many different locations and crops to choose from. www.usajobs.gov/job/868877900

On this day, in 1961, two articles appeared in Nature announcing the isolation of messenger RNA (mRNA) www.cell.com/current-biol...

I'm hiring a postdoc to lead sedimentary aDNA reconstructions of alpine plant biodiversity as part of a broader project exploring the mechanisms of alpine plant resilience. Come join a collaborative team working in beautiful places! Bonus: postdocs at UMaine are unionized!

How useful can #herbarium collections be for genetic monitoring? 🌿 We show that Earth’s currently digitized herbarium specimens can be clustered into HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of historical “populations” suitable for population genetic studies 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/bios... 🧵

Important announcement!!! 💫 Would you have a tooth pulled if it helped your chances to get an important grant funded? Absurd question, but the funding situation is so bad, that I bet some of you actually considered it for a second… keep your teeth! we created something that might help! 👇 (1/16)

It took forever but my last paper as an academic is finally out. ironically this paper probably has the smallest audience, but I believe is my most impactful work. I think it provides some nice support for theories on polyploid origins, and has practical implications in crops and conservation

Dear Colleagues, It is with immense sadness and shock that I share the passing of Dr. Adriana Romero Olivares, a brand-new Assistant Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at UC Riverside. www.mealtrain.com/trains/l3kg64

Super awesome paper 👇Coalescence and translation: A language model for population genetics | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Bad news Monday 🧪 RIP Peter Raven. news.mongabay.com/2026/04/pete... news.mongabay.com/2007/03/biod... is a good interview from several years back. 🧪

How Thousands of Phone Snapshots Solved a Flower Colour Mystery www.botany.one/how-thousand... Nearly 10,000 People Helped Confirm a Botanical Hunch. Were You One of Them? #Botany #PlantScience

The United States National Herbarium is seeking a Lead Collections Manager! For complete requirements and application procedures, please visit USAJOBS (www.usajobs.gov/job/864499200). Applications and all supporting documentation must be received online by 1 May 2026.

!! Wow, NPR article highlighting botanist @naomibot.bsky.social !!

Using herbarium genomics to understand the history of a global plant invasion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.31.715310v1

Yesterday I had the honor of delivering a sermon on the science and humanity of gender. Here's the whole thing, in both audio and pdf formats. uucvan.org/services/the...

Today I'm teaching about responsible AI usage in my Computer Science capstone class. I regularly emphasize the need to understand code and to cite anything AI generated. But how can I make the point that AI is reducing depth of understanding because students no longer have to dig for answers? (1/6)

Interested in the genetic secrets of your favorite plant? A genome sequence might reveal them. We wrote down a workflow from DNA extraction & sequencing to genome sequence assembly & annotation. It includes a hands-on guide with example commands. doi.org/10.1186/s128... #Genomics #Bioinformatics

Accessible guest link for our new Science paper: Population genomics of Anopheles darlingi, the principal South American malaria vector mosquito 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟 www.science.org/eprint/VRMSQ...

Check out our new paper focusing on unaccessioned herbarium specimens. nhcm.pensoft.net/article/1829... We found that bryophytes and fungi/lichens were over-represented in the specimen backlog, compared to vascular plants. This highlights the need for more bryophyte and fungi/lichen identification!

Our new experimental evolution study across 30+ locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens! Read it in Science dx.doi.org/10.1126/scie... @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social

Very excited to announce that the final version of this is live now at @nature.com!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! A colorful mess: Widespread exchange of pigmentation genes across the Parulidae phylogeny avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/a... Based on the PLoS Biology paper by Kevin Bennett and his colleagues | #ornithology

🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics! My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026. We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems. #Postdoc #EcoEvo Pls RT!

Orthologous synteny provides robust structural evidence for the ancestral angiosperm ε-WGD https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709955v1

the "lost" species Monarda mexicana is still out there! Known from just 2 historical collections (most recent from the 1950s). Imagine my joy in stumbling on a picture of it on @inaturalist.bsky.social !!! We've now documented the first known modern populations and revived the species name:

Taxonomists: If you liked the old TAXACOM mailing list, we've restarted it. You can sign up, here: groups.google.com/g/taxacom Please share widely! We don't have access to the old lists. If you know any taxonomists, let them know, and pass it on. #science #academia #taxonomy

Origin of subgenomes in the circumboreal, allopolyploid, carnivorous plant #Drosera anglica New #AJB research by Rebekah Mohn & @yangyayy.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #Caryophyllales #Droseraceae #Hawaii #phylogenomics #polyploidy #sundew

Terrific essay on unavoidable complexity by @philipcball.bsky.social "It is not yet clear what a curriculum—not to mention both a public and a professional narrative—that begins [w/pleiotropy + polygenicity] would look like. But it would surely look more like real biology. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

I am hiring a Postdoc (18 months contract in Montpellier, France) to study how polyploidy affects sex chromosomes in the plant Silene latifolia, using bioinformatic analyses of RNA-seq and DNA-seq data. Deadline for applications March 24th. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/412961

A centromere but not just a centromere: structure and evolution of a selfish chromosomal supergene in monkeyflowers https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707561v1

All BHL staff have been secured! 🧪 As we enter our next chapter, the team who steward BHL’s collections & infrastructure remain in place, led by Colleen Funkhouser in her new role of Managing Director. Meet the team guiding BHL forward: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/celebrating-bhl-team.html

My good friend and director of the natural history museum of Denmark is looking for a curator for #bryophytes. Thus, if you like these small #plants, you should really apply. Great place to work, great city and amazing plants. #sciencejobs #plantscijobs www.linkedin.com/posts/nina-r...

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

Do you have undergrads interested in collections-based research? Have them apply to go work with @jmheberling.bsky.social at CMNH! I cannot imagine a better place to work over the summer

We’re excited to share the Pan-genomes Doorstep Meeting @ #PEQG26! Join this 3-hour workshop on evolutionary applications of pangenomics, covering construction, analysis, phylogenetics, annotation & graph QC. Register separately or as an add-on to PEQG: genetics-gsa.org/peqg-2026/do...

Cool backstory to this paper: it started as an REU project with co-author Luke Sparreo. Luke was one of those students who makes you work hard because he finishes your 7-week stretch goal in week 1. He did a lot of the work on connecting language phylogenies to maps. Come join this REU!

Interested in working to apply ARGs to real data in messy plant genomes? (Yeah it sounds hard). DM or email!

Register for the Smithsonian's National Botanical Symposium, “American Botany: 250 years of Discovery” 29 May '26. I'll be speaking on American oaks, w/ several greats: @barbarathiers.bsky.social, Caroline Strömberg, Wes Knapp, & Rose Bear Don't Walk. Join us! naturalhistory.si.edu/research/bot...

Pollinator-mediated fitness differences do not fully explain the maintenance of #gynodioecy in Sidalcea campestris New #AJB research by Brooklyn Richards, Thomas Kaye & F. Andrew Jones doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #Malvaceae #pollen #pollinator

#PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob PhD position: Physiology + evolution of photosynthetic types. In Systematics, Biodiversity & Evolution of Plants lab @lmumuenchen.bsky.social Deadline: 15 February 2026 www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/job-openi...

New paper with @smishra677.bsky.social! How many different trees can be generated by just one duplication event? It turns out A WHOLE LOT, if you consider the coalescent process. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We've just created an exciting new Phylogenomics Botanist role to join our vibrant team at Botanic Gardens of Sydney and help us build the NSW Plant Tree of Life! Applications close 26 Jan 2026: iworkfor.nsw.gov.au/job/phylogen... #botanicgardens #nswflora #nswptol #phylogenomics

Our new commentary on @blackrim.bsky.social et al's fascinating work in @newphyt.bsky.social, using simulation and analysis of empirical data to scale microevolutionary process to macroevolutionary patterns. Punchline: death rate and max age are driving. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#Sweet! Raspberry is an economically valuable #fruit and medicinal #crop. This #OpenAccess #multi-omics study highlights #genetic intricacies of the species and provides tools for #horticultural improvement at the #genomic level. doi.org/10.1111/jipb... @wileylifesci.bsky.social #PlantScience

Looking for a new 📕 to read about plants?? I highly recommend the brilliant book ‘Ferns, Lessons in survival from Earth’s most adaptable plants’ Written by @fernway.bsky.social and Jacob Suissa with amazing illustrations by Laura Silburn 🌿 #FernFriday 🌿

Please RT: we are looking for a PhD student to work on macrogenetics and quantitative genetics of South African proteas. Amazing collaborative project with @plantecology.bsky.social @debbiemleigh.bsky.social & others, embedded in @terra-cluster.org. Dream project if you love molecular biodiversity!

An exciting PhD project in conservation genetics? Check out the one below @uni-freiburg.de that will survey genetic diversity across species to understand the big picture - very important! In collaboration with many others (incl. our group) and the @bexplo.bsky.social community.

Very excited to share the capstone of my postdoc work with @stepheniwright.bsky.social, co-led by Wright lab grad student Cassandre with contributions from many others. We combined new methods with high-quality Rumex assemblies to dive into the remarkable history of rearrangement in this genus.

We are pleased to announce the official release of PLAZA 5.1, our plant genomics platform, which comes with a major front-end redesign. This results in improved performance, enhanced visualization tools, and refined Toolboxes. Src: www.vandepoelelab.be/plaza/news#28

Graduating college soon or recent college graduate? Looking to advance your career in botany, plant conservation and similar topics? Apply to the RAMP program at one of four premier botanic gardens!...