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Greg Walter

Greg Walter

@gmwalter.bsky.social

56 followers 46 following 1 posts

Ecological and evolutionary genetics, mainly with plants

Lecturer & ARC Future Fellow, University of Tasmania

Environmental science 46%

Biology 25%

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Greg Walter @gmwalter.bsky.social · Sep 3

First post here 😬 .. hi everyone!

Our new paper is the first from my short foray into a non-plant system! [don't worry, back to plants!]

We show how clinal patterns in climate tolerance and plasticity are environment-dependent! doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Thanks to ProcB and the reviewers!

Variation in temperature but not diet determines the stability of latitudinal clines in tolerance traits and their plasticity | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Latitudinal clines are routinely used as evidence of adaptation across broad climatic gradients. However, if environmental variation influences the strength of latitudinal clines, then clinal patterns...

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom, John R. Hutchinson, Stephen D. Murphy , and 2 more Carl T. Bergstrom, John R. Hutchinson, Stephen D. Murphy, Erin O’Donnell, Greg M. Walter

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · Sep 3

woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD

Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers!

This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Aaditya Narasimhan @aaditya320.bsky.social · Sep 3

A bit late, but really happy to see my first PhD paper out!
We studied trait-elevation relationships in multiple traits spanning growth, size (both above and belowground) and leaf economics to understand whether these align at within- and among-species scales.

academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Alignment across taxonomic levels in strategies rather than in traits along elevational gradients

Abstract. Trait variation along environmental gradients can indicate the different strategies that organisms have evolved in response to environmental hete

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Greg M. Walter, Hansraj Gautam

Mark Spa @markspa.bsky.social · Sep 3

1. My first ever paper is out! With
@euantheyoung.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Age- and sex-dependent associations between the number of older siblings and early-life survival in pre-industrial humans | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Siblings are an important part of an individual’s early-life environment and may therefore play an important role in shaping an individual’s survival. The quantification of sibling effects on survival is challenging, however, especially in long-lived ...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Stephen D. Murphy, Jesse R. Lasky , and 3 more Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Stephen D. Murphy, Jesse R. Lasky, Greg M. Walter, Trevor M. Faske, Rafael Candido‐Ribeiro

Sam Yeaman @samyeaman.bsky.social · Aug 20

I'm looking to recruit a PhD student to study patterns of local adaptation and introgression across the spruce hybrid zone in the Rockies near Calgary. Projects can include field work, bioinformatics, pop gen theory, or comparison to plant/ conifer species
yeamanlab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/...

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · Aug 20

Yuan, @stepheniwright.bsky.social‬, @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social‬, et al. examined signatures of selection across life stages in the angiosperm Rumex hastatulus and the moss Ceratodon purpureus.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf138

#genome #evolution #PlantSky

Testing for the Genomic Footprint of Conflict Between Life Stages in an Angiosperm and Moss Species

Abstract. The maintenance of genetic variation by balancing selection is of considerable interest to evolutionary biologists. An important but understudied

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · Jul 21

Sophie Buysse's paper on short stamen loss in Arabipsis is published in this month's Evolution issue!! academic.oup.com/evolut/artic... @journal-evo.bsky.social

Evaluating the roles of drift and selection in trait loss along an elevational gradient

The evolutionary mechanisms underlying loss or retention of traits that have lost function are poorly understood. Short stamens in Arabidopsis thaliana pro

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Arvid Ågren @arvidagren.bsky.social · Jun 20

John Maynard Smith on adaptationist cleaning up their act following the spandrels paper.

From Dinosaur Dilemmas, NYRB
April 25, 1991.

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · Jun 20

I'm so excited to be at #evol2025!! Lab talks: "Adaptive and maladaptive plasticity in leaf number among populations of A. thaliana" from Sophie Buysse at 9:30 in Sunday in Adaptation V

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Jenn Coughlan @jenncoughlan.bsky.social · Jun 19

SO excited for #Evol2025 @sse-evolution.bsky.social!!!!!!! The Coughlan lab has a stellar line up of folks giving talks (on lab projects and beyond!)- please check them out! We welcome all feedback and would love to hear from you!!!

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Susana Wadgymar🌿🔬 @smwadgymar.bsky.social · Jun 18

Shout out to this excellent & thorough paper:

Leaf venation: structure, function, development, evolution, ecology and applications in the past, present and future

A compendium, really, especially if you include the supplemental info. #PlantScience 🧪

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Leaf venation: structure, function, development, evolution, ecology and applications in the past, present and future

The design and function of leaf venation are important to plant performance, with key implications for the distribution and productivity of ecosystems, and applications in paleobiology, agriculture a....

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · Jun 17

Please pass along - postdoc position! with our working group on #FunctionalTraits and rarity. This is part of the FREE (Functional Rarity in Ecology and Evolution) working group led by Cyrille Violle in Montpellier France 🧪🌐🌾 emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...

Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Offre de post-doctorat en écologie (H/F)

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · Jun 17

How many times have buzz pollinated flowers evolved? Read the latest version of our preprint here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @draverbee.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · Jun 12

Hey, Miles' @milesroberts.bsky.social beautiful paper showing that sequence diversity missed by standard methods contributes to Lewontin's paradox is officially published in @evolletters.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

k-mer-based diversity scales with population size proxies more than nucleotide diversity in a meta-analysis of 98 plant species

Abstract. A key prediction of neutral theory is that the level of genetic diversity in a population should scale with population size. However, as was note

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Greg M. Walter, Sara Tomiolo, Laura Leventhal

Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · May 30

Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years:

Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data

#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org

🧵👇

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Luis-Miguel Chevin @lmchev.bsky.social · May 26

Our paper on evolution of plasticity and character displacement in a fluctuating environment is now published as early view in Evolution. Check it out if you're interested in eco-evolutionary dynamics, coevolution... and plasticity of course!
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Evolution of plasticity and character displacement in a fluctuating environment

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success @coeplantsuccess.bsky.social · May 22

📢 New publication 'Multi-response #phylogenetic mixed #models: concepts and application' by Ben Halliwell, Barbara Holland and Luke Yates in Biological Reviews 🧪

doi.org/10.1111/brv....

Multi‐response phylogenetic mixed models: concepts and application

The scale and resolution of trait databases and molecular phylogenies is increasing rapidly. These resources permit many open questions in comparative biology to be addressed with the right statistic...

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

David Berger @dbergerbiol.bsky.social · May 16

Finally out: Predicting adaptation to climate warming www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We find that there are many genomic routes to heat-adaptation, but this can also make genomic data of limited value for prediction. A tour de force by @denovorego.bsky.social , with @stelkens.bsky.social.

Repeatability of evolution and genomic predictions of temperature adaptation in seed beetles - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The authors compare genomic and phenotypic changes between genetic backgrounds of seed beetles evolved at hot or cold temperatures. Despite phenotypic changes being more rapid and predictable at hot t...

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Jenn Coughlan @jenncoughlan.bsky.social · Apr 16

Currently developing a workshop for postdocs on mentoring and managing in EEB! What are some topics/pieces of advice you'd have wanted to learn about as a postdoc?

Reposted by Marcel E. Visser, Greg M. Walter

Erik Postma @erikpostma.bsky.social · Apr 15

Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post 🫣, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social

A plot the date of the first great tit egg on Vlieland against year showing 2025 is the third-earliest year since 1955.

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Daniel Noble @danielwanoble.bsky.social · Apr 8

Very happy and humbled to have received this award. A huge thanks to all my wonderful colleagues @scienceanu.bsky.social and abroad who made this possible!

Reposted by Marcel E. Visser, Jean‐Baptiste André, Greg M. Walter

Pierre de Villemereuil @pdevillemereuil.bsky.social · Apr 8

👋

Interested in working on the evolution of genetic architecture 🧬 of complex traits using linked-read sequencing of thousands of common lizards 🦎 from a wild population and common garden experiment?

#evolution #genetics

Well, I have a PhD offer for you 👇
devillemereuil.legtux.org/erc-funded-p...

ERC-funded PhD position available – Pierre de Villemereuil

devillemereuil.legtux.org

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Mar 29

CONVERGENT EVOLUTION is the independent development of similar traits or features in distantly related or unrelated organisms, often occurring when they occupy similar ecological niches or face similar environmental pressures 🦉 🍏

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Seema Sheth @seemasheth.bsky.social · Mar 28

Excited for @kalebgoff.bsky.social's 1st dissertation chapter to be out w co-authors M Oldfather, J Nachlinger, B Smithers, @mikoontz.bsky.social, J & C Bishop & M Burke. Limited Directional Change in Mountaintop Plant Communities over 19 years in Western North America
doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

Photo of Primula parryi, a robust alpine plant with magenta flowers, with mountains, clouds, and sky visible in the background

Photo of Polemonium chartaceum, a small alpine plant with purple flowers, with mountains, snow, and blue sky visible in the background

A photo of two plant ecologists standing on the top of White Mountain peak and holding a sign that says "White Mountain Pk. 14,252'". The top of the mountain is rocky and there are many clouds in the sky.

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

John Stinchcombe @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · Mar 26

Interested in other approaches to measuring selection on gene expression?

The incomparable John Kelly and I have written a perspective piece describing why one might want to measure selection on gene expression, and exploring a few ways one might use to do it.

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · Mar 20

A greenhouse full of one’s first true love always raises the spirits!!!

#ragweed #iamabotanist #botany #plantbiology

@isabeaulewis.bsky.social 🌾🧪

Ragweed plants (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) growing in the greenhouse

Reposted by Mart Krupovìč, Greg M. Walter

Maya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · Mar 17

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬
But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯
Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread 🧵👇

Drosophila follicle showing retrotransposons (pink & yellow) expressed in somatic cells infecting the oocyte

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Borntobe Free 🌎 ☸️ 🌏🏳️‍🌈 🌍 @vernal3.bsky.social · Feb 26

You never know what’s on the road least traveled.

New species discovery! Ovicula biradiata. Researchers have classified it as a brand-new genus within the daisy, or Asteraceae, family. 

#botany #newspecies #NationalPark #preserveNationalParks #Asteraceae #Texas

apple.news/Ac151CXcQQKC...

Meet the 'Wooly Devil,' the First New Plant Genus Discovered in a National Park Since 1976 — Smithsonian Magazine

A volunteer spotted the tiny, fuzzy plant with maroon florets while exploring the remote northern corner of Big Bend National Park in Texas

Reposted by Michael G. Bertram, Greg M. Walter

Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · Feb 25

A popular account by @cogniivan.bsky.social of our study on sexual selection and intelligence in fish that is now out in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The journal link is in the article.

theconversation.com/smart-is-sex...

Smart is sexy – new study on fish doing puzzles hints intelligence partly evolved via sexual selection

A better brain might help an animal find more mates, have more sex, and eventually have more babies.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Greg M. Walter

Seema Sheth @seemasheth.bsky.social · Feb 23

Local Adaptation Is Highest in Populations With Stable Long-Term Growth
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Local Adaptation Is Highest in Populations With Stable Long‐Term Growth

Theory suggests that the drivers of demographic variation and local adaptation are shared and may feedback on one other. Using 10 years of demographic data and two reciprocal transplant experiments, ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com