Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · 28d

Chazz Jordan's phylogenomic analysis of cone flowers (Echinacea) just published! - doi.org/10.3389/fpls.... Chazz's findings suggests rapid diversification in the genus as ancestral populations dispersed from southeastern North America into the midwest.

Frontiers | Utilizing target capture sequencing to resolve the speciation history of Echinacea (Asteraceae)

It has been difficult to resolve relationships among many important lineages within the Asteraceae family due to interspecific hybridization and rapid specie...

doi.org

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · 28d

Analyses of a new genomes for garden asparagus and a Mediterranean basin congener reveal independent origins of dioecy and XY sex chromosomes. The work led by Phil Bentz @pbentz.bsky.social finds no overlap in the two Y-linked sex-determination genes - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... .

Two independent origins of XY sex chromosomes in Asparagus

The relatively young and repeated evolutionary origins of dioecy (separate sexes) in flowering plants enable investigation of molecular dynamics occurring at the earliest stages of sex chromosome evol...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Julian Catchen @jcatchen.bsky.social · Aug 26

Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Journal of Ecology @journalofecology.bsky.social · Aug 21

🌾The Functional traits in primary producers: recent advances and future directions special feature is open for proposals!🍄

🌲Proposal submissions close 15 September, more details here: buff.ly/e8PTkMM

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · Aug 21

IQ-Tree2 should run faster

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · Aug 21

How long? What tree building tool are you using?

Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · Aug 20

#iamabotanist #herbarium #botany2025

Oregon State University Botany and Plant Pathology @osubpp.bsky.social · Aug 6

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!

We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is hiring a Directory of the Herbarium

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · Aug 20

#iamabotanist #herbarium #botany2025

Andrea Case @andreacase.bsky.social · Aug 20

Please share — Michigan State Plant Biology is searching for an Herbarium Director! Tenure stream, open rank faculty position balancing research, teaching, service, and admin responsibilities. Join us! Reach out to me or @emjo.bsky.social with questions!

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Axel Visel @axelvisel.bsky.social · Aug 20

On the cover of @natplants.nature.com this month:

@leobaumgart.bsky.social @greensi.bsky.social @abmora.bsky.social @omalley-regulome.bsky.social et al. map binding sites for 360 TFs across 10 🌿plant🌿 species using a new multiDAP approach

Here is Sharon's explainer 🧵:
bsky.app/profile/gree...

Nature Plants August 2025 cover. Abstract artwork of overlapping colorful waveforms in red, orange, yellow, and purple on a black background, resembling mountain ridges or transcription factor binding profiles. The caption reads “Cistromes uncovered.”

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · Aug 20

🤦‍♂️

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · Aug 19

Awesome research with implications for understanding of transitions between CAM and C3 modes of photosynthesis in yaccas agaves and their relatives!

Karolina Heyduk @kheyduk.bsky.social · Aug 19

Our "Joshua tree is CAM" paper is finally out: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Data collection started back in 2021, when we saw weird results in some RNAseq that made me stop and wonder if Joshua trees, long thought to be C3, were actually...CAM!

Cryptic CAM photosynthesis in Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia, Y. jaegeriana)

Joshua trees are long-lived perennial monocots native to the Mojave Desert in North America. Composed of two species, Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana (Asparagaceae), Joshua trees are imperiled by...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Lauren Frankel @laufran.bsky.social · Aug 18

hi friends, let me know if you'd like a zoom link for my defense next week!

Lauren's defense poster with an ABBA-BABA site pattern diagram in the background, and photos of Neotropical bellflowers in the foreground. There's a picture of her to the left along with text: "Inferring hybridization at shallow and deep timescales. Lauren Frankel PhD dissertation defense. Monday, August 25 10:00am CDT"

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Brittany Sutherland @sutherlandbl.bsky.social · Aug 13

I love this trend in polyploid research:

“With new data and techniques, we can finally tackle this horribly complicated group!”

“And guess what? It’s even worse than we imagined!”

But seriously, excellent work!

Justin Conover @conjustover.bsky.social · Aug 13

New Paper! In 2019, my first dissertation chapter revealed complicated polyploidies in the cotton family (Malvaceae) but we lacked the tools and genomes to truly understand it. Now with better genomes and improved methods, it's much more complicated than we thought. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · Aug 10

Day 3 of popgen we talked about effective population size. No, I don't really understand it. You probably don't either. But I highly recommend this fantastic guide about how to think about Ne onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Idiot's Guide to Effective Population Size

This is a reference manual for the elegant, yet hideously complex concept of effective population size (Ne), inspired by a classic, self-published manual of automotive repair ‘for the compleat idiot’...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Oregon State University Botany and Plant Pathology @osubpp.bsky.social · Aug 6

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!

We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Jul 30

Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Christopher Dick @chrisdick.bsky.social · Jul 9

Herbarium director position opening at Oregon State University ‪@osu-herbarium.bsky.social‬ Great opportunity for herbarium- and field-trained botanists at any rank. bpp.oregonstate.edu/bpp/about/op...

Open Positions

bpp.oregonstate.edu

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Karen James @kejames.bsky.social · Jul 8

Come be my colleague (& @jacquelyngill.bsky.social's and other great folks)!

UMaine is hiring a Genetics Facilities Manager to lead the CORE eDNA and DNA Sequencing Labs. Hiring range is $75-85k (up $20k from previous round)

fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Genetics Facilities Manager

The University of Maine is a community of more than 11,900 undergraduate and graduate students, and 2,500 employees located on the Orono campus, the regional campus in Machias, and throughout the stat...

fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Dario Cantù @cantulab.bsky.social · Jul 5

Some months later, work is now published @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Barbara Thiers @barbarathiers.bsky.social · Jul 1

The Biodiversity Collections Task Force is a nascent effort to help collections through anticipated difficult times in the near future.

We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.

Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN

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Jim Leebens-Mack @jleebensmack.bsky.social · Jun 30

Let congress know that pro-growth = pro-science!

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jun 30

That’s to say: big fight *right now* is the BBB.

But regardless of what happens there, be prepared for longer fight for opposing proposed cuts of ~55% for NSF, ~40% for NIH, etc

July 7 is the first major hearing in the House for science agencies for FY26 (NSF/NASA/NOAA, NIH is separate committee)

Subcommittee Markup of Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Bill

appropriations.house.gov

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 25

Another day testing the limits of resilience.

The Alexandria NSF building was designed for the NSF merit review process (gold standard), complete with a floor devoted to panels.

Now we aren’t allowed to have in person panels.

The loss of US science leadership will haunt this country for decades.

‘This is bull——”: National Science Foundation employees protest HUD's takeover

Dozens of National Science Foundation employees crowded the agency’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday to protest the news that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, w...

www.nbcwashington.com

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Jun 20

Check out this interview with BSA member and BSA Director at Large for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Karolina Heyduk!

botany.one/2025/06/karo...

Karolina Heyduk: A Career Shaped by Desert Plants and Midnight Photosynthesis

Botany One interviews Dr Karolina Heyduk, a plant evolutionary biologist interested in the origins a unique type of photosynthesis.

botany.one

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Joint Genome Institute @jgi.doe.gov · Jun 9

The #OpenGreenGenomes Project, supported through our #CommunityScience Program, represents 35 major evolutionary plant lineages — including M. polymorpha, or liverwort.

For decades it has been used as a model for evolutionary studies. 🖥️🧬🌱

@jleebensmack.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social

Marchantia Pangenome Highlights Adaptive Nature of Plant Lineages | Joint Genome Institute

Understanding the shared genetic toolkit of ancestral and present-day plants

jgi.doe.gov

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Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack

Charlotte Gommers @charlottegommers.bsky.social · Jun 8

Very happy to see this review by @elizavveen.bsky.social, Jesse Küpers and myself now out in Plant Cell & Environment! About how stresses impact chloroplasts, and how this can steer plant development via retrograde signaling 🌱 @pph-wur.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.15664

Plastids in a Pinch: Coordinating Stress and Developmental Responses Through Retrograde Signalling

Plastids can sense environmental stress and improve whole plant adaptation through retrograde communication to the nucleus. Recent studies have advanced our understanding of integrated canonical and ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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