gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens
@gregowens.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.6K following 39 posts
Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Victoria. Plant genomics and plant genomics jokes
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Sep 1
It really highlights to me how car-centric design makes everything so much worse for general living.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Sep 1
These homes were built in 1999, originally surrounded by forest. The globe and mail wrote a story about them 8 years later, once the rest of the neighbourhood filled in. vibrantvictoria.ca/forum/index....
zoom in on neighbourhood.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Sep 1
I want to highlight the weirdest neighbourhood in Greater Victoria. In Langford, if you take exit #15 you enter a 6-lane road surrounded by a classic mix of strip malls and big box stores. Nestled of all of this, accessible only through a parking lot, is a small street of 16 single family homes.
Google maps of neighbourhood in langford
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Aug 11
distracted boyfriend meme. I'd rather check my snakemake script progress for the 100th time than start reviewing a paper
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Reposted by Greg Owens
thewasplady.bsky.social
Jenny Jandt (she/her) @thewasplady.bsky.social · May 19
Get your CVs updated. Zoology Department, University of Otago is hiring a Lecturer in Evolutionary Ecology!

@zoologyotago.bsky.social

otago.taleo.net/careersectio...
Lecturer/Pūkenga - Evolutionary Ecology
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
otago.taleo.net
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Reposted by Greg Owens
tylervkent.bsky.social
Tyler Kent @tylervkent.bsky.social · Apr 7
Excited to see the final version of this paper with @samurscicop.bsky.social and Daniel Matute out in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social!

We took a dive into the complicated demographic history of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and its impact on the distribution of genetic diversity
doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...
Demographic history, genetic load, and the efficacy of selection in the globally invasive mosquito Aedes aegypti
Abstract. Aedes aegypti is the main vector species of yellow fever, dengue, Zika and chikungunya. The species is originally from Africa but has experienced
doi.org
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Reposted by Greg Owens
darrenirwin.bsky.social
Darren Irwin (he / him) @darrenirwin.bsky.social · Mar 17
OK who's ready for some science?

Do you like speciation? Genomics? Hybridization? Bioinformatics? Then this is for you:

Published today: "The Distribution & Dispersal of Large Haploblocks in a Superspecies"

Bonus interest if you like ring species and cute greenish birds:

doi.org/10.1111/mec....
Four figure panels from the paper. At upper left, a map of Asia showing the breeding ranges of six subspecies of greenish warblers, five of which are in the main ring: viridanus in blue in west Siberia, ludlowi in green in the western Himalayas, trochiloides in yellow in the central and eastern Himalayas, obscuratus in orange in central China, plumbeitarsus in red in eastern Siberia. The western form nitidus in grey, is also shown. In the lower left panel is a plot of genomic PC1 vs. PC2, with each little diamond symbol representing a single bird. This shows viridanus and plumbeitarsus as very distinct, while being connected by gradual or stepwise change through the populations around the southern ring. This is also shown in the lower central panel, which plots location around the ring vs. PC1. In the right panel, genotypes at 12 different Large Haploblock Regions are shown for 257 individuals arranged in order around the ring. Distinct differences between viridanus (in blue) and plumbeitarsus (in red) are seen, with more gradual variation through the ring connecting them. A single backcross of an F1 and a plumbeitarsus is seen in the lower row of this panel.
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Reposted by Greg Owens
xkcd.com
Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Mar 17
Lungfish xkcd.com/3064
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Reposted by Greg Owens
kamilsjaron.bsky.social
KamilSJaron.bsky.social @kamilsjaron.bsky.social · Feb 14
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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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Feb 11
Does anyone have an insight into why overhead rates are so different between US and Canada? Canadian rates are generally around 25%. Is it that Canada just provides more government base funding so they can accept lower overhead rates?
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Reposted by Greg Owens
cneufeld.bsky.social
Chris Neufeld @cneufeld.bsky.social · Feb 3
Excited to see our work on the cover of Current Biology this month!

Read about it in the thread below. 🧪🦑🌊
The cover of the scientific journal Current Biology, showing a photo by Fernando Lessa of a solitary giant kelp frond rises out of the depths in the foreground, with more kelp in the background.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 19
My population isn’t working for QTL mapping. RIL issue.
jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social
Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · Jan 19
Went to go buy some food for my pet whale but it was out of stock. Krill issue.
hannza.bsky.social
hannah @hannza.bsky.social · Jan 19
I've been having trouble getting peppercorns to grind finely enough.Mill issue.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
Also thank you to the Kelp Rescue Initiative who were critical for sample collection and collaboration. They are doing amazing work applying some the genetic knowledge to real kelp restoration.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
Also thank you to the many First Nations who contributed including Gitga'at, Gitxaała, Haida, Haisla, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo-Xai'xais, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, K'ómoks, Mamalilikulla, Metlakatla, Tlowitsis, and Wei Wai Kum.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
Many thanks to the team including @cneufeld.bsky.social, @brookeweigel.bsky.social, @samstarko.bsky.social and many others who aren't on bluesky or who I don't know their handle. This work was spearheaded through many challenges (including awful kelp DNA) by Jordan Bemmels.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
One interesting pattern did emerge that the amount of inbreeding load (i.e. selfed vs outbred) varies between populations and this is related to Ne. Small populations have already achieved near their max load so selfing doesn’t increase it.
Predicted changes in realized genetic load under different cross types for bull kelp (A–C) and giant kelp (D–F) suggest a penalty for selfing (A, B, D, and E) and reduced load in between-population crosses (C and F). Realized genetic load is measured as the proportion of sites homozygous for the derived allele at moderate- and high-impact sites in the SnpEff analysis.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
Does the small populations and selfing help purge deleterious alleles? We looked for sites conserved across brown algae, that did vary in our populations to measure genetic load and found that total load did not vary between small and big populations.
Lack of evidence for purging by natural selection in GERP (A and B) and SnpEff (C and D) analyses.
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
We found geographic population structure with fairly strong IBD. Interestingly, selfing was common and about 10% of the adult kelp were selfed in both species. Some populations, particularly those in Puget Sound, had really small Ne and diversity.
Genetic structure of bull kelp (A, C, and E) and giant kelp (B, D, and F) in British Columbia and Washington. Genetic health indicators for bull kelp (A, C, E, and G) and giant kelp (B, D, F, and H).
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gregowens.bsky.social
Greg Owens @gregowens.bsky.social · Jan 17
Excited to announce our work on kelp genomics is now out at Current Biology. Lead by Postdoc extraordinaire Jordan Bemmels, we sequence WGS for 600+ bull and giant kelp across BC and Washington. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kSP93QW8S...
Visual abstract for Kelp paper
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Reposted by Greg Owens
gcbias.bsky.social
Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · Jan 2
Congrats to @jeffgroh.bsky.social et al on publication of "Ancient structural variants control sex-specific flowering time morphs in walnuts and hickories"

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Science magazine front cover. Picture of a walnut in its opened shell. The text reads "All about timing. Mating type evolution in walnuts and pecans" graphical abstract: "In Juglans (top left) and Carya, two morphs show complementary temporal separation between male and female flowering (heterodichogamy). Mating types are controlled by two nonhomologous single-locus mechanisms that arose in the common ancestor of each genus, respectively. (Bottom left) Simplified schematic of a putative functional regulatory element at the Juglans locus. (Bottom right) Strong genotypic correlations across the Carya locus indicate a lack of recombination between two colinear haplotypes with similar gene content."
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Reposted by Greg Owens
perahlberg.bsky.social
Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · Dec 23
An intriguing new evolutionary story has just dropped, from my friend and colleague Leif Andersson: a discrete population of large predatory herring in the Baltic Sea, apparently in the process of evolving into a new species. 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evolution of fast-growing piscivorous herring in the young Baltic Sea - Nature Communications
The Atlantic herring is one of the world’s most abundant vertebrates and a typical plankton feeder of major ecological importance. This study shows that a piscivorous (fish-eating) ecotype of herring ...
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Greg Owens
stephenturner.us
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · Dec 24
Genetic ancestry and population structure in the All of Us Research Program cohort https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.21.629909v1 🧬🖥️🧪
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Reposted by Greg Owens
darrenirwin.bsky.social
Darren Irwin (he / him) @darrenirwin.bsky.social · Dec 23
OK folks this is my first announcement of a lab publication on Bluesky:

Congrats to PhD Candidate Rashika Ranasinghe on today's publication of her paper "Cryptic Hybridization Dynamics in a Three-Way Hybrid Zone of Dinopium Flamebacks on a Tropical Island."

Happy holidays!

doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Cryptic Hybridization Dynamics in a Three‐Way Hybrid Zone of Dinopium Flamebacks on a Tropical Island
This study explores population divergence and hybridization dynamics across the golden-backed (Dinopium benghalense) and red-backed (D. psarodes) flameback woodpecker hybrid zone in Sri Lanka. The ge...
doi.org
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Reposted by Greg Owens
jeffspence.github.io
Jeff Spence @jeffspence.github.io · Dec 17
What do GWAS and rare variant burden tests discover, and why?

Do these studies find the most IMPORTANT genes? If not, how DO they rank genes?

Here we present a surprising result: these studies actually test for SPECIFICITY! A 🧵on what this means... (🧪🧬)

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Specificity, length, and luck: How genes are prioritized by rare and common variant association studies
Standard genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and rare variant burden tests are essential tools for identifying trait-relevant genes. Although these methods are conceptually similar, we show by anal...
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Greg Owens
osteviklab.bsky.social
Ostevik Lab @osteviklab.bsky.social · Dec 7
Excited to see this paper out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Inversions contribute disproportionately to parallel genomic divergence in dune sunflowers - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Analysis of habitat data, quantitative trait locus mapping of seed size and selective sweeps show parallel selection acting on inversions in two independent dune ecotypes of the prairie sunflower, Hel...
www.nature.com
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