Andy Read 🌱🦠
@hashtag-read.bsky.social
USDA-ARS wheat and oat geneticist interested in dynamic DNA methylation, plant immunity, transposons, small grains.
Love to talk about: movies, food, TAL effectors, Nanopore sequencing
This is my jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx9wlPr3Lac
Love to talk about: movies, food, TAL effectors, Nanopore sequencing
This is my jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx9wlPr3Lac
@letterboxd.social - how can we get Listers: a glimpse into extreme birdwatching on the app??? 🎥 🦅 📖
October 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
@letterboxd.social - how can we get Listers: a glimpse into extreme birdwatching on the app??? 🎥 🦅 📖
New from the team: A century of breeding has preserved genetic variation, accumulated favorable alleles, and shaped the Rht genes portfolio in North American spring wheat
shorturl.at/LYYvr
Part of my favorite figure showing how different breeding programs use various reduced height genes.
shorturl.at/LYYvr
Part of my favorite figure showing how different breeding programs use various reduced height genes.
September 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
New from the team: A century of breeding has preserved genetic variation, accumulated favorable alleles, and shaped the Rht genes portfolio in North American spring wheat
shorturl.at/LYYvr
Part of my favorite figure showing how different breeding programs use various reduced height genes.
shorturl.at/LYYvr
Part of my favorite figure showing how different breeding programs use various reduced height genes.
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
This is a great time to check-in with your international post-docs, students, and staff.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
September 22, 2025 at 7:31 PM
This is a great time to check-in with your international post-docs, students, and staff.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
This is a great time to check-in with your international post-docs, students, and staff.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
September 22, 2025 at 7:31 PM
This is a great time to check-in with your international post-docs, students, and staff.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
This picture of our wheat plants has nothing to do with the post, but I felt like I needed some cheering up.
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
Join us on Bluesky and find out more about the www.wheatinitiative.org
September 3, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Join us on Bluesky and find out more about the www.wheatinitiative.org
The resistosome story continues...
Another beautiful structure - this time from a (modified) wheat NLR 🌾
Another beautiful structure - this time from a (modified) wheat NLR 🌾
August 29, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The resistosome story continues...
Another beautiful structure - this time from a (modified) wheat NLR 🌾
Another beautiful structure - this time from a (modified) wheat NLR 🌾
I'm very proud of this USDA funded work led by @harsimargill.bsky.social to analyze tons of spring wheat uniform nursery data painstakingly digitized by the Blueskyless Sarah Blecha. Lots more in the pipeline but this marks my official introduction as part of #wheat world. 🍞🌾👋
shorturl.at/v2nmk
shorturl.at/v2nmk
Genetic gains from 60 years of spring wheat breeding in the Northern Plains of the United States
A significant positive genetic gain of 0.61% per annum was observed for grain yield in hard red spring wheat released in the Northern US region over the past six decades. Sustained yield improvement...
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 16, 2025 at 3:39 PM
I'm very proud of this USDA funded work led by @harsimargill.bsky.social to analyze tons of spring wheat uniform nursery data painstakingly digitized by the Blueskyless Sarah Blecha. Lots more in the pipeline but this marks my official introduction as part of #wheat world. 🍞🌾👋
shorturl.at/v2nmk
shorturl.at/v2nmk
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
Bacterial Leaf Streak Meeting 2025 is over! Thank you so much to the organizers, attendees, presenters, staff, and volunteers who made it a success!
April 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Bacterial Leaf Streak Meeting 2025 is over! Thank you so much to the organizers, attendees, presenters, staff, and volunteers who made it a success!
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...
Experts foresee negative ripple effects in termination of USDA scientists in St. Paul lab
A team at the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul got notice last week that some of their jobs were getting cut. Experts warn that cutting jobs in this area will harm resear...
www.mprnews.org
February 23, 2025 at 12:07 PM
USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
"I’m feeling betrayed, gutted, lost, anxious, and furious."
Our story for @science.org—on the ongoing mass firing of federal employees and reactions in the scientific community.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Our story for @science.org—on the ongoing mass firing of federal employees and reactions in the scientific community.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Mass firings decimate U.S. science agencies
White House dismissals and rationale challenged by dismissed scientists and lawsuits
www.science.org
February 18, 2025 at 11:54 PM
"I’m feeling betrayed, gutted, lost, anxious, and furious."
Our story for @science.org—on the ongoing mass firing of federal employees and reactions in the scientific community.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Our story for @science.org—on the ongoing mass firing of federal employees and reactions in the scientific community.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
In US, MN ranks #1 in oats; #3 in spring wheat; #9 in barley. $380M in #wheat exports alone.
Scientists are needed to support farmers producing these crops!
What's the future of #agriculture if we dismantle #AgriculturalScience research?
#PlantScience #USDA-ARS #AttackOnScience #PlantPathology
Scientists are needed to support farmers producing these crops!
What's the future of #agriculture if we dismantle #AgriculturalScience research?
#PlantScience #USDA-ARS #AttackOnScience #PlantPathology
Tough day for small grains research in the Twin Cities. Myself and four scientist colleagues have all been let go from the USDA because we haven't completed our 3 year probationary period - effectively gutting the Cereal Disease Lab.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
February 17, 2025 at 6:20 PM
In US, MN ranks #1 in oats; #3 in spring wheat; #9 in barley. $380M in #wheat exports alone.
Scientists are needed to support farmers producing these crops!
What's the future of #agriculture if we dismantle #AgriculturalScience research?
#PlantScience #USDA-ARS #AttackOnScience #PlantPathology
Scientists are needed to support farmers producing these crops!
What's the future of #agriculture if we dismantle #AgriculturalScience research?
#PlantScience #USDA-ARS #AttackOnScience #PlantPathology
Tough day for small grains research in the Twin Cities. Myself and four scientist colleagues have all been let go from the USDA because we haven't completed our 3 year probationary period - effectively gutting the Cereal Disease Lab.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
February 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Tough day for small grains research in the Twin Cities. Myself and four scientist colleagues have all been let go from the USDA because we haven't completed our 3 year probationary period - effectively gutting the Cereal Disease Lab.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
US Undergraduates! You still have until next Friday to apply to the Plant Health Fellows internship program in New Haven, CT. Learn about plant health research and careers for 9 weeks, includes $5,000 stipend and apartment housing: www.southernct.edu/plant-health...
Plant Health Fellows | Southern Connecticut State University
www.southernct.edu
February 11, 2025 at 8:41 PM
US Undergraduates! You still have until next Friday to apply to the Plant Health Fellows internship program in New Haven, CT. Learn about plant health research and careers for 9 weeks, includes $5,000 stipend and apartment housing: www.southernct.edu/plant-health...
It's not always as simple as "one TALE, one S-gene" - very cool work from @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social and the team showing a single TALE targets 3 distinct cotton genes (2 SWEETs and a pectin lyase) to maximize virulence.
The last part of my PhD work was published yesterday in Nature Communications!! We found a TAL effector that targets three genes to confer bacterial blight of cotton disease. Congrats to all the other co-authors on this paper! 🎉🙌🏾 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Activation of three targets by a TAL effector confers susceptibility to bacterial blight of cotton - Nature Communications
Newly evolved Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum isolates triggers recent bacterial blight outbreaks in cotton. Here, the authors show that a recently evolved TALE, Tal7b, activates host susceptibility...
www.nature.com
January 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
It's not always as simple as "one TALE, one S-gene" - very cool work from @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social and the team showing a single TALE targets 3 distinct cotton genes (2 SWEETs and a pectin lyase) to maximize virulence.
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
Do you have regulatory experience but don't want to be a Fed? Connecticut needs a new State Plant Regulatory official! BS,MS, PhD applicants welcome from any area of plant health. Looking for someone who can lead a team, understand regulations, and help stakeholders. Great stability and benefits!
January 15, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Do you have regulatory experience but don't want to be a Fed? Connecticut needs a new State Plant Regulatory official! BS,MS, PhD applicants welcome from any area of plant health. Looking for someone who can lead a team, understand regulations, and help stakeholders. Great stability and benefits!
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
For enslaved men & women in America’s south, birds meant forced labor. But they also meant food, opportunity, and even freedom. The Library of Congress’s Slave Narratives Collection has amazing stories not just about Black suffering and resilience, but also relationships w/ nature. (1/7)🗃️🧵
Birds and Slavery
Enslaved men and women in America’s South developed their own ornithology. To them, birds meant forced labor. But they also meant food, opportunity, and sometimes even freedom.
birdhistory.substack.com
March 28, 2024 at 10:54 PM
For enslaved men & women in America’s south, birds meant forced labor. But they also meant food, opportunity, and even freedom. The Library of Congress’s Slave Narratives Collection has amazing stories not just about Black suffering and resilience, but also relationships w/ nature. (1/7)🗃️🧵
Reposted by Andy Read 🌱🦠
If you know anyone interested in nanotech and plant health, please share this postdoc opening! Spans phytobiomes, chemistry, and field crop management: isme-microbes.org/jobs/postdoc...
January 16, 2024 at 2:53 PM
If you know anyone interested in nanotech and plant health, please share this postdoc opening! Spans phytobiomes, chemistry, and field crop management: isme-microbes.org/jobs/postdoc...
🟦 Hello Bluesky World 🟦
Finishing up my first week as a USDA scientist just in time for a potential shutdown 😅
I'm a wheat and oat geneticist 🌾 🧬🧪 still on the UMN campus. Looking forward to exploring these polyploid genomes and connecting with the wheat/oat communities
Finishing up my first week as a USDA scientist just in time for a potential shutdown 😅
I'm a wheat and oat geneticist 🌾 🧬🧪 still on the UMN campus. Looking forward to exploring these polyploid genomes and connecting with the wheat/oat communities
September 29, 2023 at 8:59 PM
🟦 Hello Bluesky World 🟦
Finishing up my first week as a USDA scientist just in time for a potential shutdown 😅
I'm a wheat and oat geneticist 🌾 🧬🧪 still on the UMN campus. Looking forward to exploring these polyploid genomes and connecting with the wheat/oat communities
Finishing up my first week as a USDA scientist just in time for a potential shutdown 😅
I'm a wheat and oat geneticist 🌾 🧬🧪 still on the UMN campus. Looking forward to exploring these polyploid genomes and connecting with the wheat/oat communities