Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 6d

New paper by former MSc student @christeinecke.bsky.social! ⭐ A behemoth effort to apply artificial selection on clonal reproduction in #Mimulus guttatus. We show that clonality evolves quickly, but not symmetrically in both directions, and multivariate life history traits are altered too! 🧪🌾

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 6d

Life-history evolution under artificial selection in a clonal plant https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679824v1

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos @dortizba.bsky.social · 6d

Excited to share our new paper in
@GeneticsGSA
! We developed "Retriever," a novel method that enables high-quality genotype imputation in non-model organisms. 🧬 Congratulations to Charles on his first PhD paper!

Paper: doi.org/10.1093/gene...

A thread 🧵👇

Chimeric Reference Panels for Genomic Imputation

Abstract. Despite transformative advances in genomic technologies, missing data remains a fundamental constraint that limits the full potential of genomic

doi.org

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

International Journal of Plant Sciences @ijpsjournal.bsky.social · 8d

AOP @ijpsjournal.bsky.social

🚨Undergraduate research🚨

Viral-induced flower colour breaking reveals that turnip mosaic virus infection prevalence increases with urbanization in the invasive Hesperis matronalis

Kaitlyn Dawson et al.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

#PlantScience #Botany

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Kathy Darragh @kdarragh.bsky.social · 27d

I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 20d

There's this short perspective, and lots of similar (longer) pieces that are more focused on teaching genetics. Any help? journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

The deceptive simplicity of mendelian genetics

Gregor Mendel meticulously uncovered the genetic basis of heredity in work that transformed the science of biology. But does the alluring simplicity of Mendel’s laws sometimes obscure the true complex...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

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

🌿 We’re proud to recognize Kyra N. Krakos (Maryville University) as the 2025 recipient of the Samuel Noel Postlethwait Award!

Presented by the BSA Teaching Section, this award honors excellence in teaching botany.

Learn more here: botany.org/home/awards/...

#BSA2025AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 21d

Oh wow, looks great. Will check it out. Thank you!!!

Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 22d

This is true, and funny because it's true, and also an argument for "early writing" - you can write much of your paper, even most of it, well before the work is complete and thus before you're too late for "should have done".

Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 22d

Science: only when you write up the manuscript, you realize what you should have done.

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks for the link. Will check out SSR-seq

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 22d

Is this platform useful for asking biology questions? 🌾🧪

Question for my plant-peeps:
Is there something newer and better than microsatellites for assessing paternity? (where newer and better means cheaper and easier?) Have field arrays, known parents, need to genotype offspring seed for paternity.

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 23d

Just arrived back home from Utah - spent most of the second half of the drive realising that this could happen, calculating when to hit the trip button so it would happen, and then waiting for it to happen. 😂😂😂

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Camille Roux @crouxevo.bsky.social · 26d

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Jen Perry @jennyperry.bsky.social · 25d

MSc position in my lab. Come study the evolutionary & behavioural ecology of insects!
@stfx-university.bsky.social

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Thomas Lin Pedersen @thomasp85.com · 27d

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

ggplot2 4.0.0

A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

www.tidyverse.org

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Oliver Bossdorf @bossdorf.bsky.social · 28d

Job Alert! The University of Tübingen is hiring a FULL PROFESSOR (W3) in FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY! Come and join our institute, and maybe our new excellence clusters @terra-cluster.org and @greenrobust.de. @gfoesoc.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Please repost!

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

David Lowry @davidlowry.bsky.social · Sep 8

Super excited about this new Open Rank tenure-track faculty search for the MSU Plant Resilience Institute. We successfully hired two excellent new faculty in our last search and we are hoping to build on that success with this search. careers.msu.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Tenure System - East Lansing, Michigan, United States

Working/Functional Title Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Tenure System Position Summary The Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) at Michigan State University invites applications for multiple tenure-st...

careers.msu.edu

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Concrete Botany @concretebotany.bsky.social · Sep 5

Crackweed Lesser Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) on the sidewalk of Columbus Boulevard, shot the day before yesterday.

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · Sep 5

Interested in learning how to draw wildflowers? There are still a few spaces available in my online course starting next Wednesday, September 10th. We will spend five weeks exploring different species and shapes to create realistic drawings. You can register here: www.mcnallyrobinson.com/classes

A pencil drawing of a five-petalled Canada anemone flower. There are two open blossoms and several large leaves. One real leaf sits on the page for reference.

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · Sep 4

Do you mentor scientific writing, or use written assignments in the science courses you teach? Do you find mentoring/teaching writing hard, or time consuming? (Because it is!) Our new book can help, and it's getting close to being in your hands.

Owls, blurbs, and a cover – oh my! “Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences” is getting close

We (that’s Bethann Garramon Merkle and I) are getting very excited about our new book, Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences: An Evidence-Based Approach. Over the last few months, we’ve be…

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Sep 5

'Overall, the message from this survey is positive– evolutionary biologists are readily employable outside of academia, generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of satisfaction in their non-academic careers.'
#Preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Leaving Academia: Insights from Evolutionary Biologists on Their Career Transitions and Job Satisfaction

Many who have obtained PhDs in evolutionary biology will ultimately pursue careers that fall outside a narrow definition of an academic career. At the same time, PhD students and supervisors of PhD st...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · Sep 4

Surely someone can write a browser plug-in/extension that will fill in online meeting polls based on my calendar's availability. Please?

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · Aug 29

Sunny afternoon measuring field experimental plants #mimulus #SequoiaNatlPark #iamabotanist 🧪🌾

Mimulus guttatus plant with pine trees in the background

Perennial plant laid out for measuring showing stolons and ramets

Graduate students measuring plants in the field

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · Aug 21

MSU Plant Bio is hiring a new herbarium director! Our herbarium is a wonderful resource on campus and I'm excited to have the opportunity to make it even better by bringing in a new director. Details here: plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Stacey D. Smith @iochromaland.bsky.social · Aug 11

Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta.... The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us @rociodeanna.bsky.social & @caschenck-bio.bsky.social

Postdoctoral Fellow in Tomatillo Evolution

jobs.colorado.edu

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Reposted by Jannice Friedman

Joey Bernhardt @joeybernhardt.bsky.social · Aug 14

Please help us spread the word! Please amplify!

We are searching for an associate or full professor (Canada Excellence Research Chair) in Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph! 🐟🌿🦠🐜🐸🐝

Applications are due October 6 2025.

careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-C...

#AcademicJobs #EvoBio

Canada Excellence Research Chair in Biodiversity Genomics

careers.uoguelph.ca

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