Had too much fun at #ITRS2025 to be active online, so Hi from the early train leaving Brest! It was an absolute pleasure to see so many colleagues, present novel results and represent team @geomarkiel.bsky.social with @frankmelzner.bsky.social @katjasee.bsky.social Looking forward to next time!

Spent the day at the @montereybayaquarium.org and was blown away by the massive exhibits, especially the giant #kelp cathedral 😍 Inspiring to see marine sci-comm done expertly, and I loved the hands-on science for the little ones! My lesson of the day: Fucus distichus grows also in the Pacific?!

Our results suggest that the phenotype of our feminised males is an approximation of a "ground state" which is normally complemented by the female U-chromosome providing specific functions to produce a functional female, or fully overridden by a dominant V-chromosome to trigger male development.

Feminised male gametophytes had larger cells and released egg-like gametes that were capable of parthenogenesis! This phenotype correlated with significant down-regulation of several genes on the male V-chromosome, while global gene expression patterns were intermediate to females and males.

Ok let's set the vibe over here